Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1101

DRUSUS. by .1 Livius Drusus. Hence he is supposed to have been adopted by Livius iJrusus Claudimius [No. 7], whose name, date, want of male children, and political associations with the party ojjposed to Caesar, favour the conjecture. He is also sup- posed to have been the father of the Libo Drusus, or Drusus Libo [No. 10], who conspired against Tiberius. As Pompey tiie Great would appear from Tacitus (Ann. ii. 27) to have been the pro- avus of the conspirator, Scribonia his aniita, and the young Caesars (Caius and Lucius) his conso- brini, Drusus Libo, the father, is supposed to have marrried a granddaughter of Pompey. Still there are difficulties in the pedigree, which have per- plexed Lipsius, Gronovius, Ryckius, and other learned commentators on the cited passage in Tacitus. M. de la Nauze thinks that the father was a younger brother of Scribonia, the wife of Augustus, and that he married his grandniece, the daughter of Sextus Pompeius. According to tliis explanation, he was about 26 years younger than his elder brother, L. Scribonius Libo, who was consul B. 0. 34, and whose daughter was married to Sextus Pompeius. (Dion Cass, xlviii. lO" ; Appian, B. C. v. 139.) There is extant a rare silver coin of M. Drusus Libo, bearing on the obverse a nfiked head, sup- posed by some to be the head of his natural, by others of his adoptive, father. On the reverse is a sella curulis, between cornucopiae and branches of olive, with the legend M. Livi L. F. Drusus Libo, headed by the words Ex. S.C. It may be doubted whether the letters L. F. do not denote that Lucius was the praenomen of the adoptive fiither. (Morell. Thes. Num. ii. p. 586 ; Dru- niimn's Rom. iv. p. 591, n. 63 ; De la Nauze, in Memoires de VAcademie des Inscriptions^ xxxv, p. 600.) 9. LiviA Drusilla. [Li via.] 10. L. Scribonius Libo Drusus, or, as he is called by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 130), Drusus Libo, is supposed to have been the son of No. K, to which article we refer for a statement of the difficulty experienced by commentators in attempt- ing to explain his family connexions. Finnius ( atus, a seiiator, in a. d. 16, taking advantage of • he facility and stupidity of his disposition, his taste for pleasure and expense, and his family pride, induced him to seek empire with its atten- dant wealth, and to consult soothsayers and magi- cians as to his chances of success. He was betrayed by Catus through Flaccus Vescularius to the em- peror Tiberius, who nevertheless made him praetor, and continued to receive him at table without any mark of suspicion or resentment. At length he was openly denounced by Fulcinius Trio, for having required one Junius to summon shades from the infernal regions. Hereupon he strove at first to excite compassion by a parade of grief, ill- ness, and supplication. As if he were too unwell to walk, he was carried in a wonuurs litter to the senate on the day appointed for opening the prose- cution, and stretched his suppliant hands to the emperor, who received him with an unmoved countenance, and, in stating the case to be proved against him, affected a desire neither to suppress nor to exaggerate aught. Finding that there was no hope of pardon, he put an end to his own life, though his aunt Scribonia had tried in vain to dis- suade him from thus doing another's work ; but he thought that to keep himself alive till it pleased DRUSU.S. 10»^ Tiberius to have him slain would rather be doing jinother's work. Even, after his death, the prosecu- tion was continued by the emperor. His property was forfeited to his nccus<'r8. His memory wjia dishonoured, and public rejoicings were voted upon his death. Cn. Lentulus proposed that thenceforth no Scribonius should assume the cognomen Drusus. (Tac. Ann. ii. 27—32; Suet. TiL 25; Dion Cass, vii. 15; Senec. Epist. 70.) 11. Nero Claudius Dri;sus (commonly called by the modems Drusus Senior, to distinguish him from his nephew, the son of Tiberius), had origi- nally the pmenomen Decimus, which was after- wards exchanged for Nero ; and, after his death, received the honounible agnomen Germanicus, which is appended to his name on coins. Hence care should be taken not to confound him with the celebrated Germanicus, his son. His parents were Livia Drusilla (afterwards Julia Augusta) and Tiberius Claudius Nero, and through both of them he inherited the noble blood of the Claudii, who had never yet admitted an adoption into their gens. From the adoption of his maternal grand- father [No. 7] by a Livius Drusus, he becimie legally one of the representiitives of another illus- trious race. He was a younger brother of Tiberius Nero, who was afterwards emperor. Augustus, having fallen in love with his mother, procured <i divorce between her and her husband, and married her himself. Drusus was bom in the house of Augustus three months after this marriage, in B.c. 38, and a suspicion prevailed that Augustus was more than a step-father. Hence the satirical versu was often in men's mouths. Tots evTvxovai kcu rpifi-qva iraiSia. Augiistus took up the boy, and sent him to Nero his father, who soon after died, having appointed Augustus guardian to Tiberius and Drusus. (Dion Cass, xlviii. 44; Veil. Pat. ii. 62 ; Suet. Aug. 62, Claud. 1 ; Prudentius, de Simulacro Liviae.) Drusus, as he grew up, was more liked by the people than was his brother. He was free from dark reserve, and in him the character of the Claudian race assumed its most attractive, as in Tiberius its most odious, type. In everything he did, there was an air of high breeding, and the no- ble courtesy of his manners was set off by singular beauty of person and dignity of form. He pos- sessed in a high degree the winning quality of al- ways exhibitingto wards his friends an even and con- sistent demeanour, without capricious alternations of familiarity and distance, and he seemed adapted by nature to sustain the character of a prince and statesman. (Tac. Ann. vi. 51 ; Veil. Pat. iv. J»7.) It was known that he had a desire to see the com- monwealth restored, and the people cherished the hope that he would live to give them back their ancient liberties. (Suet Claml. 1 ; Tac. Ann. i. 33.) He wrote a letter to his brother, in which he broached the notion of compelling Augustus to re- sign the empire; and this letter was betrayed by Tiberius to Augustus (Suet. Tib. 60.) But notwith- standing this indication that the affection of Tibe- rius was either a hollow pretence, or yielded to his sense of duty to Augustus, the brothers main- tained during their lives an appearance, at least, of fraternal tenderness, which, according to Vale- rius Maximus (v. 5. § 3), had only one parallel — the friendship of Castor and Pollux ! In the do- mestic relations of life, the conduct of Drusus was exemplary. He miu-ried the beautiful and illus-