85 



The uninterrupted friendship between these two young men, the 

 natural and the adopted son of Tiberius, is one of the few bright spots 

 of that gloomy page of history, and it goes far to redeem the character 

 of the young Drusus, Tiberius' sou, from the reproach which a natural 

 coarseness and cruelty seem to fasten upon him. We can find no trace 

 of jealousy between the two princes, whose equally balanced title to the 

 succession might easily have roused the worst passions. GeiTuanicus 

 seems to have early shwvn a good deal of the martial spirit which dis- 

 tinguished his father, and all the ancestors of his illustrious house. In 

 the Illyrian war*, which was reckoned by contemporary historians the 

 most dangerous to the supremacy or the very existence of Rome since 

 the wars with Carthage, the young Germanicus held an inferior com- 

 mand under Tiberius, and seems to have acquitted himself very credit- 

 ably. When the great defeat of the Roman arms in Germany, under 

 Varus, called for an experienced leader in those quarters, Germanicus 

 accompanied his uncle to the Rhine, and under his able guidance 

 served a further apprenticeship in the very localities where his father 

 had earned the surname Germanicus, to which the son might now hope 

 to gain more thau a merely hereditary title. Tiberius succeeded in 

 averting from the Roman provinces a storm which seemed about to 

 burst upon them, after having annihilated three entire legions. This 

 object was accomplished without any brilliant military exploits, more 

 by policy than arms. Division was sown among the German chiefs and 

 tribes, and Tiberius returning to Italy left his nephew in the command 

 of the finest army of the Roman empire. 



If he had unlimited confidence in the honour and loyalty of Ger- 

 manicus he was not deceived. It is evident, from the narrative of 

 Tacitus, that Germanicus was unable to conceive the idea of supplanting 

 his uncle, and that he shrank from the very mention of it as from a 

 crime and a pollution. It is related that the mutinous soldiery offered 

 him the crown ; but that he was so horrified with this proposal that he 

 drew his sword, and was scarcely prevented by his friends fi'om sealing 

 his loyalty with his death. In this sentiment he was sincere, and 

 Tiberius must have given him credit for it, or he would not have left 

 him in the command of such a formidable army for three years longer. 

 We must insist upon this fact the more emphatically, as ancients and 

 moderns have concurred in imputing fear and jealousy to Tiberius, 

 when he at length removed Germanicus from the German legions and 

 sent him to regulate the affairs of the East. 



The true motives for this measure we shall not fail to discover, if we 

 examine attentively the narrative which Tacitus gives of the several 

 expeditions of Germanicus into Germany. We shall be compelled to 



