Tiberius Caesar was an enigma to his contemporaries; subsequentgenerations have found this taciturn and reclusive figure noeasier to fathom. When in ad 14, at the age of 56, he succeededAugustus as princeps, he was a man of considerable – mostlymilitary – experience; yet despite this, there were serious anxietiesas to whether his character really suited him to the demands ofthe job, anxieties which he himself appears in some measure tohave shared. According to Tacitus, some felt that Augustus hadadopted him as his successor either because there was no satisfactoryalternative or even so that a poor successor would sheda particularly favourable light on his own memory. To many,Tiberius’ reserved nature concealed haughtiness and arrogance,perhaps even a tendency to cruelty and perversion.