As everyone was trying to explain the conditional permutations of the last Sunday of the NFL season and just how the last of the fourteen teams could run the gauntlet to make it into Wild Card Weekend, we were withering over a similar labyrinthian tale in regards to Ancient Rome's second emperor Tiberius.
Pity poor Tiberius, even his portion in the 1976 BBC retelling cannot indicate just how much of an outsider he was made to feel like. Born to Livia's first husband Tiberius Claudius Nero, Tiberius seems to echo the confusion between Rome as a Republic and its return to a dynasty. Tiberius' birth father rode with Julius Caesar and settled new communities for the empire as far away as Gaul. As the new government struggled with its complicated series of alliances, Nero fell out with Octavian. On the run for the first three years of Tiberius' life, when Nero, Livia, and the boy returned to Rome - Octavian fell in love with Livia. After actually "giving" Livia away publically at their wedding, Nero raised Tiberius and his brother until passing away when the eldest son was only nine.
Tiberius gives the eulogy to his father and then is adopted by Octavian, now Augustus. In battle, Tiberius proved himself to be a great leader. As a diplomat, even more respected. However, like so many Roman leaders - going back home only encouraged trouble and deceit. After bringing the northernmost regions into the Empire, Tiberius returned home to marry the daughter of Augustus' wisest confidant Agrippa. Though happily wed, when Agrippa died, the "family" demanded that Tiberius divorce Vipsania and marry...his stepsister Julia (the only biological child of Augustus and Agrippa's widow.) The union was not well received. Their only child died shortly after birth. Their marriage ended five years later. Julia was sent into exile, Tiberius was rumored to be next in line for the throne.
His years in waiting were dogged by comparison to Augustus. Suddenly, Tiberius withdrew from politics completely and moved to Rhodes. Despite numerous requests from Augustus, Tiberius refused to return to Rome. In the meantime, Augustus' two grandsons Lucius and Gaius Caesar became the discussed heirs to the throne. Hearing this Tiberius requested that he be allowed to return to Rome, which Augustus denied several times. When Lucius and Gaius died, Livia manipulated Augustus to allow Tiberius to return - but only as a private citizen. With no other heirs in sight, Tiberius quickly rose to power until he co-ruled with the aged Augustus. Fifty-six years of rule by Augustus ended, and despite other family members' efforts, 55-year-old Tiberius finally ascended to the throne.
Did Tiberius want the power or not? Here is the question that "I, Claudius" answers carefully with his indifference toward the post and mistreatment of the Senate leading to disarray. Suddenly, the troops in Germany mutiny over unpaid bonuses. Legislation grinds to a halt, as does progress. While everyone knew that the Second Emperor would automatically be no comparison to the first, Graves put nearly everyone in motion (even Tiberius' trusted captain Sejanus) as possible threats to the throne.
Tiberius wisely shared rule with his adopted son Germanicus and birth son Drusus. With those two in charge, his excursions to Capri became longer and longer. However, when both children died due to mysterious circumstances - Tiberius never really returned to the previous level of oversight. Then with no named replacement in play, in AD 29 Livia passed away (as Claudius puts it "to become the Queen of Heaven.") Tiberius went on a spree eliminating anyone of high enough class and status to function in his place. Charged with treason, hundreds of prominent Romans were put to death. With his eyes away from the throne, Captain Sejanus took over "in absentia." More attacks on the throne followed and trials went on for years disrupting all of the Roman Empire. The treacherous Caligula (the only surviving son of Germanicus) begins his rise to power and the descendants of Augustus are left to starve to death in their once palatial estate. All the while, Tiberius refused to leave Capri and his steady diet of paranoia and debauchery. When the final piece of the puzzle was in place for Caligula to ascend to the throne, Tiberius was smothered in his sleep.
Upon finding his will, they discovered it named Tiberius Gemellus and Caligula as co-successors. Caligula's first act - voiding Tiberius' will.
It should be known that four historians reportedly wrote most of what is known about Tiberius. While they were all fair to him and his legacy, many details Graves stitches together to build the drama around come from Claudius and his "habit of being a historian." Events that happened so long before the preservation of history via written/printed language (Pliny The Elder called him "the gloomiest of men,") are easily dramatized and inflated to fulfill a desire for an almost Shakespearian tale of deceit and avarice. However, in hindsight, "I, Claudius" does its duty to provide the true notion that Rome was likely burning down before Nero and his fiddle.
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
NEW MUSIC This Week
KALI UCHIS - Orquídeas [LP/CD](Geffen) • While the existence of the second Spanish-language album from Kali Uchis has been known for nearly a year, her stellar 2023 turn on "Red Moon on Venus" delivered her first Top 5 album yet. Uchis has already placed a pair of tracks on the Latin charts and thanks to appearances by Karol G. and City Girls - might be looking at her second.
VACCINES - Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations [LP/CD] (Thirty Tigers/The Orchard) • On their first album in three years, British Indie Rockers The Vaccines would like to play a little Americana. Their Strokes-ian driving Pop stays intact ("Love To Walk Away,") but it the crisp new harmonies capture their new California lifestyle.
ALLUVIAL - Death Is But a Door [RED/WHITE LP/CD] (Nuclear Blast/AMPED) • BETTER LOVERS - God Made Me An Animal [SILVER PINK SPLAT LP/CD] (Sharptone) • If Active Rock radio is ready to change its tune after years of middling legacy acts and carefully orchestrated ROCK acts, 2024 would be the year to open up for the string (and mind) bending grind of these two bands. Atlanta's Alluvial have dark melodies on their brain ("Death Is But A Door,") yet are still ready to slink into the low-frequency parts and unleash that atonal spillage ("Bog Dweller.") Better Lovers are a vicious new iteration of the brilliant Metalcore band Every Time I Die (2021's brilliant "Radical") with Greg Puciato from Dillinger Escape Plan/Jerry Cantrell and guitarist Will Putney from Fit For An Autopsy. "Two Alive Amongst The Dead" is a cold-blooded rager with hints of AmRep slam and a pugilistic streak that lets the slow portions really wind you up.
FLYTE - Flyte [LP/CD](Nettwerk) • It is too easy to slight Flyte as another in the series of wispy harmonious acoustic sad-boy acts. On their third album, the duo beautifully captures the vulnerability ("Speech Bubble") and release ("Tough Love" with Laura Marling) of falling in love. While there is nothing here that is not on a hundred other albums, Flyte's loose high harmony parts light up their tracks with a Peter Gabriel-esque Pop ("Press Play.") While "Tough Love" was one of 2023's best singles, Will Taylor's duet with partner/inspiration Billie Marten "Don't Forget About Us" deserves a shot at success on our shores.
YOU CAN'T HEAR THESE ON SPOTIFY
HOLY FINGERS - III (streaming on Bandcamp) • You may need more than the allowed five listens to get to the heart of what makes this Baltimore Doom-y Metal band so great. "III" is packed with crushing riffs and high banshee-style singing from Tracey Buchanan. "Hunted" and its slow build and bulldozer-slow grind of "Estival" are standouts here from their third record.
HYPOS - Hypos (streaming on Bandcamp) • What do you get when you cross Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog and his solo project with Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound plus some purveyors of Memphis indie Pop/Soul? "Hypos" is an airy fun record that is almost too breezy in places ("Badway" makes you wish it was summertime) while even venturing into Psychedelic Blues ("Past Life Woman.")
REISSUES OF THE WEEK
GRATEFUL DEAD - Terrapin Station [CLEAR LP] (Rhino) • GRATEFUL DEAD - Born To Die [CLEAR LP] (Rhino) • Ten years of development left The Dead in need of a new direction. Having established themselves as a must-see live act, the Seventies studio albums needed to reveal both their live energy and the refined sound that could land them on AOR Radio. As much support as their mainstay cities could give them on single mixes of "Franklin's Tower" and "U.S. Blues," a chart single would lead them into the upper echelon of Sixties acts growing larger in the Seventies. So they folded their home base label and signed with Clive Davis' new Arista adventure. Davis, and his reputation for generating hits, convinced the band to use an outside producer for the first time since 1968. Keith Olsen, fresh from massive success with the latest incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, gives "Terrapin Station" a little too much sheen. Without the group's permission (but likely Davis,') Olsen added strings and more ("Sunrise") to their recordings while they were on tour. On the album's true classic, "Estimated Prophet," and the lengthy title suite, the band had at least road-tested them before entering the studio. If Olsen was a problem, he was not the only one. Rumor has it that the Dead showed up so unreliably for sessions, that once everyone showed up - they would hammer the door shut so no one could enter or leave.
As expected, radio did not sit up and take notice. Mickey Hart's car accident kept them off the road during the summer of 1977. "Terrapin" sold decently, but began their lengthy trip into mediocre studio albums in search of that perfect song. In the Eighties, The Dead quietly became the decade's live act as Hippies grew into Yuppies and a new generation discovered their early Psychedelic and Americana years. After six years of fine-tuning their live show to a level of craft that put flocks of Deadheads on the road following every show of the tour, The Dead decided to record their new album - live. 1987's "In The Dark" was recorded without an audience to a recording truck, but played as a live show would be. The result was the best-selling Dead album ever. Not only did "In The Dark" give them their first Top 10 hit ("Touch of Grey") and Double Platinum album, but it also put such a fire under their back catalog that "Terrapin Station" went Gold.
