As discussed in the introduction, part of the significance of the texts concerning Germanicus Caesar is their overlap with the historian Tacitus. Before reading the TS, TH, and SCPP it is, therefore, important to read Tacitus’ account of the end of Germanicus’ life. The relevant sections are provided here.

The translation is that of A. Woodman, The Annals of Tacitus, 2004. Reprinted by permission of Hackett Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Book 2

So in front of the fathers he (Tiberius) discussed these things and those concerning Armenia which I recalled above: the tremors in the East could not be settled except by the wisdom of Germanicus, he said, for his own life was declining and that of Drusus had not yet sufficiently matured. Then by a decree of the fathers Germanicus was entrusted with the provinces that are separated by the sea, and, wherever he went, with a greater command than that entrusted to those who held them by lot or on dispatch from the princeps.

But Tiberius had removed from Syria Creticus Silanus, who was connected with Germanicus by marriage (Silanus’ daughter had been betrothed to Nero, the eldest of his children), and had placed in charge Cn. Piso, temperamentally violent and a stranger to compliance, with the innate defiance of his father Piso (who in the civil war helped the resurgence of the party in Africa with the keenest of service against Caesar and then, after following Brutus and Cassius, was allowed to return but refrained from seeking office until he was spontaneously solicited to accept a consulship tendered by Augustus). But besides his father’s spirit he was fired by the nobility and wealth of his wife too, Plancina: he scarcely yielded to Tiberius and looked down on the man’s children as greatly beneath him. Nor did he have any 318 doubt that he had been selected for installation in Syria to curb Germanicus’ hopes. (Certain people believed that secret instructions had been given to him by Tiberius; and without doubt Augusta warned Plancina in womanly rivalry to assail Agrippina.) For the court was divided and disaffected by silent devotion to either Drusus or Germanicus. Tiberius fostered Drusus as being special and of his own blood; love for Germanicus among the rest had been increased by his uncle’s estrangement.