"The Jews love freedom, and they will fight for it with their blood," Marcus Aurelius told his military aide Flavius as the hexareme ship Oceanus, with troops on board, was plying the Mediterranean Sea, the new lake of the Roman Empire.Marcus Aurelius was the newly designated chief centurion in Jerusalem. He was personally chosen by the Roman Emperor Caesar Tiberius, successor of Caesar Augustus. Marcus Aurelius was a former infantry soldier of Tiberius who was known for his bravery and boldness in battle. Tiberius always took him in his military campaigns, and often included him in surprise assaults against the enemy.After the death of Caesar Augustus, the Roman Senate unanimously voted for Tiberius to be the new emperor, succeeding Caesar Augustus, Tiberius' father-in-law. His mother, the beautiful Livia, married Augustus when the father of Tiberius died.Tiberius was not the real choice of Emperor Augustus, who had no son as his heir apparent. But Livia influenced her husband to put Tiberius in the line of successors to the emperor.