Drusus being snatched from us, to you I
address the same prayers; and in the presence of the Gods, in the face of
your country, I adjure you, receive into your protection, take under your
tuition the great-grandchildren of Augustus; children, descended from
ancestors the most glorious in the State: towards them fulfil your own,
fulfil my duty. To you, Nero; to you, Drusus, these Senators are in the
stead of a father; and such is the situation of your birth, that on the
Commonwealth must light all the good and evil which befalls you."
All this was heard with much weeping, and followed with propitious prayers
and vows: and had he only gone thus far, and in his speech observed a
medium, he had left the souls of his hearers full of sympathy and
applause. But, by renewing an old project, always chimerical and so often
ridiculed, about "restoring the Republic, reinstating it again in the
Consuls, or whoever else would undertake the administration;" he forfeited
his faith even in assertions which were commendable and sincere. To the
memory of Drusus were decreed the same solemnities as to that of
Germanicus; with many super-added; agreeably to the genius of flattery,
which delights in variety and improvements.
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