)
is called by Velleius Paterculus (ii.
is called by Velleius Paterculus (ii.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - a
51.
) There is no such
resolved to meet his plots by counterplots. He inconsistency in the supposition that he was adopted
knew his danger, and, whenever he went into the by No. 7, who is spoken of by Suetonius as if he
city, kept a strong body-guard of attendants close to were an ancestor of Tiberius. (Augustinus, Fam.
his person. The accounts of his death vary in several Rom. (Livii) p. 77 ; Fabretti, Inscr. c. 6, No. 38. )
particulars. Appian says, that the consuls invited The father of Livia, after the death of Caesar,
a party of Etruscans and Umbrians into the city to espoused the cause of Brutus and Cassius, and,
waylay him under pretence of urging their claims after the battle of Philippi, being proscribed by
to citizenship; that he became afraid to appear the conquerors, he followed the example of others
abroad, and received his partizans in a dark pas- of his own party, and killed himself in his
sage in his house; and that, one evening at dusk, tent. (Dion Cass. xlviii
. 44 ; Vell. Paterc. ii. 71. )
when dismissing the crowds who attended, be it is likely that he is the Drusus who, in B. C. 43,
suddenly cried out that he was wounded, and fell encouraged Decimus Brutus in the vain hope that
to the ground with a leather-cutter's knife sticking the fourth legion and the legion of Mars, which
in his groin. The writer de Viris Ilustribus re- had fought under Caesar, would go over to the side
lates that, at a meeting on the Alban mount, the of his murderers. (Cic. ad Fam. xi. 19. 6 2. )
Latins conspired to kill Philippus; that Drusus, In other parts of the correspondence of Cicero,
though he warned Philippus to beware, was ac- the name Drusus occurs several times, and the
cused in the senate of plotting against the consul's person intended may be, as Manutius conjectured,
life; and that he was stabbed upon entering his identical with the father of Livia. In B. c. 59, it
house on his return from the Capitol. (Compare seems that a lucrative legation was intended for a
also Vell. Paterc. ii. 14. )
Drusus, who is called, perhaps in allusion to some
Assassinated as he was in his own ball, the discreditable occurrence, the Pisaurian. (Ad Att.
image of his father was sprinkled with his blood ; ii. 7. $ 3. ) A Drusus, in B. C. 54, was accused by
and, while he was dying, he turned to those who Lucretius of praevaricatio, or corrupt collusion in
surrounded him, and asked, with characteristic betraying a cause which he had undertaken to
arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious honesty prosecute. Cicero defended Drusus, and he was
of purpose,
Friends and neighbours, when will acquitted by a majority of four. The tribuni
the commonwealth have a citizen like me again ? " aerarii saved him, though the greater part of the
Though he was cut off in the flower of manhood, senators and equites were against him; for though
no one considered his death premature. It was by the lex Fufia each of the three orders of judices
even rumoured that, to escape from inextricable voted separately, it was the majority of single
embarrassments, he had died by his own hand. votes, not the majority of majorities, that decided
The assassin was never discovered, and no attempts the judgment. (Ad Att. iv. 16. $S 5, 8, ib. 15.
were made to discover him. Caepio and Philippus $ 9, ad Qu. Fr. ii. 16. $ 3. As to the mode of
(Ampelius, 26) were both suspected of having counting votes, see Ascon, in Cic. pro Mil. p. 53,
suborned the crime; and when Cicero (de Nat. ed. Orelli. ) In B. C. 50, M. Caelius Rufus, who
Deor. iii. 33) accuses Q. Varius of the murder, he was accused of an offence against the Scantinian
probably does not mean that it was the very hand law, thinks it ridiculous that Drusus, who was then
of Varius which perpetrated the act.
probably praetor, should be appointed to preside at
Cornelia, the mother of Drusus, a matron worthy the trial. Upon this ground it has been imagined
of her illustrious name, was present at the death that there was some stigma of impurity upon the
scene, and bore her calamity-a calamity the more character of Drusus. (Ad Fam. viii. 12. 3, 14.
bitter because unsweetened by vengeance--with 4. ) He possessed gardens, which Cicero was
the same high spirit, says Seneca (Cons. ad Marc. very anxious to purchase. (Ad Att. xii. 21. § 2,
16), with which her son had carried his laws. 22. ♡ 3, 23. $ 3, xiii. 26. $ 1. )
After the fall of Drusus, his political onents 8. M. Livius DRUSUS LIBO was probably
treated his death as a just retribution for his inju- aedile about B. c. 28, shortly before the completion
ries to the state. This sentiment breathes through of the Pantheon, and may be the person who is
a fragment of a speech of C. Carbo, the younger mentioned by Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. 15. s. 24) as
(delivered B. C. 90), which has been celebrated by baring given games at Rome when the theatre was
Cicero (Orator, 63) for the peculiarity of its tro- covered by Valerius, the architect of Ostium. He
chaic rythm : “ O Marce Druse (patrem appello), was consul in B. c. 15. As his name denotes, he
tu diccre solebas sacram esse rempublicam : quicum- was originally a Scribonius Libo, and was adopted
## p. 1083 (#1103) ##########################################
DRUSUS.
1083
DRUSUS.
His parents
hy a Livius Drusus. Hence he is supposed to Tiberius to have him slain would rather be doing
have been adopted by Livius Druous Claudianus another's work. Even, after his death, the prosecu-
(No. 7), whose name, date, want of male children, tion was continued by the emperor.
His
property
and political associations with the party opposed was forfeited to his accusers. His memory was
to Caesar, favour the conjecture. He is also sup dishonoured, and public rejoicings were voted upon
posed to have been the father of the Libo Drusus, his death. Cn. Lentulus proposed that thenceforth
or Drusus Libo (No. 10), who conspired against no Scribonius should assume the cognomen Drusus.
Tiberius. As Pompey the Great would appear (Tac. Ann. ii. 27—32; Suet. Tib. 25; Dion Cass.
from Tacitus (Ann. ii. 27) to have been the pro- vii. 15; Senec. Epist. 70. )
avus of the conspirator, Scribonia his amita, and 11. NERO CLAUDIUS Drusus (commonly called
the young Caesars (Caius and Lucius) bis conso- by the moderns Drusus Senior, to distinguish him
brini, Drusus Libo, the father, is supposed to have from his nephew, the son of Tiberius), had origi-
marrried a granddaughter of Pompey. Still there nally the praenomen Decimus, which was after-
are difficulties in the pedigree, which have per-wards exchanged for Nero ; and, after his death,
plexed Lipsius, Gronovius, Ryckius, and other received the honourable agnomen Germanicus,
learned commentators on the cited passage in which is appended to his name on coins. Hence
Tacitus. M. de la Nauze thinks that the father care should be taken not to confound him with
was a younger brother of Scribonia, the wife of the celebrated Germanicus, his son.
Augustus, and that he married his grandniece, the were Livia Drusilla (afterwards Julia Augusta)
daughter of Sextus Pompeius. According to this and Tiberius Claudius Nero, and through both of
explanation, he was about 26 years younger than them he inherited the noble blood of the Claudii,
his elder brother, L. Scribonius Libo, who was who had never yet admitted an adoption into their
consul B. C. 34, and whose daughter was married gens. From the adoption of his maternal grand-
to Sextus Pompeius. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 16 ; father (No. 7] by a Livius Drusus, he became
Appian, B. C. v. 139. )
legally one of the representatives of another illus-
There is extant a rare silver coin of M. Drusus trious race. He was a younger brother of Tiberius
Libo, bearing on the obverse a naked head, sup- Nero, who was afterwards emperor. Augustus,
posed by some to be the head of his natural, by having fallen in love with his mother, procured a
others of his adoptive, father. On the reverse is a divorce between her and her husband, and married
sella curulis, between cornucopiae and branches of her himself. Drusus was born in the house of
olive, with the legend M. Livi L. F. DRUSUS Augustus three months after this marriage, in B. C.
Livo, headed by the words Ex. S. C. It may be 38, and a suspicion prevailed that Augustus was
doubted whether the letters L. F. do not denote more than a step-father. Hence the satirical verse
that Lucius was the praenomen of the adoptive was often in men's mouths,
father. (Morell. Thes. Num. ii. p. 586 ; Dru- Τους ευτυχούσι και τρίμηνα παιδία.
mann's Rom. iv. p. 591, n. 63; De la Nauze, in Augustus took up the boy, and sent him to Nero
Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xxxv. his father, who soon after died, having appointed
p. 600. )
Augustus guardian to Tiberius and Drusus. (Dion
9. Livia DRUSILLA. (Livia. ]
Cass. xlviii. 44; Vell. Pat. ji. 62; Suet. Aug. 62,
10. L. SCRIBONIUS LIBO DRUSUS, or, as he Claud. 1; Prudentius, de Simulacro Liriae.
)
is called by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 130), DRUSUS Drusus, as he grew up, was more liked by the
Lixo, is supposed to have been the son of No. 8, people than was his brother. He was free from
to which article we refer for a statement of the dark reserve, and in him the character of the
difficulty experienced by commentators in attempt Claudian race assumed its most attractive, as in
ing to explain his family connexions. Firmius Tiberius its most odious, type. In everything he
Catus, a senator, in A. D. 16, taking advantage of did, there was an air of high breeding, and the no-
the facility and stupidity of his disposition, his ble courtesy of his manners was set off by singular
taste for pleasure and expense, and his family beauty of person and dignity of form. He pos-
pride, induced him to seek empire with its atten- sessed in a high degree the winning quality of al-
dant wealth, and to consult soothsayers and magi- ways exhibiting towards his friends an even and con-
cians as to his chances of success. He was betrayed sistent demeanour, without capricious alternations
by Catus through Flaccus Vescularius to the em- of familiarity and distance, and he seemed adapted
peror Tiberius, who nevertheless made him praetor, by nature to sustain the character of a prince and
and continued to receive him at table without any statesman. (Tac. Ann. vi. 51 ; Vell. Pat. iv. 97. )
mark of suspicion or resentment. At length he It was known that he had a desire to see the com-
was openly denounced by Fulcinius Trio, for monwealth restored, and the people cherished the
having required one Junius to summon shades hope that he would live to give them back their
from the infernal regions. Hereupon he strove at ancient liberties. (Suet. Claud. l; Tac. Ann. i. 33. )
first to excite compassion by a parade of grief, ill. He wrote a letter to his brother, in which he
ness, and supplication. As if he were too unwell broached the notion of compelling Augustus to re-
to walk, he was carried in a woman's litter to the sign the empire; and this letter was betrayed by
senate on the day appointed for opening the prose- | Tiberius to Augustus (Suet. Tib. 50. ) But notwith-
cution, and stretched his suppliant hands to the standing this indication that the affection of Tibe-
emperor, who received him with an unmoved rius was either a hollow pretence, or yielded to
countenar. ce, and, in stating the case to be proved his sense of duty to Augustus, the brothers main-
against him, affected a desire neither to suppress tained during their lives an appearance, at least,
nor to exaggerate aught. Finding that there was of fraternal tenderness, which, according to Vale-
no hope of pardon, he put an end to his own life, rius Maximus (v. 5. § 3), had only one parallel
though his aunt Scribonia had tried in rain to dis- the friendship of Castor and Pollux! In the do-
suade him from thus doing another's work; but he mestic relations of life, the conduct of Drusus was
thought that to keep himself alive till it pleased I exemplary. He married the beautiful and illus-
## p. 1084 (#1104) ##########################################
1084
DRUSUS.
DRUSUS.
ture.
trious Antonia, a daughter-and, according to the dued the Frisians, laid upon them a moderate tri-
preponderance of authority (ANTONIA, No. 5), the bute of beeves-hides, and passed by shallows into the
younger daughter-of M. Antonius the triumvir by territory of the Chauci, where his vessels grounded
Octavia, the sister of Augustus. Their mutual upon the ebbing of the tide. From this danger he
attachment was unusually great, and the unsullied was rescued by the friendly assistance of the Fri-
fidelity of Drusus to the marriage-bed became a sians. Winter now approached. He returned to
theme of popular admiration and applause in a Rome, and in B. c. 11 was made praetor urbanus.
profligate age. It is finely referred to by Pedo Drusus was the first Roman general who pene-
Albinovanus in his beautiful poem upon the death trated to the German ocean. It is probable that
of Drusus :
he united the military design of reconnoitering the
Tu concessus amor, tu solus et ultimus illi, coast with the spirit of adventure and scientific
Tu requies fesso grata laboris eras.
discovery. (Tac. Germ. 34. ) From the migratory
He must have been young when he married ; for, character of the tribes he subdued, it is not easy
though he died at the age of thirty, he had several to fix their locality with precision ; and the diffi-
children who died before him, besides the three, culty of geographical exactness is increased by the
Germanicus, Livia, and Claudius, who survived alterations which time and the elements have made
their father.
in the face of the country. Mannert and others
He began public life early. In B. c. 19, he ob identify the Dollart with the place where the fleet
tained permission, by a decree of the senate, to fill of Drusus went ashore ; but the Dollart first as-
all magistracies five years before the regular time. sumed its present form in a. d. 1277; and Wilhelin
(Dion Cass. liv. 10. ) In the beginning of B. c. (Feldzüge der Nero Cluulius Drusus im Nördlichen
16, we find him presiding with his brother at a Teutschland) makes the Jahde, westward of the
gladiatorial show; and when Augustus, upon his mouth of the Weser, the scene of this misadven-
departure for Gaul, took Tiberius, who was then It is by no means certain by what course
praetor, along with him, Drusus was left in the city Drusus reached the ocean, although it is the gene
to discharge, in his brother's place, the important ral opinion that he had already constructed a canal
duties of that office. (Dion Cass. liv. 19. ) In uniting the eastern arm of the Rhine with the
the following year he was made quaestor, and sent Yssel, and so had opened himself a way by the
against the Rhaetians, who were accused of having Zuydersee. This opinion is confirmed by a pas-
committed depredations upon Roman travellers and sage in Tacitus (Ann. ii. 8), where Germanicus,
allies of the Romans. The mountainous parts of upon entering the Fossa Drusiana, prays for the
the country were inhabited by banditti, who levied protection of his father, who had gone the same
contributions from the peaceful cultivators of the way before him, and then sails by the Zuydersee
plains, and plundered all who did not purchase (Lacus Flevus) to the ocean, up to the mouth of
freedom from attack by special agreement. Every the Ems (Amisia). To this expedition of Drusus
chance male who fell into their hands was mur- may perhaps be referred the naval battle in the
dered. Drusus attacked and routed them near the Ems mentioned by Strabo (vii. init. ), in which the
Tridentine Alps, as they were about to make a Bructeri were defeated, and the subjugation of
foray into Italy. His victory was not decisive, the islands on the coast, especially Byrchamis
but he obtained praetorian honours as liis reward. (Borkum). (Strab. vii. 34; Plin. H. N. iv. 13. )
The Rhaetians, after being repulsed from Italy, Ferdinand Wachter (Ersch und Gruber's Ency-
continued to infest the frontier of Gaul. Tiberius clopädie, s. v. Drusus) thinks, that the canal
was then despatched to join Drusus, and the bro of Drusus must have been too great a work to
thers jointly defeated some of the tribes of the be completed at so early a period, and that Dru-
Rhaeti and Vindelici, while others submitted with- sus could not have had time to run up the Ems.
out resistance. A tribute was imposed upon the He supposes, that Drusus sailed to the ocean
country. The greater part of the population was by one of the natural channels of the river, and
carried off, while enough were left to till the soil that the inconvenience he experienced and the
without being able to rebel. (Dion Cass. liv. 22 ; geographical knowledge he gained led him to avail
Strab. iv. fin. ; Florus, iv. 12. ) These exploits of himself of the capabilities afforded by the Lacus
the young step-bons of Augustus are the theme of Flerus for a safer junction with the ocean ; that
a spirited ode of Horace. (Carin. iv. 4, ib. 14. ) his works on the Rhine were probably begun in
On the return of Augustus to Rome from Gaul, this campaign, and were not finished until some
in B. C. 13, Drusus was sent into that province, years afterwards. The precise nature of those
which had been driven into revolt by the exaction works cannot now be determined. They appear
of the Roman governor, Licinius, who, in order to to have consisted not only of a canal (fossa), but
increase the amount of the monthly tribute, had of a dyke or mound (agger, moles) across the Khine.
divided the year into fourteen months. Drusus Suetonius seems to use even the word fossue in
made a new assessment of property for the purpose the sense of a mound, not a canal. “ Trans Tiberim
of taxation, and in B. c. 12 quelled the tumults fossas novi et immensi operis effecit, quae nunc
which had been occasioned by his financial mea- adhuc Drusinae vocantur. " (Claud. i. ) Tacitus
sures. (Liv. Epit. cxxxvi. cxxxvii. ) The Sicambri (Ann. xiii. 53) says, that Paullinus Pompeius, in
and their allies, under pretence of attending an A. D. 58, completed the agger coercendo Rheno
annual festival held at Lyons at the altar of Au- which had been begun by Drusus sixty-three years
gustus, had fomented the disaffection of the Gallic before ; and afterwards relates that Civilis, bř de-
chieftains. In the tumults which ensued, their stroying the moles formed by Drusus, allowed the
troops had crossed the Rhine. Drusus now drove waters of the Rhine to rush down and inundate the
them back into the Batavian island, and pursued side of Gaul. (Hist. v. 19. ) The most probable opi-
them in their own territory, laying waste the nion seems to be, that Drusus dug a canal from the
greater part of their country. He then followed | Rhine near Arnheim to the Yssel, near Doesberg
the course of the Rhine, sailed to the ocean, sub- l(which bears a trace of his name), and that he also
## p. 1085 (#1105) ##########################################
DRUSUS.
1085
DRUSUS.
ocean.
widened the bed of the narrow outlet which at | been assigned to them by the Romans. After
that time connected the Lacus Flevus with the having long refused to become allies of the Sicam-
These were his fossae. With regard to bri, they now consented to join that powerful peo-
his agger or moles, it is supposed that he partly ple; but their united forces were not a match for
dammed up the south-western arm of the Rhine Drusus. Some of the Chatti he subdued ; others
(the Vahalis or Waal), in order to allow more he could do no more than harass and annoy. He
water to flow into the north-eastern arm, upon attacked the Nervii, who were headed by Senectius
which his canal was situated. But this hypothesis and Anectius (Liv. Epit. cxxxix); and it was pro-
as to the situation of the dyke is very doubtful. hably in this campaign that he built a castle upon
Some modern authors hold that the Yssel ran into the Taunus. (Tac. Ann. i. 56. ) He then returned
the Rhine, and did not run into the Zuydersee, to Rome with Augustus and Tiberius, who had
and that the chief work of Drusus consisted in been in Lugdunensian Gaul, watching the result of
connecting the Yssel with a river that ran from the war in Germany, and upon his arrival he was
Zutphen into the Zuydersee.
clected to the consulship, which was to commence
He did not tarry long at Rome. On the com- on the Kalends of January, K. c. 9. Drusus could
mencement of spring he returned to Germany, not rest in peace at Rome. To worry and subju-
subdued the Usipetes, built a bridge over the gate the Germans appeared to be the main object
Lippe, invaded the country of the Sicambri, and of his life. Without waiting for the actual com-
passed on through the territory of the Cherusci as mencement of his consulship (Pedo Albin. I. 139)
far as the Visurgis (Weser). This he was able to he returned to the scene of battle, undeterred by
effect from meeting with no opposition from the evil forebodings, of which there was no lack.
Sicambri, who were engaged with all their forces There had been horrible storms and inundations in
in fighting against the Chatti. He would have the winter months, and the lightning had struck
gone on to cross the Weser had he not been deterred three temples at Rome. (Ib. 1. 401; Dion Cass.
(such were the ostensible reasons) by scarcity of lv. ) He attacked the Chatti, won a hard-fought
provisions, the approach of winter, and the evil battle, penetrated to the country of the Suevi,
omen of a swarm of bees which settled upon the gave the Marcomanni (who were a portion of the
lances in front of the tent of the praefectus castro Suevi) a signal defeat, and with the arms taken as
rum. (Jul. Obsequens, i. 132. ) Ptolemy (ii. 11) spoil erected a mound as a trophy. It was now
mentions the tporala Apoúrou, which, to judge perhaps that he gave the Sueri Vannius as their
from the longitude and latitude he assigns to king. (Tac. Ann. xii. 29. ) He then turned his
them (viz. long. 33º. 45'. lat. 52º. 45'. ), were forces against the Cherusci, crossed the Weser (? ),
probably erected on the spot where the army and carried all before him to the Elbe. (Messalla
reached the Weser. No doubt Drusus found it Corvin. de Aug. Prog. 39; Ped. Albin. l.
resolved to meet his plots by counterplots. He inconsistency in the supposition that he was adopted
knew his danger, and, whenever he went into the by No. 7, who is spoken of by Suetonius as if he
city, kept a strong body-guard of attendants close to were an ancestor of Tiberius. (Augustinus, Fam.
his person. The accounts of his death vary in several Rom. (Livii) p. 77 ; Fabretti, Inscr. c. 6, No. 38. )
particulars. Appian says, that the consuls invited The father of Livia, after the death of Caesar,
a party of Etruscans and Umbrians into the city to espoused the cause of Brutus and Cassius, and,
waylay him under pretence of urging their claims after the battle of Philippi, being proscribed by
to citizenship; that he became afraid to appear the conquerors, he followed the example of others
abroad, and received his partizans in a dark pas- of his own party, and killed himself in his
sage in his house; and that, one evening at dusk, tent. (Dion Cass. xlviii
. 44 ; Vell. Paterc. ii. 71. )
when dismissing the crowds who attended, be it is likely that he is the Drusus who, in B. C. 43,
suddenly cried out that he was wounded, and fell encouraged Decimus Brutus in the vain hope that
to the ground with a leather-cutter's knife sticking the fourth legion and the legion of Mars, which
in his groin. The writer de Viris Ilustribus re- had fought under Caesar, would go over to the side
lates that, at a meeting on the Alban mount, the of his murderers. (Cic. ad Fam. xi. 19. 6 2. )
Latins conspired to kill Philippus; that Drusus, In other parts of the correspondence of Cicero,
though he warned Philippus to beware, was ac- the name Drusus occurs several times, and the
cused in the senate of plotting against the consul's person intended may be, as Manutius conjectured,
life; and that he was stabbed upon entering his identical with the father of Livia. In B. c. 59, it
house on his return from the Capitol. (Compare seems that a lucrative legation was intended for a
also Vell. Paterc. ii. 14. )
Drusus, who is called, perhaps in allusion to some
Assassinated as he was in his own ball, the discreditable occurrence, the Pisaurian. (Ad Att.
image of his father was sprinkled with his blood ; ii. 7. $ 3. ) A Drusus, in B. C. 54, was accused by
and, while he was dying, he turned to those who Lucretius of praevaricatio, or corrupt collusion in
surrounded him, and asked, with characteristic betraying a cause which he had undertaken to
arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious honesty prosecute. Cicero defended Drusus, and he was
of purpose,
Friends and neighbours, when will acquitted by a majority of four. The tribuni
the commonwealth have a citizen like me again ? " aerarii saved him, though the greater part of the
Though he was cut off in the flower of manhood, senators and equites were against him; for though
no one considered his death premature. It was by the lex Fufia each of the three orders of judices
even rumoured that, to escape from inextricable voted separately, it was the majority of single
embarrassments, he had died by his own hand. votes, not the majority of majorities, that decided
The assassin was never discovered, and no attempts the judgment. (Ad Att. iv. 16. $S 5, 8, ib. 15.
were made to discover him. Caepio and Philippus $ 9, ad Qu. Fr. ii. 16. $ 3. As to the mode of
(Ampelius, 26) were both suspected of having counting votes, see Ascon, in Cic. pro Mil. p. 53,
suborned the crime; and when Cicero (de Nat. ed. Orelli. ) In B. C. 50, M. Caelius Rufus, who
Deor. iii. 33) accuses Q. Varius of the murder, he was accused of an offence against the Scantinian
probably does not mean that it was the very hand law, thinks it ridiculous that Drusus, who was then
of Varius which perpetrated the act.
probably praetor, should be appointed to preside at
Cornelia, the mother of Drusus, a matron worthy the trial. Upon this ground it has been imagined
of her illustrious name, was present at the death that there was some stigma of impurity upon the
scene, and bore her calamity-a calamity the more character of Drusus. (Ad Fam. viii. 12. 3, 14.
bitter because unsweetened by vengeance--with 4. ) He possessed gardens, which Cicero was
the same high spirit, says Seneca (Cons. ad Marc. very anxious to purchase. (Ad Att. xii. 21. § 2,
16), with which her son had carried his laws. 22. ♡ 3, 23. $ 3, xiii. 26. $ 1. )
After the fall of Drusus, his political onents 8. M. Livius DRUSUS LIBO was probably
treated his death as a just retribution for his inju- aedile about B. c. 28, shortly before the completion
ries to the state. This sentiment breathes through of the Pantheon, and may be the person who is
a fragment of a speech of C. Carbo, the younger mentioned by Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. 15. s. 24) as
(delivered B. C. 90), which has been celebrated by baring given games at Rome when the theatre was
Cicero (Orator, 63) for the peculiarity of its tro- covered by Valerius, the architect of Ostium. He
chaic rythm : “ O Marce Druse (patrem appello), was consul in B. c. 15. As his name denotes, he
tu diccre solebas sacram esse rempublicam : quicum- was originally a Scribonius Libo, and was adopted
## p. 1083 (#1103) ##########################################
DRUSUS.
1083
DRUSUS.
His parents
hy a Livius Drusus. Hence he is supposed to Tiberius to have him slain would rather be doing
have been adopted by Livius Druous Claudianus another's work. Even, after his death, the prosecu-
(No. 7), whose name, date, want of male children, tion was continued by the emperor.
His
property
and political associations with the party opposed was forfeited to his accusers. His memory was
to Caesar, favour the conjecture. He is also sup dishonoured, and public rejoicings were voted upon
posed to have been the father of the Libo Drusus, his death. Cn. Lentulus proposed that thenceforth
or Drusus Libo (No. 10), who conspired against no Scribonius should assume the cognomen Drusus.
Tiberius. As Pompey the Great would appear (Tac. Ann. ii. 27—32; Suet. Tib. 25; Dion Cass.
from Tacitus (Ann. ii. 27) to have been the pro- vii. 15; Senec. Epist. 70. )
avus of the conspirator, Scribonia his amita, and 11. NERO CLAUDIUS Drusus (commonly called
the young Caesars (Caius and Lucius) bis conso- by the moderns Drusus Senior, to distinguish him
brini, Drusus Libo, the father, is supposed to have from his nephew, the son of Tiberius), had origi-
marrried a granddaughter of Pompey. Still there nally the praenomen Decimus, which was after-
are difficulties in the pedigree, which have per-wards exchanged for Nero ; and, after his death,
plexed Lipsius, Gronovius, Ryckius, and other received the honourable agnomen Germanicus,
learned commentators on the cited passage in which is appended to his name on coins. Hence
Tacitus. M. de la Nauze thinks that the father care should be taken not to confound him with
was a younger brother of Scribonia, the wife of the celebrated Germanicus, his son.
Augustus, and that he married his grandniece, the were Livia Drusilla (afterwards Julia Augusta)
daughter of Sextus Pompeius. According to this and Tiberius Claudius Nero, and through both of
explanation, he was about 26 years younger than them he inherited the noble blood of the Claudii,
his elder brother, L. Scribonius Libo, who was who had never yet admitted an adoption into their
consul B. C. 34, and whose daughter was married gens. From the adoption of his maternal grand-
to Sextus Pompeius. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 16 ; father (No. 7] by a Livius Drusus, he became
Appian, B. C. v. 139. )
legally one of the representatives of another illus-
There is extant a rare silver coin of M. Drusus trious race. He was a younger brother of Tiberius
Libo, bearing on the obverse a naked head, sup- Nero, who was afterwards emperor. Augustus,
posed by some to be the head of his natural, by having fallen in love with his mother, procured a
others of his adoptive, father. On the reverse is a divorce between her and her husband, and married
sella curulis, between cornucopiae and branches of her himself. Drusus was born in the house of
olive, with the legend M. Livi L. F. DRUSUS Augustus three months after this marriage, in B. C.
Livo, headed by the words Ex. S. C. It may be 38, and a suspicion prevailed that Augustus was
doubted whether the letters L. F. do not denote more than a step-father. Hence the satirical verse
that Lucius was the praenomen of the adoptive was often in men's mouths,
father. (Morell. Thes. Num. ii. p. 586 ; Dru- Τους ευτυχούσι και τρίμηνα παιδία.
mann's Rom. iv. p. 591, n. 63; De la Nauze, in Augustus took up the boy, and sent him to Nero
Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xxxv. his father, who soon after died, having appointed
p. 600. )
Augustus guardian to Tiberius and Drusus. (Dion
9. Livia DRUSILLA. (Livia. ]
Cass. xlviii. 44; Vell. Pat. ji. 62; Suet. Aug. 62,
10. L. SCRIBONIUS LIBO DRUSUS, or, as he Claud. 1; Prudentius, de Simulacro Liriae.
)
is called by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 130), DRUSUS Drusus, as he grew up, was more liked by the
Lixo, is supposed to have been the son of No. 8, people than was his brother. He was free from
to which article we refer for a statement of the dark reserve, and in him the character of the
difficulty experienced by commentators in attempt Claudian race assumed its most attractive, as in
ing to explain his family connexions. Firmius Tiberius its most odious, type. In everything he
Catus, a senator, in A. D. 16, taking advantage of did, there was an air of high breeding, and the no-
the facility and stupidity of his disposition, his ble courtesy of his manners was set off by singular
taste for pleasure and expense, and his family beauty of person and dignity of form. He pos-
pride, induced him to seek empire with its atten- sessed in a high degree the winning quality of al-
dant wealth, and to consult soothsayers and magi- ways exhibiting towards his friends an even and con-
cians as to his chances of success. He was betrayed sistent demeanour, without capricious alternations
by Catus through Flaccus Vescularius to the em- of familiarity and distance, and he seemed adapted
peror Tiberius, who nevertheless made him praetor, by nature to sustain the character of a prince and
and continued to receive him at table without any statesman. (Tac. Ann. vi. 51 ; Vell. Pat. iv. 97. )
mark of suspicion or resentment. At length he It was known that he had a desire to see the com-
was openly denounced by Fulcinius Trio, for monwealth restored, and the people cherished the
having required one Junius to summon shades hope that he would live to give them back their
from the infernal regions. Hereupon he strove at ancient liberties. (Suet. Claud. l; Tac. Ann. i. 33. )
first to excite compassion by a parade of grief, ill. He wrote a letter to his brother, in which he
ness, and supplication. As if he were too unwell broached the notion of compelling Augustus to re-
to walk, he was carried in a woman's litter to the sign the empire; and this letter was betrayed by
senate on the day appointed for opening the prose- | Tiberius to Augustus (Suet. Tib. 50. ) But notwith-
cution, and stretched his suppliant hands to the standing this indication that the affection of Tibe-
emperor, who received him with an unmoved rius was either a hollow pretence, or yielded to
countenar. ce, and, in stating the case to be proved his sense of duty to Augustus, the brothers main-
against him, affected a desire neither to suppress tained during their lives an appearance, at least,
nor to exaggerate aught. Finding that there was of fraternal tenderness, which, according to Vale-
no hope of pardon, he put an end to his own life, rius Maximus (v. 5. § 3), had only one parallel
though his aunt Scribonia had tried in rain to dis- the friendship of Castor and Pollux! In the do-
suade him from thus doing another's work; but he mestic relations of life, the conduct of Drusus was
thought that to keep himself alive till it pleased I exemplary. He married the beautiful and illus-
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1084
DRUSUS.
DRUSUS.
ture.
trious Antonia, a daughter-and, according to the dued the Frisians, laid upon them a moderate tri-
preponderance of authority (ANTONIA, No. 5), the bute of beeves-hides, and passed by shallows into the
younger daughter-of M. Antonius the triumvir by territory of the Chauci, where his vessels grounded
Octavia, the sister of Augustus. Their mutual upon the ebbing of the tide. From this danger he
attachment was unusually great, and the unsullied was rescued by the friendly assistance of the Fri-
fidelity of Drusus to the marriage-bed became a sians. Winter now approached. He returned to
theme of popular admiration and applause in a Rome, and in B. c. 11 was made praetor urbanus.
profligate age. It is finely referred to by Pedo Drusus was the first Roman general who pene-
Albinovanus in his beautiful poem upon the death trated to the German ocean. It is probable that
of Drusus :
he united the military design of reconnoitering the
Tu concessus amor, tu solus et ultimus illi, coast with the spirit of adventure and scientific
Tu requies fesso grata laboris eras.
discovery. (Tac. Germ. 34. ) From the migratory
He must have been young when he married ; for, character of the tribes he subdued, it is not easy
though he died at the age of thirty, he had several to fix their locality with precision ; and the diffi-
children who died before him, besides the three, culty of geographical exactness is increased by the
Germanicus, Livia, and Claudius, who survived alterations which time and the elements have made
their father.
in the face of the country. Mannert and others
He began public life early. In B. c. 19, he ob identify the Dollart with the place where the fleet
tained permission, by a decree of the senate, to fill of Drusus went ashore ; but the Dollart first as-
all magistracies five years before the regular time. sumed its present form in a. d. 1277; and Wilhelin
(Dion Cass. liv. 10. ) In the beginning of B. c. (Feldzüge der Nero Cluulius Drusus im Nördlichen
16, we find him presiding with his brother at a Teutschland) makes the Jahde, westward of the
gladiatorial show; and when Augustus, upon his mouth of the Weser, the scene of this misadven-
departure for Gaul, took Tiberius, who was then It is by no means certain by what course
praetor, along with him, Drusus was left in the city Drusus reached the ocean, although it is the gene
to discharge, in his brother's place, the important ral opinion that he had already constructed a canal
duties of that office. (Dion Cass. liv. 19. ) In uniting the eastern arm of the Rhine with the
the following year he was made quaestor, and sent Yssel, and so had opened himself a way by the
against the Rhaetians, who were accused of having Zuydersee. This opinion is confirmed by a pas-
committed depredations upon Roman travellers and sage in Tacitus (Ann. ii. 8), where Germanicus,
allies of the Romans. The mountainous parts of upon entering the Fossa Drusiana, prays for the
the country were inhabited by banditti, who levied protection of his father, who had gone the same
contributions from the peaceful cultivators of the way before him, and then sails by the Zuydersee
plains, and plundered all who did not purchase (Lacus Flevus) to the ocean, up to the mouth of
freedom from attack by special agreement. Every the Ems (Amisia). To this expedition of Drusus
chance male who fell into their hands was mur- may perhaps be referred the naval battle in the
dered. Drusus attacked and routed them near the Ems mentioned by Strabo (vii. init. ), in which the
Tridentine Alps, as they were about to make a Bructeri were defeated, and the subjugation of
foray into Italy. His victory was not decisive, the islands on the coast, especially Byrchamis
but he obtained praetorian honours as liis reward. (Borkum). (Strab. vii. 34; Plin. H. N. iv. 13. )
The Rhaetians, after being repulsed from Italy, Ferdinand Wachter (Ersch und Gruber's Ency-
continued to infest the frontier of Gaul. Tiberius clopädie, s. v. Drusus) thinks, that the canal
was then despatched to join Drusus, and the bro of Drusus must have been too great a work to
thers jointly defeated some of the tribes of the be completed at so early a period, and that Dru-
Rhaeti and Vindelici, while others submitted with- sus could not have had time to run up the Ems.
out resistance. A tribute was imposed upon the He supposes, that Drusus sailed to the ocean
country. The greater part of the population was by one of the natural channels of the river, and
carried off, while enough were left to till the soil that the inconvenience he experienced and the
without being able to rebel. (Dion Cass. liv. 22 ; geographical knowledge he gained led him to avail
Strab. iv. fin. ; Florus, iv. 12. ) These exploits of himself of the capabilities afforded by the Lacus
the young step-bons of Augustus are the theme of Flerus for a safer junction with the ocean ; that
a spirited ode of Horace. (Carin. iv. 4, ib. 14. ) his works on the Rhine were probably begun in
On the return of Augustus to Rome from Gaul, this campaign, and were not finished until some
in B. C. 13, Drusus was sent into that province, years afterwards. The precise nature of those
which had been driven into revolt by the exaction works cannot now be determined. They appear
of the Roman governor, Licinius, who, in order to to have consisted not only of a canal (fossa), but
increase the amount of the monthly tribute, had of a dyke or mound (agger, moles) across the Khine.
divided the year into fourteen months. Drusus Suetonius seems to use even the word fossue in
made a new assessment of property for the purpose the sense of a mound, not a canal. “ Trans Tiberim
of taxation, and in B. c. 12 quelled the tumults fossas novi et immensi operis effecit, quae nunc
which had been occasioned by his financial mea- adhuc Drusinae vocantur. " (Claud. i. ) Tacitus
sures. (Liv. Epit. cxxxvi. cxxxvii. ) The Sicambri (Ann. xiii. 53) says, that Paullinus Pompeius, in
and their allies, under pretence of attending an A. D. 58, completed the agger coercendo Rheno
annual festival held at Lyons at the altar of Au- which had been begun by Drusus sixty-three years
gustus, had fomented the disaffection of the Gallic before ; and afterwards relates that Civilis, bř de-
chieftains. In the tumults which ensued, their stroying the moles formed by Drusus, allowed the
troops had crossed the Rhine. Drusus now drove waters of the Rhine to rush down and inundate the
them back into the Batavian island, and pursued side of Gaul. (Hist. v. 19. ) The most probable opi-
them in their own territory, laying waste the nion seems to be, that Drusus dug a canal from the
greater part of their country. He then followed | Rhine near Arnheim to the Yssel, near Doesberg
the course of the Rhine, sailed to the ocean, sub- l(which bears a trace of his name), and that he also
## p. 1085 (#1105) ##########################################
DRUSUS.
1085
DRUSUS.
ocean.
widened the bed of the narrow outlet which at | been assigned to them by the Romans. After
that time connected the Lacus Flevus with the having long refused to become allies of the Sicam-
These were his fossae. With regard to bri, they now consented to join that powerful peo-
his agger or moles, it is supposed that he partly ple; but their united forces were not a match for
dammed up the south-western arm of the Rhine Drusus. Some of the Chatti he subdued ; others
(the Vahalis or Waal), in order to allow more he could do no more than harass and annoy. He
water to flow into the north-eastern arm, upon attacked the Nervii, who were headed by Senectius
which his canal was situated. But this hypothesis and Anectius (Liv. Epit. cxxxix); and it was pro-
as to the situation of the dyke is very doubtful. hably in this campaign that he built a castle upon
Some modern authors hold that the Yssel ran into the Taunus. (Tac. Ann. i. 56. ) He then returned
the Rhine, and did not run into the Zuydersee, to Rome with Augustus and Tiberius, who had
and that the chief work of Drusus consisted in been in Lugdunensian Gaul, watching the result of
connecting the Yssel with a river that ran from the war in Germany, and upon his arrival he was
Zutphen into the Zuydersee.
clected to the consulship, which was to commence
He did not tarry long at Rome. On the com- on the Kalends of January, K. c. 9. Drusus could
mencement of spring he returned to Germany, not rest in peace at Rome. To worry and subju-
subdued the Usipetes, built a bridge over the gate the Germans appeared to be the main object
Lippe, invaded the country of the Sicambri, and of his life. Without waiting for the actual com-
passed on through the territory of the Cherusci as mencement of his consulship (Pedo Albin. I. 139)
far as the Visurgis (Weser). This he was able to he returned to the scene of battle, undeterred by
effect from meeting with no opposition from the evil forebodings, of which there was no lack.
Sicambri, who were engaged with all their forces There had been horrible storms and inundations in
in fighting against the Chatti. He would have the winter months, and the lightning had struck
gone on to cross the Weser had he not been deterred three temples at Rome. (Ib. 1. 401; Dion Cass.
(such were the ostensible reasons) by scarcity of lv. ) He attacked the Chatti, won a hard-fought
provisions, the approach of winter, and the evil battle, penetrated to the country of the Suevi,
omen of a swarm of bees which settled upon the gave the Marcomanni (who were a portion of the
lances in front of the tent of the praefectus castro Suevi) a signal defeat, and with the arms taken as
rum. (Jul. Obsequens, i. 132. ) Ptolemy (ii. 11) spoil erected a mound as a trophy. It was now
mentions the tporala Apoúrou, which, to judge perhaps that he gave the Sueri Vannius as their
from the longitude and latitude he assigns to king. (Tac. Ann. xii. 29. ) He then turned his
them (viz. long. 33º. 45'. lat. 52º. 45'. ), were forces against the Cherusci, crossed the Weser (? ),
probably erected on the spot where the army and carried all before him to the Elbe. (Messalla
reached the Weser. No doubt Drusus found it Corvin. de Aug. Prog. 39; Ped. Albin. l.
