* Ben Jonson – Sejanus: His Fall, and The Entertainment at Althorp

Cordus also appears in Ben Jonson's Sejanus: His Fall.

** Sejanus, His Fall

# REDIRECT Sejanus His Fall

Sejanus His Fall, a 1603 play by Ben Jonson, is a tragedy about Lucius Aelius Seianus, the favorite of the Roman emperor Tiberius.

As a boy player, Alexander Cooke, is thought to have created many of Shakespeare's principal female roles, as well as Agrippina in Ben Jonson's Sejanus His Fall.

# REDIRECT Sejanus His Fall

Productions include: Sejanus his Fall ( Edinburgh ), Master Harold and the Boys ( Bristol Old Vic ), The Suicide, Coriolanus ( National Youth Theatre ), Life is a Dream, Plough and the Stars, True West ( Donmar Warehouse ), Henry V, The Devil is an Ass, Hamlet ( RSC ), Volpone ( RNT ), Troilus and Cressida ( Opera North ), Rake's Progress ( Welsh National Opera ), Falstaff ( Opera North & ENO ), and Art ( West End & Broadway ).

In addition to Every Man in His Humour ( 1598 ) and Every Man Out of His Humour ( 1599 ), Condell is known to have performed in four more of Jonson's plays: Sejanus ( 1603 ), Volpone ( 1605 ), The Alchemist ( 1610 ), and Catiline ( 1611 ).

At an uncertain but probably early date, his writing became more important, although he continued to act at least until 1603, when he performed in Ben Jonson's Sejanus.

Somewhat uncharacteristically, Jonson does not appear to have held a grudge against the company ; in 1603, they staged his Sejanus, with dissatisfying results.

He is mentioned in the surviving cast lists of the company's productions of Ben Jonson's Sejanus ( 1603 ), Volpone ( 1605 ), The Alchemist ( 1610 ), and Catiline ( 1611 ), John Fletcher's Bonduca and Valentinian ( both ca.

Soon after ( possibly in 28 ), Claudius married Aelia Paetina, a relative of Sejanus, if not Sejanus's adoptive sister.

Lucius Aelius Seianus ( 20 BC – October 18, AD 31 ), commonly known as Sejanus, was an ambitious soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

The adoptive family of Sejanus counted two consuls among their family: the aforementioned Quintus Aelius Tubero ( consul in 11 BC ), and Sextus Aelius Catus ( consul in 4 ), who was the father of Aelia Paetina, the second wife of the Emperor Claudius.

According to Josephus however, it was Antonia, the mother of Livilla, who finally alerted Tiberius to the growing threat Sejanus posed ( possibly with information provided by Satrius Secundus ), in a letter she dispatched to Capri in the care of her freedman Pallas.

When it became clear to Tiberius that support for Sejanus was not as strong as the emperor had feared, his next step was to choose Naevius Sutorius Macro, previously prefect of the vigiles ( Roman police and fire department ), to replace Sejanus and affect his downfall.

* Sejanus ( 1998 ), the third novel in the Marcus Corvinus series by David Wishart.

n. Drusus ( Drusus the Younger ), son of the emperor Tiberius, was consul in AD 15 and 21 ; he was subsequently poisoned by Livia at the bidding of Sejanus.

Also suspected of connivance in his death was Tiberius ' chief advisor, Sejanus, who would, in the 20s, create an atmosphere of fear in Roman noble and administrative circles by the use of treason trials and the role of " informers.

* Agrippina the Elder is exiled to the island of Pandataria, and her sons ( except Caligula ) are imprisoned by Lucius Aelius Sejanus.

In 31 AD, Antonia exposed a plot by her daughter Livilla and Tiberius ’ notorious Praetorian prefect, Sejanus, to murder the Emperor Tiberius and Caligula and to seize the throne for themselves.

In the television adaptation by Jack Pulman, the character dies after Augustus's death on Planasia with Sejanus becoming the assassin.

An equestrian by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, of which he was commander from AD 14 until his death in AD 31.

During the 20s, Sejanus gradually accumulated power by consolidating his influence over Tiberius and eliminating potential political opponents, including the emperor's son, Drusus Julius Caesar.

He was later adopted into the Aelian gens by Aelius Gallus, and by Roman custom became known as Lucius Aelius Seianus, or simply Sejanus.

Sejanus ' uncle Junius Blaesus distinguished himself as a military commander who became proconsul of Africa in 21, and earned triumphal honors by crushing the rebellion of Tacfarinas.

In a conspiracy that involved his own wife Livilla, Drusus was poisoned in 23 by agents of Sejanus.

While his adopted son Germanicus restored order in Germania, Tiberius ' biological son Drusus was sent to quell the uprising in Pannonia, accompanied by Sejanus and two Praetorian cohorts.

As early as 20, Sejanus had sought to solidify his connection with the imperial family by betrothing his daughter Junilla to the son of Claudius, Claudius Drusus.

Alarmed by this sudden denigration, Sejanus changed his plans and began to isolate Tiberius from Rome.

Guarded by the Praetorians, Sejanus easily controlled all information that passed between Tiberius and the capital.

Only Caligula, as the last remaining son of Germanicus, managed to survive the purges of Sejanus, and that he did by moving to Capri with Tiberius in 31.

Sejanus was so great a person by reason both of his excessive haughtiness and of his vast power, that, to put it briefly, he himself seemed to be the emperor and Tiberius a kind of island potentate, inasmuch as the latter spent his time on the island of Capreae.

Further details concerning Sejanus ' fall are provided by Cassius Dio, writing nearly 200 years after the facts in his Roman History.

On October 18, 31, Sejanus was summoned to a Senate meeting by a letter from Tiberius, ostensibly to bestow the tribunician powers upon him.

With the exception of Velleius Paterculus, ancient historians have universally condemned Sejanus, although accounts differ to which extent Sejanus was manipulated by Tiberius or the other way around.

Cordus was brought to trial in 25 by Sejanus under accusations of treason.

He is known to have performed in Ben Jonson's Sejanus and Every Man in His Humour ( in both cases, alongside Shakespeare ).

In 1604, Howard called playwright Ben Jonson before the Privy Council, accusing him of popery and treason in Sejanus.

However, the two playwrights were reconciled soon after the so-called War ; Marston wrote a prefatory poem for Jonson's Sejanus in 1605 and dedicated The Malcontent to Jonson.

Jonson and Chapman were out of jail by November 1605 ; Chapman's commendatory poem in the first edition of Jonson's Sejanus ( 1605 ) appears to indicate that the Earl of Suffolk was influential in obtaining their release and resolving the matter.

In the winter of 1618 – 19 Jonson told William Drummond of Hawthornden that the Earl of Northampton was his " mortal enemy " because Jonson had beaten one of the Earl's servants, and that Northampton had had Jonson called before the Privy Council on an accusation of " Popery and treason ," based on Sejanus.