an extra force after the disaster to Varus.  As a result, they ceased for the time being their seditious behavior.  Later on came senators as envoys from Tiberius, to whom the latter had secretly communicated only so much as he wished Germanicus to know.  He felt quite sure that they would tell him the emperor’s plans in their entirety, and accordingly did not care that either they or Germanicus should trouble themselves about anything further; the instructions delivered were supposed to comprise everything.  Now when these men had arrived and the soldiers learned about the trick Germanicus had played, a suspicion sprang up that the presence of the senators meant the overthrow of their leader’s measures, and this led to new turmoil.  The men-at-arms almost killed some of the envoys and to the point of seizing Germanicus’s wife Agrippina (daughter of Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of Augustus) and his son, both of whom had been sent by him to some place for refuge.  The boy was called Gaius Caligula because, being brought up for the most part in the camp he wore the military shoes instead of those usual at the capital.  At the request of Germanicus they released to him Agrippina, who was pregnant but they retained possession of Gaius.  Yet on this occasion too, as they accomplished nothing, they after a time grew quiet.  In fact, they experienced such a revulsion of sentiment that of their own accord they arrested the boldest of their number:  and some they killed privately, the rest they brought before a gathering; and then, according to the wish of the majority, [-6-] they executed some and released others.  Germanicus being still afraid that they would make another uprising invaded the enemy’s country and there spent some time, giving them plenty of work and abundant food,—­the fruit of others’ labor.

Thus, though he might have obtained the imperial power,—­for he found favor in the sight of absolutely all the Romans as well as their subjects,—­he declined the honor.  For this Tiberius praised him and sent many pleasing messages both to him and to Agrippina:  he was not, however, pleased with his rival’s progress but feared him all the more because he had won the attachment of the legions.  Tiberius assumed that he did not feel as he appeared to do, from his own consciousness of saying one thing and doing another.  Hence he was suspicious of Germanicus and further suspicious of his wife, who was possessed of an ambition appropriate to her lofty lineage.  Yet he displayed no sign of irritation toward them, but delivered many eulogies of Germanicus in the senate and proposed sacrifices to be offered in honor of his achievements as he did in the case of Drusus.  Also he bestowed upon the soldiers in Pannonia the same privileges as Germanicus had given.  For the future, however, he refused to release members of the service outside of Italy until they had served the twenty years.