Caius drusus nero germanicus

Agrippina, supported by the prefect of the praetorians, Sextus Afranius Burrus, cleared the way for Nero to become emperor. Since Nero was not yet seventeen years old, Agrippina the younger first acted as regent. A unique woman in Roman history, she was the sister of Caligula, the wife of Claudius, and the mother of Nero.

Soon she was shunted aside by Nero, who sought not to share power with anyone. Agrippina was moved to a separate residence, away from the imperial palace and from the levers of power. When in 11 February AD 55 Britannicus died at a dinner party in the palace — most likely poisoned by Nero, Agrippina was said to have been alarmed. She had sought to keep Britannicus in reserve, in case she should lose control of Nero.

Nero was fair-haired, with weak blue eyes, a fat neck, a pot belly and a body which smelt and was covered with spots. He usually appeared in public in a sort of dressing gown without a belt, a scarf around his neck and no shoes. In character he was a strange mix of paradoxes; artistic, sporting, brutal, weak, sensual, erratic, extravagant, sadistic, bisexual — and later in life almost certainly deranged. The senate was treated respectfully and granted greater freedom, the late Claudius was deified.

Sensible legislation was introduced to improve public order, reforms were made to the treasury and provincial governors were prohibited from extorting large sums of money to pay for gladiatorial shows in Rome. Nero himself followed in the steps of his predecessor Claudius in applying himself rigorously to his judicial duties. He also considered liberal ideas, such as ending the killing of gladiators and condemned criminals in public spectacles.

In fact, Nero, most likely largely due to the influence of his tutor Seneca, came across as a very humane ruler at first. Seneca and Burrus tried to guard him against too greater excesses and encouraged him to have an affair with freed woman named Acte, provided that Nero appreciated that marriage was impossible.

Agrippina meanwhile was outraged at such behaviour. But when news reached Nero of what angry gossip she was spreading about him, he became enraged and hostile toward his mother. She was the wife of his partner in frequent exploits, Marcus Salvius Otho. In AD 58 Otho was dispatched to be governor of Lusitania, no doubt to move him out of the way.

Therafter even a collapsible boat was built, which was meant to sink in the Bay of Naples. But the plot only succeeded in sinking the boat, as Agrippina managed to swim ashore. Using a cognomen such as Nero as a first name was unusual, as was the prominence given to his maternal lineage in adopting Drusu See full list on timenote. Drusus married Antonia Minor, the daughter of Mark Antony and Augustus' sister, Octavia Minor, and gained a reputation of being completely faithful to her.

Their children were Germanicus and Claudius, a daughter Livilla Little Livia , and at least two others who did not survive infancy. After Drusus' death, Antonia never remarried, though she outlived him by nearly five decades. Three Emperors were direct descendants of Drusus, Claudius his son , Caligula Germanicus' son, Drusus' grandson , and Nero Germanicus' grandson, Drusus' great-grandson.

Augustus bestowed many honors on his stepsons. In 19 BC, Drusus was granted the ability to hold all public offices five years before the minimum age. He became quaestor the following year, fighting against Raetian bandits in the Alps.

Drusus repelled them, gaining honors, but was unable to smash their forces, and required reinforcement from Tiberius. The brothers easily defeated the local Alpine tribes. While there, a tribe of Germans entered Gaul and proceeded to attack Roman settlements. Drusus mobilized his legions and beat the invaders back across the Rhine.

Tiberius was dour and given to violent mood swing s and debilitating bouts of depression ; Drusus was gregarious and outgoing, and Augustus seems to have preferred him somewhat to Tiberius. Their marriages are a good example of this: Tiberius was initially married to Vipsania, the daughter of Augustus' powerful friend and ally Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa by his first wife; Drusus by contrast was married to Antonia , the daughter of his sister Octavia and the dead and vanquished Mark Antony.

This is significant because Augustus had at first favored his sister's son, Marcus Claudius Marcellus , as his heir, demonstrated by the fact that he had allowed Marcellus to marry his daughter Julia. As Augustus now had three direct male blood descendants, Tiberius and Drusus were seen as somewhat ancillary to the future success of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty.

This presumption, of course, could not have been more wrong. Tiberius and Drusus, though now clearly not Augustus' preferred successors, were still important members of the government. Both brothers were given important military commands on the Rhine the de facto border between the Roman world and the barbaric Germania and both excelled.

Drusus dealt such a crushing blow to the Germans in 12 BC that he and his male descendants would all carry the agnomen " Germanicus " in recognition of the feat. Tiberius was every bit as competent a general as his brother, but he lacked the natural, unassuming charisma that allowed Drusus to be so beloved by his men.

Perhaps sensing this, Augustus put Tiberius to work on diplomatic and administrative projects, which he hated. After Agrippa's death in 12 BC, Augustus forced Tiberius to divorce Vipsania and marry his twice-widowed daughter Julia in what was to be the unhappiest marriage either of them ever had.

This was perhaps an indication that Augustus was coming around to the notion of seeing Tiberius as a partial heir if only to be a caretaker for his grandsons Gaius and Lucius whom he had formally adopted as his sons after their father's death.

In 9 BC, Drusus was elected or perhaps more appropriately, appointed consul , the highest office in the empire after princeps i.

Drusus was always bored by life in the city, however, and almost immediately left to return to the frontier to fight more Germans. While this show of derring-do went over well with his soldiers, it ultimately cost him his life: while riding back to camp from a particular engagement with the enemy, Drusus fell from his horse and badly injured his leg. The injury eventually became infected and then gangrenous. Drusus lay in pain for more than a month before finally expiring in the presence of his wife, his children, and his beloved brother.

While the stories of most men end with their deaths, Drusus' does not. His oldest boy, Nero, would eventually become an even more popular military leader than his father and would receive the title Germanicus the name by which he is chiefly known in his own right for his similar successes against the Germans. Augustus came to be more and more impressed with Germanicus' abilities and consented for him to marry his granddaughter Agrippina, and this union resulted in six children that survived infancy: Nero , Drusus , Gaius , Agrippina , Julia Livilla , and Drusilla.

Augustus' grandsons Lucius and Gaius died in 2 BC and 4 AD, respectively, of arguably unnatural causes and Postumus had fallen out of favor, so the Emperor finally made Tiberius his principal heir with the provision that he adopt Drusus' son Germanicus as his own heir despite the fact that Tiberius already had a natural son, the aforementioned Drusus. He went by river to Ostia, and then sailed along the coast to Massilia Marseilles. From there, travelling overland and by river transport, he reached the sea and crossed to Britain, where he met up with his troops, who were encamped by the river Thames.

Then he put down several other tribes, defeating them or accepting their surrender. He then headed back to Rome sending news of his victory ahead. When the senate heard about his achievement, it granted him the title of Britannicus and authorized him to celebrate a triumph through the city. Claudius had been in Britain just sixteen days. Plautius followed up the advantage gained, and was from AD 44 to 47 governor of this new province.

When Caratacus, a royal barbarian leader, was finally captured and brought to Rome in chains, Claudius pardoned him and his family. In the east Claudius also annexed the two client kingdoms of Thracia, making them into another province. Claudius also reformed the military. The granting of Roman citizenship to auxiliaries after a service of twenty-five years was introduced by his predecessors, but it was under Claudius that it truly became a regular system.

Were most Romans naturally intent on seeing the Roman empire as a solely Italian institution, the Claudius refused to do so, allowing senators to be drawn also from Gaul.

I order to do so, he revived the office of censor, which had fallen into disuse. Though such changes caused storms of xenophobia by the senate and appeared only to support accusations that the emperor preferred foreigners to proper Romans. As almost all grain had to be imported, mainly from Africa and Egypt, Claudius offered insurances against losses on the open sea, to encourage potential importers and to build up stocks against winter times of famine.

Among his extensive building projects Claudius constructed the port of Ostia Portus , a scheme already proposed by Julius Caesar.