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Are we then preposterously hastening to arrive at Rome with the
ashes of Germanicus, that you may there fall, unheard and undefended, a
victim to the wailings of Agrippina, a prey to the passionate populace
governed by the first impressions of rumour? Livia, it is true, is your
confederate; Tiberius is your friend; but both secretly: and indeed none
will more pompously bewail the violent fate of Germanicus, than such as
for it do most sincerely rejoice. "

Piso of himself prompt to violent pursuits, was with no great labour
persuaded into this opinion, and, in a letter transmitted to Tiberius,
accused Germanicus "of luxury and pride: that for himself, he had been
expulsed, to leave room for dangerous designs against the State, and now
resumed, with his former faith and loyalty, the care of the army. " In
the meantime he put Domitius on board a galley, and ordered him to avoid
appearing upon the coasts or amongst the isles, but, through the
main sea, to sail to Syria. The deserters, who from all quarters were
flocking to him in crowds, he formed into companies, and armed all the
retainers to the camp; then sailing over to the continent, intercepted
a regiment of recruits, upon their march into Syria; and wrote to the
small kings of Cilicia to assist him with present succours: nor was
the younger Piso slow in prosecuting all the measures of war, though to
adventure a war had been against his sentiments and advice.

As they coasted Lycia and Pamphilia, they encountered the ships which
carried Agrippina, with hostile spirit on each side, and each at first
prepared for combat; but as equal dread of one another possessed
both, proceeded not further than mutual contumelies. Vibius Marsus
particularly summoned Piso, as a criminal, to Rome, there to make his
defence: he answered with derision "that when the Praetor, who was to
sit upon poisonings, had assigned a day to the accusers and the accused,
he would attend. " Domitius, the while, landing at Laodicea, a city of
Syria, would have proceeded to the winter quarters of the sixth legion,
which he believed to be the most prone to engage in novel attempts, but
was prevented by Pacuvius, its commander. Sentius represented this by
letter to Piso, and warned him, "at his peril to infect the camp by
ministers of corruption; or to assail the province of war;" and drew
into a body such as he knew loved Germanicus, or such as were averse to
his foes: upon them he inculcated with much ardour, that Piso was with
open arms attacking the majesty of the Prince, and invading the Roman
State; and then marched at the head of a puissant body, equipped for
battle and resolute to engage.

Neither failed Piso, though his enterprises had thus far miscarried, to
apply the securest remedies to his present perplexities; and therefore
seized a castle of Cilicia strongly fortified, its name Celendris: for,
to the auxiliary Cilicians, sent him by the petty kings, he had joined
his body of deserters, as also the recruits lately intercepted, with all
his own and Plancina's slaves; and thus in number and bulk had of
the whole composed a legion. To them he thus harangued: "I who am the
lieutenant of Caesar, am yet violently excluded from the province which
to me Caesar has committed: not excluded by the legions (for by their
invitation I am arrived), but by Sentius, who thus disguises under
feigned crimes against me, his own animosity and personal hate: but with
confidence you may stand in battle, where the opposite army, upon the
sight of Piso, a commander lately by themselves styled their _Father_,
will certainly refuse to fight; they know too, that were right to decide
it, I am the stronger; and of no mean puissance in a trial at arms. "
He then arrayed his men without the fortifications, on a hill steep and
craggy, for all the rest was begirt by the sea: against them stood the
veterans regularly embattled, and supported with a body of reserve;
so that here appeared the force of men, there only the terror and
stubbornness of situation. On Piso's side was no spirit, nor hope,
nor even weapons save those of rustics, for instant necessity hastily
acquired. As soon as they came to blows, the issue was no longer
doubtful than while the Roman cohorts struggled up the steep: the
Cilicians then fled, and shut themselves up in the castle.

Piso having the while attempted in vain to storm the fleet, which rode
at a small distance, as soon as he returned, presented himself upon the
walls; where, by a succession of passionate complaints and entreaties,
now bemoaning in agonies the bitterness of his lot, then calling and
cajolling every particular soldier by his name, and by rewards tempting
all, he laboured to excite a sedition; and thus much had already
effected, that the Eagle-bearer of the sixth legion revolted to him with
his Eagle.
This alarmed Sentius, and instantly he commanded the cornets
and trumpets to sound, a mound to be raised, the ladders placed, and
the bravest men to mount, and others to pour from the engines volleys of
darts and stones, and flaming torches. The obstinacy of Piso was at
last vanquished; and he desired "that upon delivering his arms he might
remain in the castle till the Emperor's pleasure, to whom he would
commit the government of Syria, were known;" conditions which were not
accepted; nor was aught granted him save ships and a passport to Rome.

After the illness of Germanicus grew current there, and all its
circumstances, like rumours magnified by distance, were related
with many aggravations; sadness seized the people; they burned with
indignation, and even poured out in plaints the anguish of their souls.
"For this," they said, "he had been banished to the extremities of the
Empire, for this the province of Syria was committed to Piso, and these
the fruits of Livia's mysterious conferences with Plancina: truly had
our fathers spoken concerning his father Drusus; that the possessors of
rule beheld with an evil eye the popular spirit of their sons; nor for
aught else were they sacrificed, but for their equal treatment of
the Roman People, and studying to restore the popular state. " These
lamentations of the populace were, upon the tidings of his death, so
inflamed, that, without staying for an edict from the magistrates,
without a decree of Senate, they by general consent assumed a vacation;
the public courts were deserted, private houses shut up, prevalent
everywhere were the symptoms of woe, heavy groans, dismal silence; the
whole a scene of real sorrow, and nothing devised for form or show; and,
though they forbore not to bear the exterior marks and habiliments of
mourning; in their souls they mourned still deeper. Accidentally some
merchants from Syria, who had left Germanicus still alive, brought
more joyful news of his condition: these were instantly believed, and
instantly proclaimed: each, as fast as they met, informed others,
who forthwith conveyed their light information with improvements and
accumulated joy to more, and all flew with exultation through the city;
and, to pay their thanks and vows, burst open the temple doors: the
night too heightened their credulity, and affirmation was bolder in the
dark. Nor did Tiberius restrain the course of these fictions, but left
them to vanish with time: hence with more bitterness they afterwards
grieved for him, as if anew snatched from them.

Honours were invented and decreed to Germanicus, various as the
affections and genius of the particular Senators who proposed them:
"that his name should be sung in the Salian hymns; curule chairs placed
for him amongst the priests of Augustus, and over these chairs oaken
crowns hung; his statue in ivory precede in the Cercensian games; none
but one of the Julian race be, in the room of Germanicus, created flamen
or augur:" triumphal arches were added; one at Rome; one upon the banks
of the Rhine; one upon Mount Amanus, in Syria; with inscriptions of
his exploits, and a testimony subjoined, "that he died for the
Commonwealth:" a sepulchre at Antioch, where his corpse was burnt; a
tribunal at Epidaphne, the place where he ended his life. The multitude
of statues, the many places where divine honours were appointed to be
paid him, would not be easily recounted. They would have also decreed
him, as to one of the masters of eloquence, a golden shield, signal in
bulk as in metal; but Tiberius offered to dedicate one himself, such
as was usual and of a like size with others; for that eloquence was not
measured by fortune; and it was sufficient glory, if he were ranked with
ancient writers. The battalion called after the name of the Junii was
now, by the equestrian order, entitled the battalion of Germanicus,
and a rule made that, on every fifteenth of July, these troops should
follow, as their standard, the effigies of Germanicus: of these honours
many continue; some were instantly omitted, or by time are utterly
obliterated.

In the height of this public sorrow, Livia, sister to Germanicus,
and married to Drusus, was delivered of male twins: an event even in
middling families, rare and acceptable, and to Tiberius such mighty
matter of joy, that he could not refrain boasting to the fathers, "that
to no Roman of the same eminence, before him, were never two children
born at a birth:" for to his own glory he turned all things, even things
fortuitous. But to the people, at such a sad conjuncture, it brought
fresh anguish; as they feared that the family of Drusus thus increased,
would press heavy upon that of Germanicus.

The same year the lubricity of women was by the Senate restrained with
severe laws; and it was provided, "that no woman should become venal, if
her father, grandfather or husband, were Roman knights. " For Vistilia,
a lady born of a Praetorian family, had before the Aediles published
herself a prostitute; upon a custom allowed by our ancestors, who
thought that prostitutes were by thus avowing their infamy, sufficiently
punished. Titidius Labeo too was questioned, that in the manifest guilt
of his wife, he had neglected the punishment prescribed by the law;
but he alleged that the sixty days allowed for consultation were not
elapsed; and it was deemed sufficient to proceed against Vistilia,
who was banished to the Isle of Seriphos.