Here, all
at once they raged, and all at once kept silence; with so much concert and
steadiness, that you would have believed them under the sovereign
direction of one.
To Germanicus the while, then receiving, as I have said, the tribute in
Gaul, news were brought of the decease of Augustus; whose grand-daughter
Agrippina he had to wife, and by her many children: he was himself the
grandson of Livia, by her son Drusus, the brother of Tiberius; but ever
under heavy anxiety from the secret hate which his uncle and grandmother
bore him: hate the more virulent as its grounds were altogether
unrighteous; for, dear and adored was the memory of his father Drusus
amongst the Roman People, and from him was firmly expected that had he
succeeded to the Empire, he would have restored public liberty: hence
their zeal for Germanicus, and of him the same hopes conceived; as from
his youth he possessed a popular spirit, and marvellous affability utterly
remote from the comportment and address of Tiberius, ever haughty and
mysterious. The animosities too between the ladies administered fresh
fuel; while towards Agrippina, Livia was actuated by the despite natural
to step-mothers: and over-tempestuous was the indignation of Agrippina;
only that her known chastity and love for her husband, always gave her
mind, however vehement, a virtuous turn.
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