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.

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.

How much of Paterculus ' writing is due to genuine admiration, prudence or fear remains an open question, but it has been conjectured that he was put to death as a friend of Sejanus.

* Emperor Tiberius retires to Capri, leaving the Praetorian Guard under Lucius Aelius Sejanus in charge of the Roman Empire and the city of Rome.

For a time the most influential and feared citizen of Rome, Sejanus suddenly fell from power in 31, the year his career culminated with the consulship.

Following his death, his wife Agrippina the Elder returned to Rome with their six children and became increasingly involved with a group of senators who opposed the growing power of Sejanus.

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

It appears that, when Tiberius heard to what extent Sejanus had already usurped his authority in Rome, he immediately took steps to remove him from power.

With the intentions of the emperor no longer clear, it was now deemed a safer course of action at Rome to withdraw from overt support to Sejanus until the matter was clearly settled.

Although Rome at first rejoiced at the demise of Sejanus, the city quickly plunged into more extensive trials, as Tiberius relentlessly persecuted all those who could in any way be tied to the schemes of Sejanus or had courted his friendship.

Velleius Paterculus was a historian and contemporary of Sejanus whose two-volume The Roman History details a history of Rome from the fall of Troy until the death of Livia Augusta in 29.

A bloody purge then erupted in Rome, most of Sejanus ' family ( including his children ) and followers sharing his fate.

The Crisis under Caligula ( 37-41 ) has been proposed as the " first open break between Rome and the Jews ", even though problems were already evident during the Census of Quirinius in 6 and under Sejanus ( before 31 ).

Tiberius ’ daughter-in-law Livilla consulted him during her affair with Tiberius ' chief minister Sejanus, and Thrasyllus persuaded Tiberius to leave Rome for Capri while clandestinely supporting Sejanus.

Leaving Athens, the Spartan and Castor travel to Rome, via the Gates of Saturn, a fortress in the Alps that blocks the way to Rome, where they encounter an undead Sejanus, who has survived his death in Athens and escaped the underworld.

The Crisis under Caligula ( 37-41 ) has been proposed as the " first open break between Rome and the Jews ", even though problems were already evident during the Census of Quirinius in 6 and under Sejanus ( before 31 ).

She gave birth to a son, Claudius Drusus, whose betrothal to a daughter of Sejanus instilled unfulfilled expectations in the prefect Claudius.

According to the ancient historian Tacitus, Sejanus was also a former favourite of the wealthy Marcus Gavius Apicius, whose daughter may have been Sejanus ' first wife Apicata.

Cassius Dio records that Julia was now engaged to Sejanus, but this claim appears to be contradicted by Tacitus, whose authority is to be preferred.

However, Graves acknowledges that there must be a delicate balance between Republican liberty and Imperial stability ; whereas too much of the former led to civil war, too much of the latter led to the corruption of Tiberius, Caligula, Valeria Messalina, Sejanus, Herod Agrippa, Nero, Agrippina the Younger, and countless others – as well as, to a lesser extent, Livia and Claudius himself.

1610 was a better year, with public performances at the Globe — Othello and Jonson's Sejanus among others.

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

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

Later in 29, owing to the intrigues of Sejanus, and at the insistence of Tiberius, Nero and Agrippina were accused of treason.

Through her friendship with Agrippina, she became the victim of the intrigues of Sejanus ' treason trials in 26.

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.

Due to their friendship with Agrippina they became innocent victims of Sejanus ' treason trials.

The notorious guard Sejanus was murdered in 31 on the orders of Tiberius.

However, as this was also the period during which the power and terror of the commander of the Praetorian Guard, Sejanus, was at its peak, Claudius chose to downplay this possibility.

Tiberius, perhaps sensitive to this ambition, rejected Sejanus's initial proposal to marry Livilla in 25 AD, but later had withdrawn his objections so that, in 30 AD, Sejanus was betrothed to Livilla's daughter, Tiberius ' granddaughter.

Sejanus ' family connection to the Imperial house was now imminent, and in 31 AD Sejanus held the Consulship with the emperor as his colleague, an honor Tiberius reserved only for heirs to the throne.

Among those few who did suffer legal damnatio memoriae were Sejanus, who had conspired against emperor Tiberius in 31, and later Livilla, who was revealed to be his accomplice.

Sejanus was executed on Tiberius ’ orders, and Livilla was handed over to her formidable mother for punishment.

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.

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.

While the Praetorian Guard was formally established under Emperor Augustus, Sejanus introduced a number of reforms which saw the unit evolve beyond a mere bodyguard into a powerful and influential branch of the government involved in public security, civil administration, and ultimately political intercession ; changes which would have a lasting impact on the course of the Principate.

When Tiberius withdrew to Capri in 26, Sejanus was left in control of the entire state mechanism as de facto ruler of the empire.

Amidst suspicions of conspiracy against Tiberius, Sejanus was arrested and executed, along with his followers.

Sejanus was born in 20 BC at Volsinii, Etruria, to the family of Lucius Seius Strabo.

Sejanus ' grandfather however maintained relations with senatorial families through his marriage with Terentia, a sister of the wife of Gaius Maecenas, who was one of Emperor Augustus ' most powerful political allies.

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

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.

It was upon the accession of Tiberius in 14, that Sejanus was appointed prefect of the Praetorian Guard as the colleague of his father Strabo, and began his rise to prominence.

When Strabo was assigned to the governorship of Egypt in 15, Sejanus became the sole commander of the Praetorians and instigated reforms that helped shape the guard into a powerful tool of the principate.