Sejanus
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Lucius Aelius Seianus (or Sejanus) (20 BC – October 18, 31 AD) was an ambitious soldier, friend and confidant of Tiberius, and for a time the most influential and feared citizen of Rome.
Sejanus was born at Volsinii, in Etruria, to the family of Lucius Seius Strabo, an equestrian who became praetorian prefect under Augustus. By Roman custom he was known as Aelius Sejanus after his adoption into the more prestigious Aelian gens.
He was appointed praetorian prefect on the accession of Tiberius, as the colleague of his father. On his father's appointment to the governorship of Egypt in 15, he became sole commander of the Praetorian Guard, and began to increase his power.
After the death of Tiberius' son Drusus in 23, Sejanus consolidated his power over the Senate, and concentrated the scattered elements of the Praetorian guard into a single camp outside the Viminal Gate of Rome. Despite failing in an attempt to marry Drusus' widow Livilla in 25, which would have made him part of the ruling house, he increased his power further upon Tiberius' retirement to Capri in 27. In the ensuing years Sejanus consolidated his own position, working towards the downfall of Germanicus’ widow Agrippina and her sons Nero and Drusus (29-30) and allegedly plotting against the life of the youngest son Gaius Caligula.
In 31, despite his equestrian rank, he shared the consulship with Tiberius, and finally became betrothed to Livilla. Sejanus felt his position was unassailable, and plotted to seize power for himself. Tiberius discovered the plot, however, and chose Macro, prefect of the Vigiles, to replace Sejanus as prefect of the Praetorian guard and accomplish Sejanus’ downfall. Simultaneously Tiberius wrote a letter to the Senate denouncing Sejanus, where he was arrested and condemned to death. That evening (October 18) Sejanus was strangled and his body cast onto the Gemonian stairs, where the mob tore it to pieces. Many of Sejanus' friends and allies were executed or committed suicide after his fall. His three children were similarly executed; his divorced wife, Apicata, killed herself after accusing him and Livilla of poisoning Drusus. The revelations concerning his seduction of Livilla while she was still married to Drusus inevitably cast doubt on the paternity of Livilla's son Tiberius Gemellus.
Writing only a few years later, Philo, a leading figure in Alexandria's Jewish community, remembered Sejanus as "desiring to destroy our nation" (Legatio ad Gaium, XXIV).
Sejanus’ victims included the poet Phaedrus, who was suspected of alluding to him in his Fables and received some unknown punishment short of death. (Cf. Fables I.1 [the wolf and the lamb], I.2.24 hydrum [water-snake], I.17 [the wolf who gives false testimony].)
Apicata, Sejanus’ erstwhile wife, may have been the daughter of the gourmand Apicius. Rumours were also current that Sejanus had "sold his person to [that] wealthy debauchee” (Tacitus, Annales IV.1).
| Preceded by: Marcus Vinicius and Lucius Cassius Longinus |
Consul of the Roman Empire together with Tiberius 31 |
Succeeded by: Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus |
[edit] Sejanus in later literature
- Ben Jonson made the story into a 1603 play entitled Sejanus, His Fall, and an anonymous contemporary also covered him 4 years later, in the 1607 play The Tragedy of Claudius Tiberius Nero.
- Sejanus was played by Patrick Stewart in the TV adaptation of Robert Graves's book I, Claudius.
[edit] Reference
Sejanus's fall from power and the aftermath are recounted in detail by ancient writers, notably the historians Dio Cassius (book LVIII) and Tacitus (Annals book VI), and also by Juvenal in his tenth satire. Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, ch.6) is also invaluable.
