His own graceful person, and his chariot filled with his five
children, heightened the show and the delight of the beholders; yet they
were checked with secret fears, as they remembered "that popular favour
had proved malignant to his father Drusus; that his uncle Marcellus was
snatched, in his youth, from the burning affections of the populace; and
that ever short-lived and unfortunate were the favourites of the Roman
People."
Tiberius distributed to the people, in the name of Germanicus, three
hundred sesterces a man, [Footnote: L2, 10s.] and named himself his
colleague in the Consulship. Nor even thus did he gain the opinion of
tenderness and sincerity: in effect, on pretence of investing the young
Prince with fresh preferment and honours, he resolved to alienate him from
Rome; and, to accomplish it, craftily framed an occasion, or snatched such
an one as chance presented. Archelaus had enjoyed the kingdom of
Cappadocia now fifty years; a Prince under the deep displeasure of
Tiberius, because, in his retirement at Rhodes, the King had paid him no
sort of court or distinction: an omission this which proceeded from no
disdain, but from the warnings given him by the confidents of Augustus;
for that the young Caius Caesar, the presumptive heir to the sovereignty,
then lived, and was sent to compose and administer the affairs of the
East; hence the friendship of Tiberius was reckoned then dangerous.
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