GERMAN'ICUS CIE'SAR (B.c. 19). A distinguished Roman general. He was the son of Nero Claudius Drums and Antonia, daughter of Marcus Antonius, and niece of Augustus, and was born in September, B.c. 15. He was adopted in the year A.D. 4 by Tiberius, whom he accom panied in the war waged against the Pannonians and Dalmatians, for the purpose of securing the German frontiers after the defeat of Varus. After having been consul in A.D. 12, he was ap pointed in the following year to the command of the eight legions on the Rhine. On the death of Augustus, in A.D. 14, the soldiers revolted, de manding higher pay and a shorter period of service. Germanicus hastened from Gaul (where he happened to be at the time) to remind them of their duty. The soldiers urged him to seize upon the supreme power, but he refused. He, however, granted their demands, though his col league, A. Cncina, secretly massacred the ring leaders at night. Germanicus now led the legions over the Rhine below Wesel, attacked the Marsi during a nocturnal festival, and destroyed their celebrated temple of Tanfana. In A.D. 15 he made a second inroad into Germany. Proceeding from Metz into the country of the Catti, he de stroyed their chief town of Mattium (Haden, near Gudensberg). On his return, his assistance was implored by the ambassadors of Segestes (always a firm ally of the Romans), who was besieged by his son-in-law, Arminius, the con queror of Varus. This was at once given, and Thusnelda, the heroic wife of Arminius, fell into the hands of the Roman general. Arminius, burning with anger and shame, now roused the Cherusci and all the neighboring tribes to war. Germanicus, in consequence, commenced a third campaign. He separated his army into three di visions. The main body of the infantry was led by Cucina through the country of the Bructeri, the cavalry under another general marched through Friesland, while Gerthanicus himself sailed with a fleet through the Zuyder-Zee into the German Ocean, and proceeded up the River Ems, where he joined the others. The united divisions now laid waste the country in the neighborhood of the Teutoburg Forest, and gathering up the bones of Varus and his legions, which had lain there for six years, buried them with solemn funeral honors. A victory gained by Arminius induced Germanicus to make a hasty retreat, during which Ile lost part of his fleet in a tempest. Ciecina, who retreated by land, sustained severe losses at the hands of the pursuing Germans. Be
fore the fleet of 1000 vessels, which Germanieus had built at Batavia, was equipped, he was re called over the Rhine in A.D. 16 by news of the beleaguerment of the recently acquired fortress of Aliso, on the Lippe. The Germans were re pulsed, and the funeral mound in the Teuto burg Forest, which they had thrown down, was again erected. Germanicus now sailed with his fleet again into the Ems, pressed forward to the Weser, which he crossed, and completely over threw Arminius in two battles. Nevertheless, he resolved to return, and on his way again lost the greater part of his fleet in a violent storm. In order to prevent this mishap from giving courage to the Germans, he once more, in the same year, marched into the country of the Marsi, and dis patched his lieutenant Silius against the Catti. Tiberius, jealous of his glory, recalled him, and feigning good-will, bestowed upon him the honor of a triumph, in which Thusnelda appeared among the captives. To rid himself of Germani ens, whose popularity seemed to render him dan gerous, Tiberius sent him, in A.D. 17, with exten sive authority, to settle affairs in the East, at the same time appointing Piso Viceroy of Syria, who everywhere counteracted the influence of Ger maidens. Germanicus died at Epidaphfue, near Antioch, October 10, A.D. 19, probably of poison. He was deeply lamented by both the inhabitants of the provinces and the citizens of Rome, whither his ashes were conveyed, and deposited by his wife, Agrippina, in the mausoleum of Augustus. Agrippina herself and two of her sons were put to death by order of Tiberius; her third son, Gains (afterwards the Emperor Caligula). was spared. Of the three daughters who survived their father, Agrippina became as remarkable for vices as her mother had been for her virtues. Besides his splendid generalship, Germanicus was conspicuous for his magnanimity, benevolence, finely cultured understanding, and personal purity of life. Tie wrote several works of a rhetorical character, which have been lost; but . of his poetical works, we possess an epigram, a version of the Pliamomena of Aratus. and frag ments of a work of the same character, entitled Diosemeia, or Prognostica, compiled from Greek sources. Germanicus's literary remains were first published at Bologna, in 1474. The latest edition is that of Breysig (Berlin, 1867).