LUCIUS AELIUS

See also:

• LUCIUS AELIUS SEJANUS

SEJANUS  , favourite and minister of the Emperor Tiberius . He was the son of Seius Strabo, prefect of the praetorians, and was adopted into the Aelian gens . After his father's departure from Rome to take up the governorship of Egypt; Sejanus was made prefect in his stead . He gained the confidence of Tiberius, and, supported by the praetorians, whom he concentrated in a camp on the Viminal Hill, became virtually ruler of Rome . But he aimed still higher, and determined to put all the members of the royal house out of his way . Having removed Drusus (the son of Tiberius) by poison, he persuaded the emperor to retire to the island of Capreae . The death of Drusus was followed some years later by those of Agrippina (the wife of Germanicus) and her sons Drusus and Nero . Tiberius at last saw through his designs, and caused Sejanus to be put to death (A.D . 31) . Tacitus, Annals, iv . I, 2, 3, 8, 39-,59, 74, v . 6-9; Suetonius, Tiberius, 62; Dio Cassius lvii. viii .

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Juvenal x . 65-86; J . Julg, Vita Aelii Sejani (1882), with notes giving full references to authorities; J . C . Tarver, Tiberius the Tyrant (London, 1902), chap. xvii .