praise for these
acts.--Embassies that came from foreign cities or nations he never
dealt with alone, but caused a number of others to participate in the
deliberations, and especially such as had once governed these peoples.

[-18-] Now Germanicus, having acquired a reputation for his campaign
against the Celtae, advanced as far as the ocean, inflicted an
overwhelming defeat upon the barbarians, collected and buried the bones
of those who had fallen under Varus, and won back the military standards.

His wife Julia was not recalled from the banishment to which for
unchastity her father Augustus had condemned her; nay, he even put
her under lock and key till wretchedness and starvation caused her
death.

[A.D. 17 or 18]

The senate urged upon Tiberius the request that the month of November, on
the sixteenth of which he had been born, should be called Tiberius; to
which he responded: "What will you do, if there arise thirteen Caesars?"

[A.D. 19 (_a. u._ 772)]

Later, when Marcus Junius and Lucius Norbanus came to office, a portent
of some magnitude occurred on the very first day of the month, and it
doubtless had a bearing on the fate of Germanicus. Norbanus the consul
had always been devoted to the trumpet, and as he had practiced
assiduously in this pursuit he wished on this occasion also to play the
instrument just about dawn, when many persons were already near his house
This proceeding threw them all without exception into confusion, just as
if the consul had imparted to them some warlike signal; and they were
also disturbed by the falling of the statue of Janus. Their calm was
further ruffled by an oracle, reputed to be a Sibylline utterance, which
would not fit any other period of the city's history, but pointed to that
very time. It declared:

"After thrice three hundred revolving years have been numbered, Civil
strife shall consume the Romans,--and the Sybaritan Folly." ...

Tiberius denounced these verses as false and made an investigation of all
the books containing any prophecies. Some he rejected as worthless and
others he admitted as genuine.

As there had been a large influx of Jews into Rome and they were
converting many of the native inhabitants to their principles he
expelled the great majority of them.

At the death of Germanicus Tiberius and Livia were thoroughly pleased,
but everybody else was mightily afflicted. He was a man who possessed the
most striking physical beaut