Tiberius was the eldest son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and of Livia Drusilla: his father was quæstor with Cæsar, but afterwards joined the republicans, to whom he seems to have been staunch and true; after the battle of Philippi, he declared for L. Antonius and Fulvia, 711, as he had to expect no mercy from Augustus. (Tiberius was born in the year 710 according to Cato.) On the unfortunate issue of the Perusian war, Claudius fled with his family to Naples, and from thence to Sextus Pompey in Sicily; Tiberius was then in his second year, and his life was in the greatest danger. The father did not stay with Pompey, who offended him, but fled to Antony in Greece: he got his pardon at the peace of Brundusium, and returned to Italy. Livia Drusilla was daughter of one Livius Drusus, who, however, was not directly descended from the consul and tribune of that house: his real name was Appius Claudius Pulcher, and he was adopted by Livius; so that both by father and mother’s side, Tiberius came from the race of the Claudii, all the terrible qualities of which he had inherited. Soon afterwards, Augustus compelled Nero to give up to him his wife, who was with child at the time, and brought forth Drusus in the Palace. Tiberius, being the step-son of the Emperor, was brought up as a child of the very highest rank; yet no one ever thought of the possibility of the dominion of the world passing over to him. Augustus had hoped for some time to have children by Livia; and when this expectation was not fulfilled, he built his hopes on the children of Julia, his daughter by Scribonia, and especially on her husband M. Marcellus, and her children by Agrippa. Tiberius, who had a Greek philological education, displayed extraordinary talents which he helped besides by industry. Being at an early age employed in business, he had the _quæstura Ostiensis_, and then he was sent to Armenia. In everything that he did, he showed himself very able, and public attention was aroused to his eminent qualities: he was as much distinguished as a general, as he was as a civil governor. But people very soon remarked in him a great want of openness, with a leaning towards vice, which he practised in secret, and hid from the eyes of the world. Reserved and moody, he had no friend, nor did he trust a soul but his mother: he was especially on his guard against all those who stood between him and Augustus, and from Agrippa and Marcellus he stood aloof. This mistrust, for which as much cause may have been given to him as he himself gave to others, had the most injurious effects on his character; very like those which were seen in the Emperor Paul. Tiberius, and also his brother Drusus, and his nephew Germanicus, were first-rate generals. Nature had done very much for him: he had great judgment, wit, and industry; indestructible health; a very happily and beautifully organized body; a tall majestic figure; a fine head: his statue and that of Augustus are the finest among those of the