A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. DRUSILLA, a daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, was brought up in the house of her grandmother Antonia. Here she was deflowered by her brother Caius (afterwards the emperor (Caligula), before he was of age to assume the toga virilis, and Antonia had once the misfortune to be an eye-witness of the incest of these her grandchildren. (Suet. Caligula, 24.) In A. D. 33, the emperor Tiberius disposed of her in marriage to L. Cassius Longinns (Tac. Ann. 6.15), but her brother soon afterwards carried her away from her husband's house, and openly lived with her as if she were his wife. In the beginning of his reign, we find her married to M. Aemilius Lepidus, one of his minions. The emperor had debauched all his sisters, but his passion for Drusilla exceeded all bounds. When seized with illness, he appointed her heir to his property and kingdom; but she died early in his reign, whereupon his grief became frantic. He buried her with the greatest pomp, gave her a public tomb, set up her golden image in the forum, and commanded that she should be worshipped, by the name Panthea, with the same honours as Venus. Livius Geminius, a senator, swore that he saw her ascending to heaven in the company of the gods, and was rewarded with a million sesterces for his story. Men knew not what to do. It was impiety to mourn the goddess, and it was death not to mourn the woman. Several suffered death for entertaining a relative of guest, or saluting a friend, or taking a bath, in the days that followed her funeral. (Dio Cass. lix. II; Senec. Consol. ad Polyb. 36.)