| Claudius Fausset's Bible Dictionary
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| Tiberius
Nero Drusus Germanicus; fourth Roman emperor; reigned from A.D. 41 to
54; successor of Caligula; son of Nero Drusus; born 9 B.C.; lived in
privacy until he became emperor (A.D. 41) mainly through the influence
of Herod Agrippa I (Josephus, Ant. 19:2, section 1, 3, 4), whose
territory therefore he enlarged by adding Judaea, Samaria, and part of
Lebanon. He appointed Herod's brother to Chalcis and the presidency over
the temple at Jerusalem. In Claudius' reign occurred the famine in Palestine and Syria ( Act_11:28-30) under the procurators Cuspins Fadus and Tiberius Alexander. Suetonius (Claud., 25) writes: "Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, as they were constantly raising disturbances under the instigation of one Christ" (this was between A.D. 50 and 52): a sample of the ignorance of pagan writers in respect to Christ and Judaism. Claudius was poisoned by his fourth wife, Agrippina Nero's mother (A.D. 54), after a weak reign in which, according to Suetonius (29), "he showed himself not a prince but a servant" in the hands of others. |
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| Taken from: Fausset's Bible Dictionary by Andrew Robert Fausset (1821-1910) |
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