In my empathetic response I have written from the perspective of a Roman senator who lived and served during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. The response is intended to have been an extract from the autobiography of my senator, as an impression of Tiberius from contemporary sources, though coloured by the influence of more modern findings.
The identity of my senator is important in understanding his stance on the attitudes concerning Tiberius held by the general public, and to this end I have decided to present him under the name of (insert name here ). This choice reflects his obviously patrician status, with his personal name being accompanied by the name of his voting “tribe” and the familial cognomen (Bradley 1990, ). My senator is …show more content…
My senator’s military role is a legitimate example of the cursus honorum that functioned in Roman society in that before a patrician man could hold a magisterial office, id est, becoming a member of the senatorial class, he had to serve in a military capacity for the state (Lendering 2002). During this period of service, my senator would have had to have served under a more senior commander, and Tiberius would have served in this capacity. Upon return from the mandatory military service, a member of the senatorial class would serve in various magisterial roles, as a quaestor around the age of 30, as an aedile at 37, a praetor at 40, and then as a consul at the age of at least 43 (Lendering 2002). The consular position itself, while seen as the pinnacle of a Roman senator’s career, was coloured by whether it was during the first or latter half of the year, and this is presented in this way to emphasise the prestige associated with the position. The final part of my response includes reference and quotations to the mannerisms of Tiberius in his ways of speaking and deliberation. These provide anecdotal evidence of my senator’s experience, in direct reference to the well recorded truth from many historical accounts, in particular those of Tacitus in his The Annals of Imperial Rome, c.100AD. Thus, the story of Tiberius initially refusing the principate of Augustus is used as a first-hand account, alongside the presentation of what appears to be contemporary gossip, but is in actuality steeped in a historical, factual
The identity of my senator is important in understanding his stance on the attitudes concerning Tiberius held by the general public, and to this end I have decided to present him under the name of (insert name here ). This choice reflects his obviously patrician status, with his personal name being accompanied by the name of his voting “tribe” and the familial cognomen (Bradley 1990, ). My senator is …show more content…
My senator’s military role is a legitimate example of the cursus honorum that functioned in Roman society in that before a patrician man could hold a magisterial office, id est, becoming a member of the senatorial class, he had to serve in a military capacity for the state (Lendering 2002). During this period of service, my senator would have had to have served under a more senior commander, and Tiberius would have served in this capacity. Upon return from the mandatory military service, a member of the senatorial class would serve in various magisterial roles, as a quaestor around the age of 30, as an aedile at 37, a praetor at 40, and then as a consul at the age of at least 43 (Lendering 2002). The consular position itself, while seen as the pinnacle of a Roman senator’s career, was coloured by whether it was during the first or latter half of the year, and this is presented in this way to emphasise the prestige associated with the position. The final part of my response includes reference and quotations to the mannerisms of Tiberius in his ways of speaking and deliberation. These provide anecdotal evidence of my senator’s experience, in direct reference to the well recorded truth from many historical accounts, in particular those of Tacitus in his The Annals of Imperial Rome, c.100AD. Thus, the story of Tiberius initially refusing the principate of Augustus is used as a first-hand account, alongside the presentation of what appears to be contemporary gossip, but is in actuality steeped in a historical, factual