Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/462

446 mons and repair to Rome. The magnificence of a triumph and the idle honours of a consulship had little attraction for a general in mid-career of conquest, and a man of singularly simple habits and no political ambition. The enthusiasm with which he was welcomed, not only by the populace, which went in crowds to meet him as far as the twentieth milestone, but by the emperor‘s own prmtorians, warnel Tiberius that it might be equally dangerous to keep so popular a favourite at Rome, and the earliest pretext was seized to remove him from the capital. The recent death of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and a disputed succession in Parthia and Armenia, afforded a sufﬁcient plea for Roman interference; aud, a few months after his return, Germanicus was despatched to the East with extraordinary powers, and started on his mission without waiting to enter on his consuls-hip. At the same time Tiberius took the further precaution of superseding Silanus, a connexion of Germanicus, in the government of Syria, and appointing in his stead one of the most violent and ambitions of the old nobility, Cneius Calpurnius Piso, in order to watch his nephew’s movements, and if necessary to check his ambition. Germanicus proceeded by easy stages to his province, halt- ing on his way in Dalmatia, where he conferred with Drusns, his brother by adoption, and visiting the battleﬁeld of Actium, Athens, Ilium, and Other places of historic interest. At Rhodes he met for the ﬁrst time his coadjutor Piso, who had followed in his wake, and was seeking everywhere to thwart his policy and asperse his character. When at last he reached his destination, he found little difﬁculty in effect— ing the settlement of the disturbed provinces, notwith— standing the violent and persistent opposition of Piso. At Artaxata Zeno, the popular candidate for the throne, was crowned king of Armenia; to the provinces of Cappadocia and Commagena Roman governors were assigned; and I’arthia was conciliated by the banishment of the dethroned king Vonones. After wintering in Syria Germanicus started next year for a tour in Egypt. The chief motive for his journey was love of travel and antiquarian study, and it seems never to have occurred to him, till he was warned by Tiberius, that he was thereby transgressing an unwritten l-iw of the empire forbidding any Roman of rank to set foot in Egypt without express permission. On his return to Syria he found that all his arrangements had been upset by l’iso. Violent recriminations followed, the result of which, it would seem, was a promise on the part of Piso to quit the province. But at this juncture Germanicus fell ill. Piso deferred his departure, and, when at length compelled to start, lingered in the neighbourhood of Syria, receiving with open exultatiou the bulletins which told of the prince’s rapid decline. Germanicus on his side was fully convinced that he had fallen a victim to the arts of his unscrupulous enemy. He knew that he was dying, and believed that he was dying of poison. Even his gentle nature was stung to madness at the thought, and with his dying words he called on his friends and family to denounce his murderer and avenge his death. \Vhether these suspicions were true must remain an open question, yet the arguments in favour of a death from natural causes seem to preponderate. It is true that Piso desired his death, and, from what we- know of their characters, neither he nor his wife Planeina were likely to stick at any means for procuring it. But a poisoner does not generally let his wishes be publicly known, nor show his exultation when they are attained. The evidence from the appearance of the corpse is still more uncertain. Suetonius indeed avouches that there were livid marks all over the body and foam at the mouth ; but he adds as a further proof of poison that on the funeral pyre the heart remained unconsumed, which clearly shows that he was only retailing the vulgar gossip. Tacitus, though inclined to believe the worst of Piso, allows that the report of the symptoms varied with the prepossession of the observers. The sad tidings of his death cast a gloom over the whole Roman empire. To the provincials he had endeared himself by his simple manners, his atl'ability, his generOsity, his justice. The legions mourned their comrade who had always stood their friend at need, their general who had iiever known a defeat. At ltome there was a universal outburst of sorrow and indignation. The natural grief at. the loss of a favourite prince was aggravated by the sus- picion of foul play, and by hatred of the emperor who was at least guilty of recklessly exposing him to danger, and who now sullenly refused to join the general mourning. Men recalled the forboding words which had been whispered at his departure, “Whom the plebs love, die young.‘’ N or was he unworthy of this passionate devotion. He had wiped out a great national disgrace; he had quelled their most formidable foe; he had paciﬁed distant provinces; and in his high estate he had so borne himself that all save one man had loved and honoured him.’ His private life had been stainless, and he possessed in a singular degree the gift of personal attractiveness. And yet an impartial bio- grapher must add that for his fair fame his death was opportune. There were elements of weakness in his character which his shortlife only half revealed : an almost feminine impetuousness which made him twice threaten to take his own life; a superstitious vein which impelled him to consult oracles and shrink from bad omens; an amiable dilettantisin which led him to travel in Egypt while his enemy was plotting his ruin; a want of nerve and resolution which prevented him from coming to an open rupture with l’iso till it was too late. His very virtues, his elegant taste. his chivalrous sense of honour, his unsuspecting openness and candour, unﬁtted him for the stern times in which he lived. He was as little ﬁtted to play the part of Augustus as that of Alexander, to whom Tacitus fondly compares him: and had he lived to succeed to the purple the historian might have been compelled to pronounce on him the epitaph of Galba, that all would have thought him ﬁt to reign if he had not reigned.  GERMAN SILVER, or, known also under the names of White Copper and l’ackfong, is an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc, prepared either by melting the copper and nickel together in a crucible, and adding piece by piece the previously heated zinc, or by heating the finely divided metals under a layer of charcoal, by means of an air furnace of strong draught, and promoting the thorough solution of the nickel by stirrinrr. To destroy its crystalline structure, and so render it fit for working, it is heated to dull redness, and then allowed to cool. German silver is harder than silver; it resembles that metal in Colour, but is of a greyer tinge. Exposed to the air it tarnishes slightly yellow, and with vinegar affords a crust of verdigris. At a bright red heat it melts, and with access of the atmo~ sphere loses its zinc by oxidation. At a heat above dull redness it becomes exceedingly brittle. German silver is much used in the arts. For the manufacture of imitation silver for knives and forks its composition is—niekel and zinc of each 2 parts, and copper 4 parts; for hamlles of spoons and forks the proportion of copper in this formula is increased by 1. For rolling, the most suitable alloy is copper 3 parts, zinc l, nickel l. Candlesticks7 bells, spurs, and other cast articles are made of a German silver contain- ing 2 or 3 per cent. of lead. The addition of 2 to ‘31, per cent. of iron, which must ﬁrst be melted with part of the cepper, makes an alloy which is whiter, but also more brittle and harder than ordinary German silver.

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