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Decadent and Depraved Roman Emperors Who Shocked their Subjects

Khalid Elhassan February 11, 2025 15 min

3. A Seriously Sick Man

Decadent - Artistic reconstruction of Tiberius' pleasure palace at Capri — Artistic reconstruction of Tiberius’ pleasure palace at Capri. Wikimedia

Since Tiberius was a middle aged man when he became emperor, he was not driven by youthful passions and the need to engage in ostentatious displays to shock and attract attention. That would have run against his personality anyhow since, even as a young man, Tiberius was taciturn, withdrawn, and introverted. Instead, he built himself a vast pleasure palace and compound, secluded in the island of Capri. There, he wallowed in all kinds of perversions, most notably with children. Among other things, he had toddlers trained to dive under water while he was in a pool to “nibble” at him as he swam – he called them his “minnows”.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.