TIBERIUS, Roman emperor, born (d: 37CE); second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in 14 CE until his own death in 37. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced his father and was remarried to Octavian Augustus in 39 BCE. Tiberius would later marry Augustus’ daughter Julia the Elder (from an earlier marriage) and even later be adopted by Augustus and by this act he became a Julian. The subsequent emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for the next forty years; historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Tiberius was the predecessor to Caligula and he was certainly the appropriate curtain-raiser. His sexual excesses were widely known, especially when he “retired” to Capri, governing Rome via correspondence, and becoming the patron saint of that future Gay Mecca. Suetonius reported that Tiberius trained young children, whom he called his “minnows,” to stay between his legs while he was swimming so they could lick and nibble him until he came. Supposedly he used un-weaned infants for the same purpose on land. Suetonius reports that Tiberius can be credited with the “daisy chain” or spintriae – a conga line of people joined front and back in sexual congress.