Tiberius Caesar was an enigma to his contemporaries; subsequent
generations have found this taciturn and reclusive figure no
easier to fathom. When in ad 14, at the age of 56, he succeeded
Augustus as princeps, he was a man of considerable – mostly
military – experience; yet despite this, there were serious anxieties
as to whether his character really suited him to the demands of
the job, anxieties which he himself appears in some measure to
have shared. According to Tacitus, some felt that Augustus had
adopted him as his successor either because there was no satisfactory
alternative or even so that a poor successor would shed
a particularly favourable light on his own memory. To many,
Tiberius’ reserved nature concealed haughtiness and arrogance,
perhaps even a tendency to cruelty and perversion.