Suetonius on Tiberius' Sex Life

Capri; Tiberius' villa was to the left

In his Life of Tiberius, section 43-45, Suetonius offers a description of the sexual habits of a man who is powerful enough to go "beyond good and evil". The section is offered her in the translation by J.C. Rolfe.

Chapter
43
44
45
Section
1
2

[44.1] He acquired a reputation for still grosser depravities that one can hardly bear to tell or be told, let alone believe. For example, he trained little boys (whom he termed tiddlersnote) to crawl between his thighs when he went swimming and tease him with their licks and nibbles. Unweaned babies he would put to his organ as though to the breast, being by both nature and age rather fond of this form of satisfaction.


[44.2] Left a painting of Parrhasius' depicting Atalanta pleasuring Meleager with her lipsnote on condition that if the theme displeased him he was to have a million sesterces instead, he chose to keep it and actually hung it in his bedroom. The story is also told that once at a sacrifice, attracted by the acolyte's beauty, he lost control of himself and, hardly waiting for the ceremony to end, rushed him off and debauched him and his brother, the flute-player, too. Subsequently, when they complained of the assault, he had their legs broken.