After she descended from the ship, accompanied
with her two infants, carrying in her bosom the melancholy urn, with her
eyes cast steadily down; equal and universal were the groans of the
beholders: nor could you distinguish relations from strangers, nor the
wailings of men from those of women, unless that the new-comers, who were
recent in their sallies of grief, exceeded Agrippina's attendants, wearied
out with long lamentations.
Tiberius had despatched two Praetorian cohorts, with directions, that the
magistrates of Calabria, Apulia and Campania, should pay their last
offices to the memory of his son: upon the shoulders therefore of the
Tribunes and Centurions his ashes were borne; before went the ensigns
rough and unadorned, with the fasces reversed. As they passed through the
colonies, the populace were in black, the knights in purple; and each
place, according to its wealth, burnt precious raiment, perfumes and
whatever else is used in funeral solemnities: even they whose cities lay
remote attended: to the Gods of the dead they slew victims, they erected
altars, and with tears and united lamentations, testified their common
sorrow.
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