itious influence over his countrymen, once more
rebelled. Drusus, who had been made Consul with his father, was sent
against them, and reduced them to subjection. The Druid Sacrovir burned
himself in a house to which he had fled. In A.D. 22 Drusus received the
tribunitian power. He was the only son of Tiberius, and was married to
Livia, or Livilla, as she was sometimes called.

Sejanus had now conceived a design which led him to resolve upon the
destruction of all the imperial family, since he himself began to aspire
to the throne; and the elevation of Drusus filled him with disgust. In
A.D. 23 he prevailed upon Tiberius to remove all the Praetorian Guards,
about nine or ten thousand in number, to a camp near the city. He
appointed their officers, won the soldiers with bribes and flatteries,
and thus believed he had gained a sure support.

Drusus stood in his path, and he resolved to destroy him. He won the
affections of Livilla, and prevailed upon her to poison her husband. The
unhappy prince died in 23. Tiberius received the news of his son's death
with a composure almost incredible. He told the Senate, who put on
mourning robes, that he had given himself to his country. A splendid
funeral procession was prepared for Drusus, in which the statues of
Attus Clausus, the Sabine chief, the founder of the Claudian Gens, and
of AEneas, and the Alban kings, were carried side by side, thus recalling
the memories of the early regal dynasty, as well as of the severe
founders of the Republic.

Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus, together with her numerous family,
next aroused the hostility of Sejanus, and he resolved upon their
destruction. In A.D. 25 he proposed for the hand of Livilla, but
Tiberius refused to sanction the connection. In A.D. 26 eleven cities
contended for the privilege of making Tiberius their tutelar deity, but
he declined this honor. Soon after, the emperor, as if anxious to escape
from the sarcasms and the scandal of Rome, retired from the city,
accompanied by a single Senator, Cocceius Nerva, and at length, in A.D.
27, hid himself in the island of Capreae, on the coast of Campania. Here
he built twelve villas in different parts of the island, and lived with
a few companions, shut out from mankind. No one was allowed to land upon
the shores of Capreae, and even fishermen who broke this rule through
ignorance were severely punished. Every day, however, dispatches were
brought from the continent, and he stil