Germanicus was one of the last heroic figures of decadent Rome. He was in the prime of life and combined all physical and mental excellencies with the virtues of a valiant warrior. Noble in figure and bearing, versed in the highest Greek culture of the age, famed as an orator and as a poet, and endowed with admirable qualities of mind and heart, he was the darling of the legions and the people. They honoured in him the son of Drusus, whose noble likeness he was; the husband of the admirable Agrippina, granddaughter of Augustus, who had borne him a number of blooming children; the descendant of the triumvir Antony, whose daughter his mother Octavia had been. And if his achievements in Pannonia and Dalmatia had gained him the confidence and devotion of his comrades at arms, the kindliness of his nature and an address in which affability was mingled with dignity and majesty won him the hearts of all men. When he went in disguise, as Tacitus tells, through the lines of the camp to spy out the temper of the army, he heard enthusiastic praise of himself from every tent, and when he came to the city he was always surrounded by a throng of friends and dependents of all ranks. Tiberius had adopted him in deference to the wishes of Augustus, but the talents and excellencies of the youthful hero inspired the gloomy soul of the emperor with envy and suspicion. [So at least Tacitus assures us. But possibly that writer’s tendency to invent, or make partisan use of evil motives, may have falsified the facts. Some historians believe that Tiberius trusted Germanicus to the end.] The people had expected that Drusus would restore political liberty, and they cherished similar hopes of his son. The revolt of the Ubii had its deepest root in the belief of the legions that Germanicus would not tolerate the rule of another, and no matter how many proofs of loyalty and devotion the latter might give, they were not enough to exorcise the phantoms in his uncle’s distrustful soul. He seemed perpetually to hear the address of the legions to their beloved general: “If Germanicus desired supreme power, they were at his disposal”; and in his nephew’s kindly and liberal nature he could see nothing but an intention to smooth his path to sovereignty. Germanicus undertook his campaign against the country beyond the Rhine under favourable circumstances. After their victory over Varus the Germans had abandoned themselves to careless security, their tribal confederacy grew lax, their chieftains quarrelled. Segestes, full of rancour and envy against Arminius of old, was even more wroth with the Cheruscan prince now that the latter had abducted his daughter Thusnelda and had taken the willing girl to wife. _Victories of Germanicus_