Tiberius
Despite the alcoholic and sexual excesses of his later years, Tiberius holds the record as the emperor who reached the oldest age (not counting later Byzantine emperors). He could have gone made it beyond his 78th year too, had it not been for the treacherous intentions of his nephew Caligula and the murderous intervention of his praetorian guard, Macro. Or at least goes on version of the story.
Tiberius passed away on his way back from Rome. He hadn’t been in the city itself. Despite setting off to visit on two separate occasions, he’d never quite plucked up the courage to enter within Rome’s city walls, preferring instead to rule remotely from his palace on the Island of Capri where he’d set himself up in self-imposed exile early on in his reign. He was struck by illness first in Astura and then in Circeii, a coastal town halfway between Rome and Naples.
Like Augustus before him, Tiberius was determined not to show his illness; doing so might encourage others to help in on his way. He stoically attended some gladiatorial games put on in Circeii’s army camp, even spearing a boar with a javelin thrown from his imperial box. He continued his journey to Misenum, near Naples, still sticking to his daily routine of dining, drinking, and partying until late every night—partly to hide his worsening condition, partly because he couldn’t resist.
Eventually, he came to a stop at the villa of his friend Lucullus. Detained by bad weather and the sharp deterioration of his health, he died on March 16 37 AD. Some thought Caligula had slowly poisoned him, others that Macro had smothered him with a pillow on Caligula’s orders after it looked like he might name another successor. Regardless, the Roman world reacted to the death of their emperor, not in the way he would have liked, but in the way he probably expected.
There were celebrations in the streets. Some people ran around shouting,
“Into the Tiber with Tiberius!”
Others prayed to the gods that he should find no rest in the underworld. There was even the suggestion that his body is pierced with hooks and dragged to the Germanian steps: the customary place of execution where condemned criminals were strangled before their bodies thrown down the steps. His body was ultimately spared this mistreatment, however, though the same can’t be said for some of his successors.