DRUSUS

See also:

• CAESAR, GAIUS JULIUS (102—44 B.c.)
• CAESAR, SIR JULIUS (1557-1558-1636)

CAESAR (c. 15 B.C.–A.D. 23)  , commonly called Drusus junior, to distinguish him from his uncle Nero Claudius Drusus, was the only son of the emperor Tiberius by his first wife Vipsania Agrippina . After having held several curule offices, he was consul elect in A.D . 14, the year of Augustus's death . His father, on his accession to the throne, immediately sent him to put down a mutiny of the troops in Pannonia, a task which he successfully accomplished (Tacitus, Annals, i . 24-30) . As governor of Illyricum (17), he set the Germanic tribes against one another, and encouraged Catualda, chief of the Gothones, to drive out Marbod (Maroboduus), king of the Marcomanni . On his return Drusus was consul a second time (21) and in the following year received the tribunician authority from Tiberius, which practically indicated him as heir to the throne . Sejanus, who also aspired to the supreme power, determined to remove Drusus . He endeavoured to poison Tiberius's mind against him, seduced Drusus's wife and persuaded her to assist him in murdering her husband . Her physician Eudemus prepared and the eunuch Lygdus administered a slow poison, from the effects of which Drusus died after a lingering illness . Although Tiberius is said to have received the news of his death with indifference, there is no reason to suppose that he had any hand in it; indeed, he seems to have entertained a genuine affection for his son . Drusus was a man of violent passions, a drunkard and a debauchee, but not entirely devoid of better feelings, as is shown by his undoubtedly sincere grief at the death of Germanicus .

The cunning and reserve which he exhibited on occasion were probably due to the instructions or

influence of Tiberius (Annals, iii . 8), since he was himself naturally frank and open, and for this reason, notwithstanding his vices, more popular than his father . He revelled in bloody gladiatorial displays, and the sharpest swords used on such occasions were called " Drusine." See Tacitus, Annals, i . 76, iv . 8-II; Dio Cassius lvii . 13, 14; Suetonius, Tiberius, 62; J . C . Tarver, Tiberius the Tyrant (1902) .