v61_0091 - TIBERIUS and DRUSUS Drachme

TIBERIUS and DRUSUS

Drusus, the son of Tiberius and Vispania, was the grandson of Agrippa by his mother and of Livia by her father. He was born in 13 BC. Augustus, when he chose Tiberius to succeed him in 4 AD, forced him to adopt Germanicus, his nephew, the son of Nero Drusus, his brother and Antonia to the detriment of the own son of Tiberius, Drusus. When Germanicus died under mysterious conditions in 19, Drusus came back into the limelight, being Tiberius' closest heir. Drusus took his second consulship with his father in 21 and saw himself conferring the following year the tribunician power. In 19, Drusus and his wife Liville had twins, two boys, Tiberius Gemellus and Germanicus. Germanicus died in infancy. Tiberius Gemellus was adopted by Tiberius at the same time as Caius, the son of Germanicus and Agrippina. He was to be liquidated by his cousin, Caligula, after the death of Tiberius in 37. Liville, the cousin of Drusus, (daughter of Nero Drusus and Antonia), was also the mistress of the prefect of the praetorium, Sejanus. The lovers poisoned 35-year-old Drusus.