September 18, AD 14

Tiberius

The Senate debated and recognized Tiberius's succession to Augustus

Rome's first imperial succession had no coronation. Tiberius was already issuing orders to the guard and the armies while professing uncertainty about whether he should rule at all.

Tiberius asks the Senate to split the job

Probably on 17 September AD 14, a few weeks after Augustus died at Nola, the Senate held the session conventionally called the accession debate — the meeting that addressed what Tiberius's position now was.

He told them he was reluctant to carry the entire burden of government and suggested dividing its responsibilities among several men. The senators pressed him to govern the whole empire.

He was already giving the watchword

This was not the moment Tiberius first exercised imperial authority. After Augustus's death he had given the watchword to the Praetorian cohorts, traveled with guards, and written to the armies as though the principate were already his. He was 55.

Suetonius likewise says Tiberius exercised imperial authority immediately but delayed accepting its public designation, finally yielding while calling it a burdensome servitude. Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all read that reluctance as hypocrisy or calculation — explanations of his private motives, not independently recoverable facts.

A god made the same day, and a date nobody agrees on

On 17 September the Senate also decreed the deification of Augustus, which made Tiberius the politically valuable son of the divine Augustus.

The familiar 18 September anniversary is not secure. A. J. Woodman places the accession debate probably on 17 September; a scholarly Roman-emperors reference uses 18 September; K. Wellesley argued instead that Tiberius accepted the principate between 1 and 3 September. Rome had no single constitutional office of emperor that passed automatically at one instant — the succession ran through oaths, a funeral, a deification and senatorial proceedings.

Almost immediately the new arrangement was tested: the Pannonian legions and the Rhine legions under Germanicus mutinied.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 0014-09-17.

What the sources leave uncertain

The listed 18 September date is not uncontested. A. J. Woodman places the accession debate probably on 17 September, while a scholarly Roman-emperors reference uses 18 September.
K. Wellesley instead argued that Tiberius accepted the principate between 1 and 3 September, illustrating how uncertain the ancient chronology remains.
Rome possessed no single constitutional office called “emperor” that passed automatically at one instant. The succession encompassed Augustus’s death, military and civic oaths, funeral and deification, and senatorial proceedings.
Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio portray Tiberius’s reluctance as hypocrisy or calculation. Their explanations of his private motives are interpretations, not independently recoverable facts.