Seneca, On Peace of Mind 11.9

You have filled public offices: were they either as important, as unlooked for, or as all-embracing as those of Sejanus? Yet on the day on which the Senate disgraced him, the people tore him to pieces. The executioner could find no part left large enough to drag to the Tiber, of one upon whom gods and men had showered all that could be given to man.

Now I might say that I’m not really after the money, knowing full well how tricky the world of business can be, and that what I’m really working on is building up my reputation and winning people’s respect.

This might seem to be something that is more fully within my power, because I’m the one who decides how I will treat other people, whether I am going to be useful to them, and when I pay up on my promises. A flattering word here, a favor offered there, and alliances forged wherever I can will put me in a comfortable place. Before I know it, people will come to depend on me.

Or is it possible they might also come to resent me, precisely because I now have something that they don’t? My status does not come from what I do, but from how others will react to what I do.

I’m afraid I didn’t know much about Lucius Aelius Sejanus before coming across this mention of him by Seneca, and it turns out there’s a very good reason for that. He acquired great influence as the prefect of the Praetorian Guard under Tiberius, and he seemed to have had a knack for making deals, winning friends, and disposing of his enemies. He even managed to have himself made consul, but then the sweet turned to sour.

As with Pompeius, I’m not sure what finally brought on his unpleasant end, and I suppose all the particulars hardly matter. It surely didn’t help that Sejanus had seduced the wife of Drusus, the emperor’s son, and then secretly plotted with her to poison Drusus. Sejanus was eventually arrested and executed, and the angry crowd, as always needing something to be angry at, ripped his body apart.

There was rioting, and looting, and his friends and family were hunted down to join his fate. His statues were toppled, and his name was removed from all public records. His mistress took her own life before they could get to her, and his daughter was apparently raped before she was killed, because it was against custom to execute a virgin.

One of my students was quite terrified by this whole account, and she wanted to refer to it as a morality tale in a project for her government class. She came to me when she couldn’t find any images of Sejanus for her PowerPoint presentation.

I couldn’t find any either, but that’s what tends to happen to people who have been erased from history because they ended up on the wrong side of public opinion. Sometimes the difference between a hero and villain is just a matter of which way the mood of the mob happens to turn.

I did, however, come across a photograph of a coin that had been minted with his name on it, even as the inscription had been appropriately scratched out.

Written in 11/2011