Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/272

Rh 258 GERMANICUS. earned an independent title to it by his .own achievements. When Augustus, in A. D. 4, adopted Tiberius, and appointed him successor to the em- pire, the young Germanicus had already, by his promising qualities, gained the favour of the em- peror, who recommended Tiberius to take him as a son. (Suet, Cal. 4; Tac. An7i. i. 3; Zonar. x. 36.) In subsequent inscriptions and coins he is styled Germanicus Caesar, Ti. Aug. F. Divi Aug. N.; and in history the relationships which he acquired by adoption are often spoken of in place of the natural relationships of blood and birth. Upon his adoption into the Julia gens, whatever may have been his formal legal designation, he did not lose the title Germanicus, though his brother Claudius, as having now become the sole legal representative of his father, chose also to assume that cognomen. (Suet. Claud. 2.) In A. D. 7, five years before the legal age (Suet. Ccd. 1), he obtained the quaestorship; and in the same year was sent to assist Tiberius in the war against the Pannonians and Dalmatians. (Dion Cass. Iv. 31). After a distinguished commence- ment of his military career, he returned to Rome in A. D. 10, to announce in person the victorious termination of the war, whereupon he was honoured with triumphal insignia (without an actual triumph), and the rank (not the actual office) of praetor, with permission to be a candidate for the consulship be- fore the regular time. (Dion Cass Ivi. IT.) The successes in Pannonia and Dalmatia were followed by the destruction of Varus and his legions. In a. D. 11, Tiberius was despatched to defend the empire against the Germans, and was accompanied by Germanicus as proconsul. The two generals crossed the Rhine, made various in- cursions into the neighbouring territory, and, at the beginning of autumn, re-crossed the river. (Dion Cass. Ivi. 25.) Germanicus returned to llome in the winter, and in the following year dis- charged the office of consul, though he had never l)een aedile nor praetor. In the highest magistracy, he did not scruple to appear as an advocate for the accused in courts of justice, and thus increased that popularity which he had formerly earned by plead- ing for defendants before Augustus himself. Nor was he above ministering to the more vulgar plea- sures of the people, for at the games of Mars, he let loose two hundred lions in the Circus; and Pliny {H. N. ii. 26) mentions his gladiatorial shows. On the 16th of January, in A. D. 13, Tibe- rius, having returned to Rome, celebrated that triumph over the Pannonians and Dalmatians, which had been postponed on account of the cala- mity of Varus; and Germanicus appears, from the celebrated Gemma Avgudea (as explained by Mon- gez, Iconographie Romaine^ Paris, 1821, p. 62), to have taken a distinguished part in the celebration. (Suet. Tib. 20.) Germanicus was next sent to Germany with the command of the eight legions stationed on the Rhine; and from this point of his life his history is taken up by the masterly hand of Tacitus. Upon the death of Augustus, in August, a. d. 14, an alarming mutiny broke out among the legions in Germany and lllyricum. In the former country the mutiny commenced among the four legions of the Lower Rhine (the 5th, 2ist, Ist, and 20th), who were stationed in summer quarters upon the borders of the Ubii, under the charge of A. Cae- ciua. The time was couie, they thought, to raise GERMANICUS. the pay of the soldier, to shorten his period of service, to mitigate the hardship of his military tasks, and to take revenge on his old enemy, the centurion. Germanicus was in Gaul, employed in collecting the revenue, when the tidings of the dis- turbance reached him. He hastened to the camp, and exerted all his influence to allay discontent and establish order. He was the idol of the army. His open and affable manners contrasted remark- ably with the hauteur and reserve of Tiberius; and like his father, Drusus, he was supposed to be an admirer of the ancient republican liberty. Some of the troops interrupted his harangue, by declaring their readiness to place him at the head of the em- pire; whereupon, as if contaminated by the guilty proposal, he jumped down from the tribunal whence he was speaking, declared that he would rather die than forfeit his allegiance, and was about to plunge his sword into his breast, when his attempt was forcibly stayed by the bystanders. (Tac. Ann. i. 35.) It was known that the army of the Upper Rhine (consisting of four legions, the 2nd, 13th, 16th, and 14th, which were left in the charge of Si- lius), was tainted with the disaffection of the troops under Caecina, and from motives of policy it was thought necessary to comply with the de- mands of the soldiers. A council was held, and a feigned letter from Tiberius was concocted, in which, after 20 years of service, a full discharge was given; and, after 16 years, an immunity from military tasks, other than the duty of taking part in actions. {Missio siib veaillo.) The legacy left by Augustus to the troops was to be doubled and discharged. To satisfy the requisition of the 21st and 5th legions, who demanded immediate pay- ment, Germanicus exhausted his own purse, and his friends were equally liberal. Having thus quelled the disturbances in the lower army, by almost unlimited concession, he repaired to the four legions on the Upper Rhine; and though they voluntarily took the military oath of obedience, he prudently granted them the same indulgence which had been conferred on their disorderly comrades. The calm was of short duration. Two legions of the Lower Rhine (the Ist and 20th) had been stationed for the winter at Ara Ubiorum (between Bonn and Cologne). Hither two deputies from the senate arrived with despatches from Ger- manicus; and the conscience-stricken soldiers imagined that they were come to revoke the con- cessions which had been extorted by fear. A formidable tumult again arose, and (according to the account of Tacitus) it was only on the de- parture of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, car- rying in her bosom her young boy Caligula, the darling of the camp, and attended by the wives of her husband's friends, that the refractory legions were smitten with pity and shame. They could not bear to see so many high-born ladies seek in the foreign protection of the Treveri that security which was denied to them in the camp of their own general; and were so far worked upon by the feelings which this incident occasioned as to inflict summary punishment themselves on the leaders of the revolt. (Tac. Ann. i. 41; comp. Dion Cass. Ivii. 5; Zonar. xi. 1.) The other two legions of the Lower Rhine, the 5th and 21 st, with whom the mutiny began, re- mained in a state of discontent and ferment in theii winter quarters at Castm Vetera (Xanten). Ger-