Tiberius
c. 42 BCE–c. 37 CE · Rome
Tiberius was the second Julio-Claudian emperor (reigned 14–37 CE), a successful general who later withdrew to Capri, leaving much administration to his praetorian prefect Sejanus. During his reign Pontius Pilate served as Roman prefect of Judaea (the prefect under whom the Gospels and Christian tradition place the trial and crucifixion of Jesus). In 19 CE his government expelled Jews from the city of Rome and conscripted some 4,000 to military service in Sardinia (the conscription reported by Josephus and Tacitus; the expulsion also noted by Cassius Dio). Philo records that after the fall of Sejanus, Tiberius reversed course and directed officials not to disturb the Jews or their observances.
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RomeרומאItaly
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
About Rome
# Rome In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, Rome lay within the Papal States, the territorial domain of the Catholic Church, though its temporal glory as an empire had long faded. The city sprawled across its famous hills along the Tiber River, a landscape of crumbling ancient monuments, medieval fortifications, and Romanesque churches that dominated the skyline. The Jewish community of Rome was among Europe's most ancient, tracing roots to the second century BCE, and it flourished in a precarious but resilient position under papal authority; while confined to restricted quarters and subject to discriminatory laws, Roman Jews maintained a sophisticated intellectual and commercial life, with Hebrew scholarship and biblical commentary flourishing despite—or perhaps because of—the community's isolation. The Jewish quarter itself, densely packed and vibrant, became a center of learning where skilled scribes copied manuscripts and rabbinical discussions drew on centuries of local tradition. What made Rome extraordinary for Torah study was not merely its learned scholars but the tangible presence of antiquity itself: the community lived amid the ruins of pagan temples and Roman law, giving their interpretations of Jewish law a unique resonance, as if they were rebuilding Jewish civilization in the very streets where Roman power had once reigned supreme.
In Rome at the same time
Parthenius of Nicaea, Strabo, Augustus, Seneca the Elder, Ovid, Celsus
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Tiberius’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Parthenius of Nicaea, Strabo, Augustus, Seneca the Elder, Ovid, Celsus, Valerius Maximus, Phaedrus, Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus, Curtius Rufus, Quintus, Pliny, the Elder, Silius Italicus, Tiberius Catius, Petronius Arbiter, Musonius Rufus, Persius, Quintilian
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Tiberius’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
Christian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.