Tigellinus

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Tigellinus

Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus, also known as Ophonius Tigellinus and Sophonius Tigellinus (c. 10–69), was a prefect

Praetorian prefect

Praetorian prefect was the constant title of a high office in the Roman Empire state that changed fundamentally in nature.The praetorian prefect was commander of the Praetorian Guard until Constantine I abolished the guard in 314....
of the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
imperial bodyguard

Bodyguard

A bodyguard is a type of security guard or government agent who protects a person?usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure?from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of Confidentiality, or other threats....
, known as the Praetorian Guard

Praetorian Guard

The Praetorian Guard was a special force of guards used by Roman empire List of Roman Emperorss. Before being appropriated for the use of the Emperors' personal guards, the title was used for the guards of Roman generals, at least since the rise to prominence of the Scipio family around 275 BC....
, from 62 until 68, during the reign of emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
Nero

Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
. Tigellinus gained imperial favour through his acquaintance with Nero's mother Agrippina the Younger

Agrippina the Younger

Julia Agrippina; known as Agrippina Minor , was a great granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, great niece and adoptive granddaughter of Emperor Tiberius, sister to Emperor Caligula, wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Emperor Nero....
, and was appointed prefect upon the death of his predecessor Sextus Afranius Burrus

Sextus Afranius Burrus

Sextus Afranius Burrus , Praetorian prefect, was advisor to Roman emperor Nero and, together with Seneca the Younger, very powerful in the early years of Nero's reign....
, a position Tigellinus held first with Faenius Rufus

Faenius Rufus

Faenius Rufus, Roman senator, praefectus annonae, 55-62AD. Tacitus reports that he did not profit from it. With Tigellinus, he succeeded Sextus Afranius Burrus as praetorian prefect in 62....
and then Nymphidius Sabinus

Nymphidius Sabinus

Gaius Nymphidius Sabinus, or Nymphidius Sabinus, was a Praetorian prefect of the Ancient Rome imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, during the rule of Roman Emperor Nero from 65 until his death in 68....
.

As a friend of Nero he quickly gained a reputation around Rome for cruelty and licentiousness.

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Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus, also known as Ophonius Tigellinus and Sophonius Tigellinus (c. 10–69), was a prefect

Praetorian prefect

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
imperial bodyguard

Bodyguard

Praetorian Guard

Roman Emperor

Nero

Agrippina the Younger

Sextus Afranius Burrus

Faenius Rufus

Nymphidius Sabinus

Plebs

The Plebs was the general body of Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher class of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian ....
and the army

Roman army

The Roman Army was employed by the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, as part of the Roman military. Its most important infantry constituent for much of its history was the Roman legion....
, leading to several rebellion

Rebellion

Rebellion is a refusal of obedience. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors from civil disobedience and mass nonviolent resistance, to violent and organized attempts to destroy an established authority such as the government....
s which ultimately led to his downfall and suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the intentional taking of one's own life. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"....
in 68. When Nero's demise appeared imminent, Tigellinus deserted him and shifted his allegiance to the new emperor Galba

Galba

Servius Sulpicius Galba , also called Servius Sulpicius Galba Caesar Augustus, was Roman Emperor from June 8, 68 until his death. He was the first emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors....
. Unfortunately, Galba was replaced by Otho

Otho

For other uses, see Otho .Marcus Salvius Otho , also called Marcus Salvius Otho Caesar Augustus, was Roman Emperors from 15 January to 16 April 69, the second emperor of the Year of the four emperors....
barely six months after his accession. Otho

Otho

Life

Tigellinus was a native of Agrigentum, of humble origin and possibly of Greek

Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
descent. In 39, during the reign of Caligula

Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , more commonly known by his nickname Caligula , was the third Roman Emperor, reigning from 16 March 37 until his assassination on 24 January 41....
, he was banished. He had been accused of adultery with Agrippina the Younger

Agrippina the Younger

Julia Livilla

Julia Livilla or Julia Livia was the youngest child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder and one of Caligula's sisters....
, the two surviving sisters of the Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54....
in 41.

Having inherited a fortune, he bought land in Apulia

Apulia

Apulia is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south....
and Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , is a Regions of Italy in Southern Italy Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea....
and devoted himself to breeding race-horses. In this manner he gained the favour of Nero, whom he aided and abetted in his vices and cruelties. In 62 he was promoted to the prefecture of the praetorian guards. In 64 he made himself notorious for the orgies arranged by him in the Basin of Agrippa, and was suspected of incendiarism in connection with the Great Fire of Rome

Great Fire of Rome

According to the historian Tacitus, the Great Fire of Rome started on the night of 18 July in the year 64 CE, among the shops clustered around the Circus Maximus....
, which, after having subsided, broke out afresh in his Aemilian gardens.

In 65, during the investigation into the abortive conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso

Gaius Calpurnius Piso

Gaius Calpurnius Piso was a Roman senator in the 1st century. He was the focal figure in the Pisonian conspiracy of 65 A.D., the most famous and wide-ranging plot against the throne of Nero....
, he and Poppaea Sabina

Poppaea Sabina

Poppaea Sabina was a Roman Empress and second wife of the Roman Emperor Nero. The historians of Classical antiquity describe her as a beautiful woman who used intrigues to become empress....
formed a kind of imperial privy council

Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation on how to exercise their Executive , typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchy....
. In 67 he accompanied Nero on his tour in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
. When the emperor's downfall appeared imminent, Tigellinus deserted him, and with Nymphidius Sabinus

Nymphidius Sabinus

Praetorian Guard

Galba

Titus Vinius

Titus Vinius was a Roman general who was one of the most powerful men in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Galba.Plutarch has a number of stories of Vinius' early life, all to his discredit....
, the favourite of Galba, and his daughter. Otho

Otho

Sinuessa

Sinuessa was a city of Latium, in the more extended sense of the name, situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 10 km north of the mouth of the Volturno River ....
, Tigellinus received the news that he must die, and, having vainly endeavoured to gain a respite, cut his own throat with a razor.

Tigellinus in later art

Tigellinus appears in both the play and film The Sign of the Cross
The Sign of the Cross (film)

The Sign of the Cross is a 1932 in film epic film made by Paramount Pictures. It was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille from a screenplay by Waldemar Young and Sidney Buchman, based on the 1896 play by Wilson Barrett....
. He is also a character in Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Poland journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. He was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."...
's Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis (novel)

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, commonly known as Quo Vadis, is a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Quo vadis is Latin for "Where are you going?" and alludes to a New Testament verse ....
.
In the 1951 film Quo Vadis, based on the novel, Tigellinus is (unhistorically) stabbed to death by a spectator in the Colosseum
Colosseum

The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire....
when the Roman people revolt against Nero at the end of the film.
He also appears in the Waldorf
Waldorf

Waldorf can have the following meanings:in places:*Waldorf, Maryland*Waldorf, Minnesota*Waldorf, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany*Waldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany...
play, The Road to Damascus, where he is the wily and cunning right-hand-man and chief advisor of Emperor Nero. According to some sources, it was really Tigellinus' idea to burn Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, although this is disputed. In The Sign of the Cross, it is Nero's idea to burn Rome, but it is Tigellinus who gives him the idea of blaming it on the Christians.

Tigellinus

Life

Tigellinus in later art

External links