Germanicus

Also known as: Germanicus Caesar · Family: Roman Empire · Role: military commander · First appears: Annals I (1)

In Annals I (1), Augustus placed Germanicus, the son of Drusus, over eight legions on the Rhine and compelled Tiberius to adopt him. Tiberius later requested proconsular power for him, yet feared his command, popularity, and nearness to supreme rule; Germanicus nevertheless worked to secure the Empire for his adoptive father. He was married to Agrippina, the granddaughter of Augustus, and was himself the grandson of Livia through Drusus, though the account describes him as troubled by “the secret hate which his uncle and grandmother bore him.”

When the German legions revolted in Annals I, Germanicus confronted the mutiny, softened the soldiers with his speech, retained reputable centurions, and degraded those accused of avarice or cruelty. He commanded Caius Silius, Aulus Caecina, Pedo, Stertinius, and others in campaigns across Germany, rescued Segestes, received him graciously, and joined in burying the dead of Varus’s legions despite Tiberius’s disapproval. He restored the altar of his father Drusus, led further campaigns against Arminius and his allies, and was granted a triumph and the title of Imperator by Tiberius.

In Annals II, Tiberius separated him from his old legions and assigned him authority over the provinces beyond the sea. Germanicus triumphed as far as the Elbe, crowned Zeno king of Armenia as Artaxias, and opened Egypt’s granaries, though Tiberius censured his entry into Alexandria without permission. His hostility with Cneius Piso became open, even as Germanicus rescued Piso from shipwreck; after Piso’s lictors disrupted public thanksgiving for Germanicus’s recovery, Germanicus renounced their friendship. Germanicus died soon afterward, with the cause undecided; Agrippina carried his ashes with their children, while Piso and Plancina were later accused of using poison and witchcraft against him. His death brought public mourning, Senate honors, and burial in Augustus’s tomb, and in Histories II.59–63 Vitellius later named his infant son Germanicus and gave him imperial insignia.