Pictures From Roman Life and Story Author:Alfred John Church General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1892 Original Publisher: D. Appleton Subjects: Rome History / Ancient / Rome Juvenile Nonfiction / History / Ancient Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Book... more »s edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: VII. THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF GEBMAN1CUS. mACITUS says of one of the Emperors that all I men would have thought him equal to Empire, if he had never been Emperor. Perhaps it was well for the fame of Germanicus that his character was never subjected to the test of power. As it is, we know nothing but good of him. No prince of the Julian House, few of any royal race, have been more admired in life and more lamented in death. One cannot wonder that Tiberius, who, without being the monster that he appears in the pages of Tacitus and Suetonius, was certainly morose and suspicious, was jealous of the brilliant young man. Augustus is said to have hesitated long whether he should not bequeath to him the throne. He decided in favour of his stepson, Tiberius; nor can we believethat, while Livia was alive, any other choice would have been possible to him. But he made it a condition that Tiberius should adopt the prince whose claim was thus postponed to him. Thus Germanicus, from being a nephew, became a son, and a son whose brilliant qualities quite threw into the shade his adopting father's natural heir, the younger Drusus. Tiberius had not been many days on the throne when he found what a dangerous rival the young man might be, it he were not loyal; and loyalty is a virtue which such character as Tiberius find it hard to believe in. The legions which guarded the Rhine frontier of the empire revolted. Other legions were disturbed, but the German armies were the most determined, partly on account of...« less