Argument details Tiberius' negative response to a surmullet gift, suggesting it signified impending death.
It is argued that the Emperor Tiberius reacted as badly as he did to the fisherman who climbed the cliffs at Capri to offer him a gift of a surmullet (Suet. Tib. 60) because he regarded this event as an omen that his death was near at hand. He had the fisherman’s face scrubbed with the surmullet to transfer the force of the omen to him instead.
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David Woods (2026) studied this question.
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