Peter Jones

Ancient & modern | 01 March 2008

Peter Jones on the similarities between Gordon Brown and Tiberius

issue 01 March 2008

Macavity-like, Brown was never there when he was Chancellor, and rarely seems to be there now he is Prime Minister. When he is, he is always blaming someone else or avoiding the question. This is highly reminiscent of the second Roman emperor Tiberius who, like Brown, was following someone, Augustus, who had revolutionised the whole system. But there is a significant difference between them. Emperor was the last thing Tiberius wanted to be. Brown has been dreaming of nothing else.

The Roman historian Tacitus could not believe that at Augustus’ death in ad 14 Tiberius was so antipathetic to the idea of assuming power. He therefore considered him duplicitous, cloaking ambition under the image of diffidence. But in ad 27, after 13 years of tortuous rule, Tacitus retired to Campania, and then Capri, never to return to Rome again.

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