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Tiberius Loves Vipsania
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar . . .
---Luke 3:1
"To understand the secular, political, material meaning of the crucifixion of Christ,
"one must understand Pontius Pilate. To understand Pontius Pilate, one must
"understand to the imperial personality to whom he was responsible: Tiberius
"Caesar---a stern, exacting, demanding, even brutal administrator who had no
"patience with, or tolerance for, incompetence or imprecision. How this lonely,
"bitter, vengeful old man had become what was left of the gentle, adolescent boy---
"whose chief two happinesses were the love of his wife, Vipsania, and the study
"of Greek poetry (on which he was later considered expert enough to judge the
"annual Rhodian poetry contests)---is one of the great tragedies of the ancient
"world, and a direct influence upon the political and imperial climate in which
"occured the life and ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ."
---Zeph Zuilderzee, private correspondence, February 4, 2016
"Did he not know the Ten Commandments? He was, after all, in the New
"Testament, which follows the Old Testament, historically."
---Addie Turnipseed, private comment, sometime before 2009
Not to Augustus: before Livia
(who has her own agenda) you should put
these shameful observations of her son
Tiberius, and his beloved wife
(Agrippa's eldest child) Vipsania.
The very facts are likely to cause strife.
Still very public figures, they should meet
and then exceed decorum's stern demands
(just normal common sense insists on this).
Not even vanquished Alexandria
allowed such disregard to anyone
noble. Such must not flaunt this style of life.
They were seen, early, in the marketplace:
clad in too common clothes, and holding hands---
the both of them quite comfortably barefoot---
shopping for spices in the merchants' street.
Later, as if the shock was not complete,
Tiberius began declaiming verse,
seeming quite confident of memory
(as if by by nature, nothing to rehearse).
On a nearby stone bench, Vipsania
(with that shy smile, and blushing in the face),
sat down to hear her husband's recitation
of some of Vergil's epic poetry
(the lines in which Aeneas greets his mother;
ostensibly, it must have had some other
meaning for these two, perhaps privately
exchanged). Then, yet another demonstration:
Tiberius knelt down and placed a kiss
upon Vispania's dirty bare feet.
Her face expressed a blissful ecstasy
in silent, but distinct, appreciation.
They keep a rather small suburban home,
more like a cottage, not near central Rome.
They do not come to visit at the court.
Married, but adolescents nonetheless,
they seem to hold their wedded happiness
above the state's welfare (oh yes, that sort).
Vipsania will have no slaves, and cooks
their meals, and keeps their house clean by herself.
Tiberius has many obscure books
(ancient Greek poems), stacked wildly on a shelf.
Someties he reads to pass a leisured day
that has been overcast; and sometimes they
take barefoot walks through groves of ancient trees,
or on the shores of Tiber for the breeze;
or, very often, one might see them stay
in, certain evenings, in the mood to play.
And if Tiberius is to be heir
to Caesar, now is his time to prepare
for that with discipline, severity,
and (this, foremost) Roman austerity.
The way he lives now really flaunts subversion.
It must be ended, even with coercion.
Starward
[jlc]
