Chapter 20 Summary

This chapter focuses on events occurring between 18 AD and 20 AD. Claudius spends one year in Carthage, a time that he finds quite enjoyable. While there, he gathers an extensive corpus of information that he plans to use for an eventual composite history of Carthage. On one occasion, Claudius takes the field of battle as an observer and watches Roman forces defeat Tacfarinas, a local bandit chief. He eventually returns to Rome, but shortly before his arrival, Germanicus has been dispatched to the East to act as political overseer of an extensive region.

Tiberius and Livia have coldly calculated Germanicus' assignment; his growing popularity has caused them concern and they have become determined to ruin him. Thus, even as Germanicus is sent on his assignment, another man, Gnzhs Piso, is enlisted to secretly ruin Germanicus' political future. Piso, along with his wife Plancina, is...