30 – 40s

Events in the 30s 2

• 14 – 37 Tiberius — the second Emperor Tiberius, Augustus's stepson and reluctant successor, rules from 14 to 37 AD. A brilliant general and competent administrator, he is a suspicious and withdrawn ruler who increasingly governs through his Praetorian prefect Sejanus. The treason trials (maiestas) multiply; Sejanus falls in 31 AD, accused of plotting against Tiberius. Tiberius retires to Capri and never returns to Rome. He dies aged 77, possibly smothered by Caligula. "What a man, and how completely he has escaped notice!" — his own words about himself.
• 37 – 41 Caligula — madness and murder Gaius Caesar Germanicus — nicknamed Caligula (Little Boot) by his father's soldiers — begins promisingly but within a year descends into what contemporaries describe as insanity. He humiliates the Senate, appoints his horse Incitatus to the consulship (allegedly), proclaims himself a living god, and conducts arbitrary executions. He is assassinated by Praetorian officers on 24 January 41 AD after less than four years. The Senate briefly considers restoring the Republic; the Praetorians instead choose Claudius, found hiding behind a curtain.