In the year 767 from the founding of the City, after the death of Augustus Caesar, Tiberius Caesar obtained the empire and held it for twenty-three years.
1 Anno ab urbe condita DCCLXVII post mortem Augusti Caesaris Tiberius Caesar imperium adeptus est mansitque in eo annis uiginti et tribus.
He waged no wars in person, nor even any serious ones through his legates, except that in a few places the swellings of peoples, detected in advance, were quickly suppressed.
2 hic per semet ipsum nulla bella gessit, sed ne per legatos quidem aliqua grauia, nisi quod tantum aliquantis in locis praecogniti cito gentium tumores conprimebantur.
In the fourth year of his rule, indeed, Germanicus, the son of Drusus and father of Caligula, triumphed over the Germans, against whom he had been sent by Augustus in his old age.
3 sane quarto imperii eius anno Germanicus Drusi filius Caligulae pater de Germanis, ad quos ab Augusto sene missus fuerat, triumphavit.
Tiberius himself, for the greater part of his rule, presided over the commonwealth with great and grave moderation, so much so that when certain governors urged him to increase the tributes of the provinces, he wrote back that it was the part of a good shepherd to shear his flock, not to flay it.
4 ipse autem Tiberius plurima imperii sui parte cum magna et graui modestia reipublicae praefuit, adeo ut quibusdam praesidibus augenda prouinciis tributa suadentibus scripserit boni pastoris esse tondere pecus, non deglubere.
But after the Lord Christ had suffered and risen from the dead and sent out his disciples to preach, Pilate, governor of the province of Palestine, reported to the emperor Tiberius and to the senate concerning the passion and resurrection of Christ and the mighty works that followed, which had either been done openly by him or were being done by his disciples in his name, and concerning the fact that, as the faith of very many grew in eager rivalry, he was believed to be a god.
5 at postquam passus est Dominus Christus atque a mortuis resurrexit et discipulos suos ad praedicandum dimisit, Pilatus, praeses Palaestinae prouinciae, ad Tiberium imperatorem atque ad senatum rettulit de passione et resurrectione Christi consequentibusque uirtutibus, quae uel per ipsum palam factae fuerant uel per discipulos ipsius in nomine eius fiebant, et de eo, quod certatim crescente plurimorum fide deus crederetur.
Tiberius, with the support of great favour, proposed to the senate that Christ be held a god. The senate, moved by indignation that the matter had not first been laid before it according to custom, so that it might itself be the first to decide on adopting a cult, refused the consecration of Christ and decreed by edict that the Christians were to be banished from the City; especially since Sejanus, Tiberius’s prefect, opposed the adoption of the religion most obstinately.1
6 Tiberius cum suffragio magni fauoris rettulit ad senatum, ut Christus deus haberetur. senatus indignatione motus, cur non sibi prius secundum morem delatum esset, ut de suscipiendo cultu prius ipse decerneret, consecrationem Christi recusavit edictoque constituit, exterminandos esse urbe Christianos; praecipue cum et Seianus praefectus Tiberii suscipiendae religioni obstinatissime contradiceret.
1The story that Tiberius proposed Christ’s deification to the senate comes from Tertullian (Apology 5) by way of Eusebius; no Roman source records it.
Tiberius, however, threatened the accusers of the Christians with death by edict. And so, little by little, that much-praised moderation of Tiberius Caesar was changed into the punishment of the senate that had opposed him; for to a king whatever he did by his own will was a pleasure, and out of a most gentle prince there blazed up a most savage beast.
7 Tiberius tamen edicto accusatoribus Christianorum mortem comminatus est. itaque paulatim immutata est illa Tiberii Caesaris laudatissima modestia in poenam contradictoris senatus; nam regi, quaecumque uoluntate faciebat, uoluptas erat, atque ex mansuetissimo principe saeuissima bestia exarsit.
For he proscribed very many of the senators and drove them to their deaths; he had chosen twenty patricians to be his council, and of these he left scarcely two unharmed, killing the rest on various pretexts; he put to death his prefect Sejanus, who was plotting revolution;
8 nam plurimos senatorum proscripsit et ad mortem coegit; uiginti sibi patricios uiros consilii causa legerat: horum uix duos incolumes reliquit, ceteros diuersis causis necavit; Seianum praefectum suum res nouas molientem interfecit;
he destroyed his sons Drusus and Germanicus — of whom Drusus was his son by nature, Germanicus by adoption — with clear signs of poison; and he killed the sons of his son Germanicus.2
9 filios suos Drusum et Germanicum, quorum Drusus naturalis, Germanicus adoptiuus erat, manifestis ueneni signis perdidit; filios Germanici filii sui interfecit.
2Tacitus (Annals 4.8) says the younger Drusus was poisoned in AD 23 by Sejanus and Livilla, Drusus’s wife; Germanicus died in Syria in AD 19, and suspicion fell on the governor Piso. Orosius lays both deaths at Tiberius’s door.
To relate his deeds one by one is a thing of horror and shame; he grew so wild with such a frenzy of lust and cruelty that those who had scorned to be saved under Christ as king were punished under Caesar as king.
10 referre singillatim facta eius horret pudetque; tanta libidinis et crudelitatis rabie efferavit, ut, qui spreuerant Christo rege saluari, rege Caesare punirentur.
In the twelfth year of his rule, however, a new and incredible disaster occurred at the city of Fidenae: the seating of the amphitheatre collapsed while the people were watching a gladiatorial show, and killed more than twenty thousand people.
11 huius tamen imperii anno duodecimo noua et incredibilis clades apud Fidenatium urbem accidit: amphitheatri cauea populo gladiatorium munus spectante conlapsa est et plus quam uiginti milia hominum occidit.
It is indeed an example of so great a chastisement worthy to be handed down to posterity, that men eager to watch the deaths of men had then come together at the very time when God had willed to become man in order to provide for the salvation of men.
12 dignum sane posteris tantae correptionis exemplum, tunc ad spectandas hominum mortes auidos homines conuenisse, quando pro salute hominum prouidenda Deus homo esse uoluisset.
Then, in the seventeenth year of the same reign, when the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself up of his own will to his passion, but was wickedly seized by the Jews and fastened to the cross, a very great earthquake took place throughout the world; rocks were split in the mountains, and very many parts of the greatest cities fell under a shock more violent than usual.
13 deinde anno eiusdem septimo decimo cum Dominus Iesus Christus uoluntarie quidem se tradidit passioni, sed impie a Iudaeis apprehensus et patibulo suffixus est, maximo terrae motu per orbem facto saxa in montibus scissa, maximarumque urbium plurimae partes plus solita concussione ceciderunt.
On the same day also, at the sixth hour of the day, the sun was wholly darkened, and a foul night suddenly covered the earth, and, as has been said, “an impious age feared eternal night.”
14 eadem quoque die ad horam diei sextam sol in totum obscuratus tetraque nox subito obducta terris est et, sicut dictum est, Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
It is plain, moreover, that neither the moon nor clouds stood in the way of the sun’s light, so much so that it is reported that the moon, being on that day in its fourteenth day, was at its farthest from the sight of the sun, with the whole region of the sky lying between them, and that the stars shone then in the daytime hours, or rather in that dreadful night, throughout the whole sky. To this not only the faith of the holy Gospels but also a number of books of the Greeks bear witness.
15 usque adeo autem neque lunam lumini solis neque nubes obstitisse manifestum est, ut quartam decimam ea die lunam, tota caeli regione interiecta, longissime a conspectu solis afuisse et stellas tunc diurnis horis uel potius in illa horrenda nocte toto caelo fulsisse referatur. quod non solum sanctorum Euangeliorum fides, sed etiam aliquanti Graecorum libri adtestantur.
From this point on, after the passion of the Lord, whom the Jews persecuted as far as lay in them, the disasters of the Jews resound without ceasing, one after another, until, emptied and scattered, they come to their end.
16 iam hinc post passionem Domini, quem Iudaei quantum in ipsis fuit persecuti sunt, continuae clades Iudaeorum, donec exinaniti dispersique deficiant, incessabiliter strepunt.
Tiberius, indeed, under the pretext of military oath sent their young men away to provinces of more unhealthy climate, and removed from the City the rest of that nation, or those who followed similar practices, under penalty of perpetual slavery if they did not obey.3
17 Tiberius siquidem iuuentutem eorum per speciem sacramenti in prouincias grauioris caeli relegavit, reliquos gentis eiusdem uel similia sectantes urbe submovit sub poena perpetuae servitutis, nisi obtemperassent.
3The Jews were expelled from Rome, and four thousand of their freedmen sent to Sardinia, in AD 19 (Tacitus, Annals 2.85; Suetonius, Tiberius 36), more than ten years before the crucifixion.
The cities of Asia that had been destroyed by that earthquake he relieved of their tribute and also endowed from his own generosity. He died with doubtful signs of poison.4
18 sane Asiae ciuitates illo terrae motu dirutas tributo dimisso propria etiam liberalitate donauit. hic ambiguis signis ueneni obiit.
4The earthquake that destroyed twelve cities of Asia, Sardis among them, struck in AD 17 (Tacitus, Annals 2.47); Orosius links it with the earthquake at the crucifixion.