here, lemme help with a summary:
do u know for which emperor what sources you are going to use - so like for Tiberius is it like Tacitus and Seutonius and Barret and can I just kinda make quotes up at this point
i dont actively map out specific historians, they kind of naturally lend themselves to the emperor. tacitus and suetonus are the most abundant sources for the JC emperors, so definitely use them.
tiberius:
- very frugal and did not spend much money, mostly tried to follow augustus' style of ruling through consolidating the empire to ensure it was stable.
- "men fit to be slaves" - tacitus
- "achieved less by force than diplomacy" - tacitus
- refused senatorial honours and exceptions, hence the lack of statues
- only statue of him is at the sebasteion complex
- concentrated praetorian guard to a single encampment outside rome, changed prefecture for only one prefect of the pg (sejanus"
- calls sejanus "partner of my labours" --> shows the political rise of the PG
- introduced the maiestas trials later in his reign and introduced delatores (informers) with financial incentives for informing on corrupt senators. this created a power imbalance known as 'the reign of terror' according to suetonius and tacitus, but this was largely exaggerated --> most of this was actually done by the senate.
gaius (caligula):
- "his madness roused murderous thoughts" - suetonius
- "planned to make his horse proconsul" - suetonius
- "doing away with the pretense that he was merely the chief executive of a republic"
- self deified coinage of himself while he was still alive ---> changing image and role
- coinage of him addressing the military
- divided the prefect number back to 2, and killed off his supporter macro to prevent pg from getting too much power
- three sisters coin of gaius' sisters (agrippina, drusilla and julia)
- killed after 4 years by PG, led by cassius chaeraea (praetorian tribune he humiliated)
claudius:
- "ruled by his wives and freedmen"
- sebasteion complex of him portrayed as young
- bronze head of him found in britannia demonstrating his successful expansion into the territory
- marriage to agrippina the younger: the gemma claudia was a sculpture dedicated to likening their marriage to germanicus and agrippina's mum
- "Claudius' line of thought followed Julius Caesar more closely than Augustus" - Scullard
- "acted not as a princeps but as a servant" - Suetonius
- senate distrusted him due to his appointing of freedmen (narcissus and pallas) into the imperial court, whilst the senate's position weakened
- "indeed he vigorously upheld augustus' hierarchal division of society, re-enslaving freedmen who posed as knights" -> his administration of the empire
nero:
- sebasteion of him being crowned by agrippina
- official imperial coinage
- suetonius: "was not interested in ruling the empire, but only in spending the money derived from it"
- quinquennium (5 good years) at the start of his reign was due to agrippina soft ruling through her appointed praetorian guard (burrus) and the freedmen senator (seneca).
- had his mother agrippina and her appointees killed, appointed tigellinus as prefect, decided to become an actor and spend recklessly, lost territory in londinium (britain)
- declared public enemy and executed after 14 years