It is the aim of this book to give an account of Tiberius’ character and of
his career that will be at the same time intelligible to the general reader
and useful to scholars and students of the early principate. No serious book
on Tiberius’ reign as a whole has appeared in English since that of Marsh
in 1931. Since that time there have been many new discoveries in the
fields of epigraphy and papyrology, as well as a steady stream of books and
articles on various aspects of Tiberius’ life and work. Thus a new biography
needs no justification, except perhaps against the charge that imperial biography
as a genre is obsolete, if not actually pernicious. In reply it may
fairly be said that under Tiberius the political and social development of
the empire and the personal history of its ruler are more intricately and
intimately dependent upon one another than at any other time, so that
neither can be understood in isolation.