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    Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars Vol. V
    Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars Vol. V
    Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars Vol. V
    Ebook68 pages2 hours

    Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars Vol. V

    By Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus

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    'The Twelve Caesars', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The work, written in AD 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, was the most popular work of Suetonius, at that time Hadrian's personal secretary, and is the largest among his surviving writings. 'The Twelve Caesars' is considered very significant in antiquity and remains a primary source on Roman history. Claudius was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy. Because he was afflicted with a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young age, his family ostracized him and excluded him from public office until his consulship, shared with his nephew Caligula. His infirmity probably saved him from the fate of many other nobles during the purges of Tiberius and Caligula's reigns; potential enemies did not see him as a serious threat. His survival led to his being declared Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last man of his family. He was seen as vulnerable throughout his reign, particularly by elements of the nobility.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateMay 29, 2015
    ISBN9781633849679
    Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars Vol. V

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      Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar - Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus

      Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar

      The Lives of the Twelve Caesars Vol. V

      By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

      The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.

      Revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.

      SMK Books

      Copyright © 2017

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      ISBN: 978-1-63384-967-9

      Table of Contents

      TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR.

      FOOTNOTES

      TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR.¹

      I. Livia, having married Augustus when she was pregnant, was within three months afterwards delivered of Drusus, the father of Claudius Caesar, who had at first the praenomen of Decimus, but afterwards that of Nero; and it was suspected that he was begotten in adultery by his father-in-law. The following verse, however, was immediately in every one’s mouth:

        Τοῖς ἐυτυχοῦσι κὰι τρίμηνα παιδία.

       

      Nine months for common births the fates decree;

      But, for the great, reduce the term to three.

      This Drusus, during the time of his being quaestor and praetor, commanded in the Rhaetian and German wars, and was the first of all the Roman generals who navigated the Northern Ocean². He made likewise some prodigious trenches beyond the Rhine³, which to this day are called by his name. He overthrew the enemy in several battles, and drove them far back into the depths of the desert. Nor did he desist from pursuing them, until an apparition, in the form of a barbarian woman, of more than human size, appeared to him, and, in the Latin tongue, forbad him to proceed any farther. For these achievements he had the honour of an ovation, and the triumphal ornaments. After his praetorship, he immediately entered on the office of consul, and returning again to Germany, died of disease, in the summer encampment, which thence obtained the name of The Unlucky Camp. His corpse was carried to Rome by the principal persons of the several municipalities and colonies upon the road, being met and received by the recorders of each place, and buried in the Campus Martius. In honour of his memory, the army erected a monument, round which the soldiers used, annually, upon a certain day, to march in solemn procession, and persons deputed from the several cities of Gaul performed religious rites. The senate likewise, among various other honours, decreed for him a triumphal arch of marble, with trophies, in the Appian Way, and gave the cognomen of Germanicus to him and his posterity. In him the civil and military virtues were equally displayed; for, besides his victories, he gained from the enemy the Spolia Opima⁴, and frequently marked out the German chiefs in the midst of their army, and encountered them in single combat, at the utmost hazard of his life. He likewise often declared that he would, some time or other, if possible, restore the ancient government. In this account, I suppose, some have ventured to affirm that Augustus was jealous of him, and recalled him; and because he made no haste to comply with the order, took him off by poison. This I mention, that I may not be guilty of any omission, more than because I think it either true or probable; since Augustus loved him so much when living, that he always, in his wills, made him joint-heir with his sons, as he once declared in the senate; and upon his decease, extolled him in a speech to the people, to that degree, that he prayed the gods to make his Caesars like him, and to grant himself as honourable an exit out of this world as they had given him. And not satisfied with inscribing upon his tomb an epitaph in verse composed by himself, he wrote likewise the history of his life in prose. He had by the younger Antonia several children, but left behind him only three, namely, Germanicus, Livilla, and Claudius.

      II. Claudius was born at Lyons, in the consulship of Julius Antonius, and Fabius Africanus, upon the first of August⁵, the very day upon which an altar was first dedicated there to Augustus. He was named Tiberius Claudius Drusus, but soon afterwards, upon the adoption of his elder brother into the Julian family, he assumed the cognomen of Germanicus. He was left an infant by his father, and during almost the whole of his minority, and for some time after he attained the age of manhood, was afflicted with a variety of obstinate disorders, insomuch that his mind and body being greatly impaired, he was, even after his arrival at years of maturity, never thought sufficiently qualified for any public or private employment. He was, therefore, during a long time, and even after the expiration of his minority, under the direction of a pedagogue, who, he complains in a certain memoir, was a barbarous wretch, and formerly superintendent of the mule-drivers, who was selected for his governor, on purpose to correct him severely on every trifling occasion. On account of this crazy constitution of body and mind, at the spectacle of gladiators, which he gave the people, jointly with his brother, in honour of his father’s memory, he presided, muffled up in a pallium—a new fashion. When he

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