18. DRUSUS, a son of Germanicus and Agrippina. In Caligula, 12), he was made augur. He was a youth of an unamiable
disposition, in which cunning and ferocity were mingled. His elder brother Nero was higher in
Ann. 4.60.) Tiberius had witnessed with
displeasure the marks of public favour which were exhibited towards Nero and Drusus as members
of the house of Germanicus, and gladly forwarded the plans that were contrived for their
destruction. He declared in the senate his disapprobation of the public prayers which had been
offered for their health, and this indication was enough to encourage accusers. Aemilia
Lepida, the wife of Drusus, a woman of the most abandoned character, made frequent charges
against him. (Ann. 6.40.) The words which he spoke, when heated with wine
or roused to anger, were reported to the palace, and represented by the emperor to the senate,
in
An exact account had been kept by Actius, a centurion, and Didymus, a freedman, of all that
occurred in his dungeon during his long incarceration. In this journal were set down the names
of the slaves who had beaten or terrified him when he attempted to leave his chamber, the
savage rebukes administered to him by the centurion, his secret murmurs, and the words he
uttered when perishing with hunger. Tiberius, after his death, went to the senate, inveighed
against the shameful profligacy of his life, his desire to destroy his relatives, and his
disaffection to the state; and proceeded, in proof of these charges, to order the journal of
his sayings and doings to be read. This was too much, even for the Roman senate, degraded as
it was. The senators were struck with astonishment and alarm at the contemptuous indecency of
such an exposure by a tyrant formerly so dark, and deep, and vary in the concealment of his
crimes; and they interrupted the horrid recital, under the pretence of uttering exclamations
of detestation at the misconduct of Drusus. (Ann. 6.24.)
In Ann.
5.10;