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64 Agrippina as well, was reported of unfavourably to the Cæsar on the Palatine and his mother. As a token of respect for the fountainhead of Western philosophy and literature, and to display his reverence for the birthplace of so many illustrious statesmen and philosophers, orators, and poets, Germanicus, during a brief visit to Athens, laid aside every outward symbol of his high office, and, attended by a single lictor, walked in the streets, and visited the temples, the schools, the gymnasia, and the theatres of the city of Pallas. This, certainly harmless, and probably sincere, homage to the memory of the mighty dead, appeared to the jaundiced eye of Piso an affront to the dignity of Rome. "Was it seemly in Cæsar's son to be civil to such a pack of hybrid vagabonds as then were the Athenian people? Was it proper for one who represented the majesty of the empire, to curry favour with the offscouring of various nations, with fellows whose great-grandsires had leagued with Mithridates against Sylla, and whose grandsires had fought with Antony against Augustus?" During an interval of business, the proconsul sailed up the Nile and contemplated the great works of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. This pilgrimage, when reported to Tiberius, gave him much offence. And he severely censured Germanicus for entering the capital of Egypt without permission from the prince. "For Augustus," he wrote, "among other secret rules of power, had appropriated Egypt and restrained the senators and dignified Roman knights from going thither without licence; as he apprehended that Italy might be distressed with famine by every one who seized that province—the key to the empire by sea and land, and defensible by