No More Learning

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


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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. 17, 113;
prudent to retreat. In retiring, he was often in Aur. Vict. Epit. i. ; Orosius, iv. 21. ) The course
danger from the stratagems of the enemy, and that Drusus took on his way to the Elbe cannot
once was nearly shut up in a dangerous pass near be determined. Florus (iv. 12) speaks of his mak-
Arbalo, and narrowly escaped perishing with his ing roads through ( patefecit) the Hercynian forest,
But the careless bravery of the and Wilhelm (Fehlzüge, &c. p. 50) thinks that he
Germans saved him. His enemies had already by advanced through Thuringia. Drusus endeavoured
anticipation divided the spoil. The Cherusci chose in rain to cross the Elbe. (Dion Cass. iv. init. ;
the horses, the Suevi the gold and silver, and the Eutrop. iv. 12. ) A miraculous event occurred:
Sicambri the prisoners. Thinking that the Romans a woman of dimensions greater than human ap-
were as good as taken, after immolating twenty peared to him, and said to him, in the Latin
Roman centurions as a preparatory sacrifice, they tongue, “Whither goest thou, insatiable Drusns ?
rushed on without order, and were repulsed. It | The Fates forbid thee to advance. Away! The
was now they, and their horses, and sheep, and end of thy deeds and thy life is nigh. ” Dion
neck-chains (torques), that were sold by Drusus. Cassius cannot help believing the fact of the appa-
Henceforward they confined themselves to distant rition, seeing that the prophetic warning was so
attacks. (Dion Cass. liv. 20; Florus, iv. 12; Plin. soon fulfilled! Thus deterred by the guardian
H. N. xi. 18. ) Drusus had breathing time to build Genius of the land, Drusus hastened back to the
two castles, one at the confluence of the Luppia and Rhine, after erecting trophies on the banks of the
the Aliso, and the other near the country of the Elbe. Suetonius (Claud. 1) varies from Dion Cas-
Chatti on the Rhine. The latter is probably the sius in the particulars of this legend, and some of
modern Cassel over against Mayence. The former the moderns endeavour to explain it by referring
is thought by some who identify the Aliso with the denunciation to a German prophetess or Wala.
the Alm, to be the modern Elsen Neuhaus in On his retreat, wolres howled round the camp,
the district of Paderborn; by others, who iden- two strange youths appeared on horseback among
tify the Aliso with the Lise, to be Lisborn the intrenchments, the screams of women were
near Lippstadt in the district of Münster. Drusus heard, and the stars raced about in the sky. (Ped.
now returned to Rome with the reputation Albin. l. 405. ) Snch were the superstitious fears
of having conquered several tribes beyond the which oppressed the minds of the Romans, who
Rhine (Liv. Epit. cxxxviii.
), and received as his would rather flatter themselves that they were
reward a vote of the senate granting him an ova- submitting to supernatural forces than avoiding the
tion with the insignia of a triumph, and decreeing human might of dangerous enemies. Between the
that at the end of his praetorship he should have Elbe and the Sala (probably the Thuringian Sanl),
proconsular authority. But Augustus would not death overtook Drusus. According to the Epitomi-
allow him to bear the title of imperator, which had ser of Livy (cxl. ) (whose last books contained a full
been conferred upon him by the army in the field. account of these transactions), the horse of Drusus
In the next year, B. c. 10, Drusus was again at fell upon his leg, and Drusus died of the fracture
his post. The Chatti left the territory which had on the thirtieth day after the accident. Of the
whole army


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1086
DRUSUS.
DRUSUS.
numerous writers who mention the death of Dru- mentioned by those writers, it is often necessary
bus, no one besides alludes to the broken leg. to have recourse to uncertain conjecture.
Suetonius, whose history is a rich receptacle of The misery that Drusus must have occasioned
scandal, mentions the incredible report that Dru- among the German tribes was undoubtedly exces-
sus was poisoned by Augustus, after having dis- sive. Some antiquaries have imagined that the
obeyed an order of the emperor for his recall. It German imprecation “ Das dich der Drus hole"
is indeed probable enough that the emperor thought may be traced to the traditional dread of this ter-
he had advanced far enough, and that it would be rible conqueror. The country was widely devas-
unwise to exasperate into hostility the inoffensive tated, and immense multitudes were carried away
tribes beyond the Elbe. Tiberius, Augustus, and from their homes and transplanted to the Gallic
Livia were in Pavia (Ticinum) when the tidings bank of the Rhine. Such was the horror occa-
of the dangerous illness of Drusus reached them. sioned by the advance of the Romans, that the
Tiberius with extraordinary speed crossed the German women often dashed their babes against
Alps, performing a journey of 200 Roman miles the ground, and then flung thcir mangled bodies
through a difficult and dangerous country, without in the faces of the soldiers. (Oros. vi. 21. )
stopping day or night, and arrived in time to close Drusus himself possessed great animal courage.
the eyes of his brother. (Plin. II. N. xii. 20; In battle he endeavoured to engage in personal
Val. Max. v. 5; Ped. Albin. I. 89; Senec. Consol. combat with the chieftains of the enemy, in order
ad Polyb. 34. ) Drusus, though at the point of to earn the glory of the spolia opima. He had no
death, had yet presence of mind enough to com- contemptible foe to contend against, and though
mand, that Tiberius should be received with all he did not escape unscathed—though, as Varus
the distinction due to a consular and an imperator. soon had occasion to feel, the Germanic spirit was
The summer camp where Drusus died was called not quelled--he certainly accomplished an impor-
Scelerata, the Accursed. The corpse was carried tant work in subjugating the tribes between the
in a marching military procession to the winter- Rhine and the Weser, and erecting fortresses to
quarters of the army at Moguntiacum (Mayence) preserve his conquests. According to Florus, he
upon the Rhine, Tiberius walking all the way as erected upwards of fifty fortresses along the banks
chief mourner. The troops wished the funeral to of the Rhine, besides building two bridges across
be celebrated there, but Tiberius brought the body that river, and establishing garrisons and guards
to Italy. It was burnt in the field of Mars, and on the Meuse, the Weser, and the Elbe. He im-
the ashes deposited in the tomb of Augustus, who pressed the Germans not less by the opinion of his
composed the verses that were inscribed upon his intellect and character than by the terror of his
sepulchral monument, and wrote in prose a memo- arms. They who resisted had to dread his un-
rial of his life. In a funeral oration held by Au- flinching firmness and severity, but they who sub-
gustus in the Flaminian Circus, he exclaimed, “ I mitted might rely on his good faith. He did not,
pray the gods to make my adopted sons Caius and like his successor Varus, rouse and inflame opposi-
Lucius like Drusus, and to rouchsafe to me as tion by tyrannous insolence or wanton cruelty to
honourable a death as his. "
the conquered. Whether, educated as he was in
Among the honours paid to Drusus the cogno- scenes of bloodshed, he would have fulfilled the
men Germanicus was decreed to him and his pos- expectations of the people, had he lived to attain
terity. A marble arch with trophies was erected the empire, it is impossible to pronounce. He was
to his memory on the Appian Way, and the re- undoubtedly, in his kind, one of the great men of his
presentation of this arch may be seen upon ex- day. To require that a Roman general, in the heat
tant coins, as for example, in the coin annexed, of conquest, should shew mercy to people who, ac-
cording to Roman ideas, were ferocious and danger-
ous barbarians, or should pause to balance the cost
against the glory of success, would be to ask more
than could be expected of any ordinary mortal in
a similar position. It is not fair to view the cha-
racters of one age by the light of another; for he
who has lived, says Schiller, so as to satisfy the
best of his own time, has lived for all times.
which was struck by order of Augustus. He (Bayle, Dict. s. v. ; Ferd. Wachter, in Ersch und
had a cenotaph on the Rhine, an altar near the Gruber's Encyclopädie, s. r. ; Wilhelm, die Feld-
Lippe (Tac. Ann. ii. 7), and Eusebius (Chronicon | züge des Nero Claudius Drusus in dem Nördl.
ad A. D. 43) speaks of a Drusus, the nephew of the Deutschland, Halle, 1826. )
emperor Claudius, who had a monument at May- 12. TIBERIUS NERO CAESAR, the emperor
ence ; but here Drusus Senior seems to be meant, Tiberius. [TIBERIUS. ]
and there is probably a confusion between the son 13. GERMANICUS CAESAR. [GERMANICUS. ]
and the father of Germanicus. It is to the latter 14. Livia. (Livia ]
that the antiquaries of Mayence refer the Eichel- 15. Tı. CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR, the em-
stcin and the Drusiloch. Besides the coins of peror Claudius. [CLAUDIUS, p. 775, b. ]
Drusus, several ancient signet-rings with his effigy 16. DrusUS CAESAR, commonly called by modern
have been preserved (Lippert, Dactyliothek, i. No. writers Drusus Junior, to distinguish him from nis
610-12, ii. No. 241 and No. 255); and among uncle Drusus, the brother of Tiberius (No. 11),
the bronzes found at Herculaneum there is one
was the son of the emperor Tiberius by his first
which is supposed to contain a full-length likeness wife, Vipsania, who was the daughter of Agrippa
of Drusus.
by Pomponia, the daughter of Atticus. Thus, his
In the preceding narrative the dates have been great-grandfather was only a Roman knight, and
collected from Dion Cassius and the Epitomiser of his descent on the mother's side was by no means
Livy. In assigning the precise date of events not so splendid as that of his cousin Germanicus, who


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DRUSUS.
1087
DRUSUS.
was a grandson of the triumvir Antony and the art of war, and to make him popular with the
great-nephew of Augustus. He married Livia, soldiery, but to remove him from the dissipations
the sister of Germanicus, after the death of her of the city. It is not easy to determine the exact
first husband, Caius Caesar, the son of Augustus scene of his operations, but he succeeded in foment-
and Scribonia ; but his wife was neither so ing dissension among the Germanic tribes, and
popular nor só prolific as Agrippina, the wife destroyed the power of Maroboduus. For these
of Germanicus. However, she bore him three successes an ovation was decreed to him by the
children-two sons, who were twins, and a daugh- senate. In the year A. D. 21, he was consul a
ter. Of the twins, one died shortly after his second time, and the emperor was his colleague.
father, and the other, Tiberius, was murdered by In A. D. 22, he was promoted to the still higher
the emperor Caligula. The daughter, Julia, was dignity of the “ tribunicia potestas," a title devised
first married to Nero, son of Germanicus, and, by Augustus to avoid the obloquy attending the
after his death, she carried the noble blood of the name of king or dictator. By this title subsequent
Drusi into the equestrian family of the Rubellii, emperors counted the years of their reign upon
by uniting herself with C. Rubellius Blandus. their coins. It rendered the power of intercession
(Tac. Ann. vi. 27; Juv. Sat. viii. 40. ) As and the sacrosanct character of tribunus plebis
long as Germanicus lived, the court was divided compatible with patrician birth. To confer it upon
between the parties of Germanicus and Drusus, Drusus was clearly to point him out as the in-
and Tiberius artfully held the balance of favour tended successor to the empire. (Ann. ill. 56. )
even between them, taking care not to declare On one occasion Drusus, who regarded Sejanus
which should be his successor. Notwithstanding as a rival, gave way to the impetuosity of his tem-
Bo many circumstances which were likely to pro- per, and struck the favourite upon the face. The
duce alienation and jealousy, it is one of the best ambition of Sejanus had taught him to aspire to
traits in the character of Drusus, that he always the empire, and to plot against all who stood in his
preserved a cordial friendship for Germanicus, and, way. The desire of vengeance was now added to
upon his death, was kind to his children. (Tac. Ann. the stimulus of ambition. He turned to Livia, the
ii
. 43, iv. 4. ) When Piso, relying on the ordinary wife of Drusus, seduced her affections, persuaded
baseness of human nature, after the death of Ger- the adulteress to become the murderer of her hus-
manicus, endeavoured to secure the protection of band, and promised that he would marry her when
Drusus, Drusus replied to his overtures with a stu- Drusus was got rid of. Her physician Eudemus
died ambiguity, which appeared to be a lesson of was made an accomplice in the conspiracy, and a
the emperor's craft, for his own disposition was na- poison was administered to Drusus by the eunuch
turally frank and unguarded. (Ann. iii. 8. ) Though Lygdus, which terminated his life by a lingering
he had not the dissimulation of Tiberius, he was disease, that was supposed at the time to be the
nearly his equal in impurity and in cruelty. He consequence of intemperance. (Suet. Tib. 62. )
delighted in slaughter, and such was his ferocity, This occurred in A. D. 23, and was first brought to
that the sharpest sword-blades took from him the light eight years afterwards, upon the information
name of Drusine blades. (Dion Cass. Ivii. 13. ) He of Apicata, the wife of Sejanus, supported by the
was not only a drunkard himself, but he forced his confessions, elicited by torture, of Eudemus and
guests to drink to excess. Plutarch relates how a Lygdus. (Ann. iv. 3, 8, 11. )
physician was treated, who was detected in an The funeral of Drusus was celebrated with the
attempt to keep himself sober by taking bitter- greatest external honours, but the people were
almonds as an antidote to the effects of wine. pleased at heart to see the chance of succession
(Sympos. i. 6. ) Tiberius behaved harshly to his revert to the house of Germanicus. Tiberius bore
son, and often upbraided him, both in public and the death of his only son with a cool equanimity
private, for his debaucheries, mingling threats of which indicated a want of natural affection.
disinheritance with his upbraidings.
The annexed coin contains on the obverse the
In A. D. 10 he was quaestor. After the death head of Drusus, with Drvsvs CAESAR T1. Aug.
of Augustus, A. D. 14, (in whose praise he read a F. Divi Aug. N. , and on the reverse Pontif.
funeral oration before the rostra,) he was sent into TribvN. POTEST. ITER.
Pannonia to quell the mutiny of the legions. This
task he performed with address, and with the
vigour of innate nobility. He ordered the execu-
tion of the leaders, and the superstitious fears pro-
duced in the minds of the soldiers by an opportune
eclipse of the moon aided his efforts. (Tac. Ann. i.
24–30. ) After his return to Rome, he was made
consul in A. D. 15, and, at the gladiatorial games
which he gave in conjunction with Germanicus
(his brother by adoption), he made himself so
remarkable by his sanguinary taste for vulgar blood,
as even to offend the squeamishness of Roman 17. Nero. [NERO. )
spectators. (Ann. i. 76. ) He degraded the dignity 18. Drusus, a son of Germanicus and Agrippina.
of his office by his excesses, and by his fondness In A. D. 23, he assumed the toga virilis, and the
for players, whom he encouraged in their factious senate went through the form of allowing him to
riots, in opposition to his father's laws. In one of be a candidate for the quaestorship five years be-
his ordinary ebullitions of passion, he pummelled a fore the legal age.