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Tiberius received his position through his mother, who was Augustus's second wife. Tiberius became one of his step-father's principal lieutenants, leading military campaigns in Germany and on the Danube. In pursuance of their family policy, he was compelled by politics in 12 BC to divorce his first wife, Vipsania, daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and marry Julia, daughter of Augustus and widow of the same Agrippa (and, thus, his own step-sister and his first wife's step-mother), but that marriage failed. Tiberius went into self-imposed exile on RhodesThis article is about the Greek island of Rhodes. For other uses, see Rhodes (disambiguation). Rhodes Greek (Rodos), is the largest of the Dodecanese islands, and easternmost of the major islands of Greece in the Aegean Sea. It lies approximately 11 miles.

He returned several years later, following the death of Julia's sons by Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius, and was made Augustus's heir. When he became Emperor following Augustus's death in AD 14, the saturnine Tiberius quickly became unpopular, and when his nephew GermanicusLouvre Germanicus Julius Caesar possibly "Nero Claudius Germanicus" before adoption ( 15 BC AD 19) was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire. Germanicus' parents were Nero Claudius Drusus, son of Livia Drusilla, wife of Caesar A died under mysterious circumstances in the East in AD 19Alternate uses, see 19 (number Centuries: 1st century BC 1st century 2nd century Decades: 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s Years: 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Events Last year (6th) of Tianfeng era of the Chinese Xin Dynasty., suspicions were voiced that Tiberius had had a role in his death.

Tiberius spent much of the latter part of his reign in self-exile on the island of CapriCapri is an island off the coast of Italy, in the Bay of Naples that has been a celebrated "beauty spot' and resort since Roman times. Its features are a litany of postcard views: the Marina Piccola (Small Harbor), the Belvedere of Tragara, which is a hig. The city of RomeRome ( Italian and Latin Roma is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. It is located on the lower Tiber river, near the Mediterranean Sea, at 41°50'N, 12°15'E. The Vatican City State, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman was controlled in his place by Sejanus, the head of the Praetorian GuardThe Praetorian Guard (sometimes Praetorian Guard (in Latin: praetoriani comprised a special force of bodyguards used by Roman emperors. Before them it was used by warlords, back at least to the Scipio family around 275 BC. History The term "Praetorian" cas. Sejanus, who was rumored to have poisoned Tiberius's only son, Drusus in AD 23, and certainly carried on an affair with Drusus's widow, Tiberius's niece Livilla, launched a reign of terror against possible political enemies. Germanicus's widow, Agrippina, and her elder sons, Nero Caesar and Drusus, were exiled to small islands, where they died.

Sejanus, in fact, plotted to take control of the Empire, but his plans were foiled thanks to a timely warning to Tiberius from his sister-in-law, Antonia, and instead Sejanus and his supporters were arrested and executed in AD 31.

After having most of his potential successors killed, Tiberius summoned his grand-nephew Caligula and grandson Gemellus to Capri. Suetonius writes how Tiberius engaged in extreme sexual perversions on Capri, but he is an often-unreliable source and it is unknown if his reports are true.

Tiberius died on March 16, AD 37. Ancient sources like Suetonius and Tacitus report that Caligula and/or his guard Macro smothered Tiberius with a pillow. Most likely Tiberius died a natural death.

In his will Tiberius left the empire to both Caligula and Gemellus, but soon after becoming Emperor, Caligula had Tiberius' will declared void and later had Gemellus killed.

In the Bible, Tiberius is mentioned by name only once, in Luke 3:1 (stating that John the Baptist entered on his public ministry in the fifteenth year of his reign). However, since it was during his reign that Jesus Christ preached, many references to Caesar (or the emperor in some other translations), without further specification, actually refer to Tiberius.

The town Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee was named in Tiberius's honour by Herod Antipas.