About him flocked the Centurions with officious representations, "that upon him particularly were bent the affections and zeal of the legions, and he should proceed to resume the province, at first injuriously taken from him and now destitute of a governor." As he therefore consulted what he had best pursue, his son Marcus Piso advised "a speedy journey to Rome: hitherto," he said, "nothing past expiation was committed; nor were impotent suspicions to be dreaded; nor the idle blazonings of fame: his variance and contention with Germanicus was perhaps subject to hate and aversion, but to no prosecution or penalty; and, by bereaving him of the province, his enemies were gratified: but if he returned thither, as Sentius would certainly oppose him with arms, a civil war would thence be actually begun: neither would the Centurions and soldiers persist in his party; men with whom the recent memory of their late commander, and an inveterate love to the Caesarian general, were still prevalent."
Domitius Celer, one in intimate credit with Piso, argued on the contrary, "that the present event must by all means be improved; it was Piso and not Sentius who had commission to govern Syria; upon him, were conferred the jurisdiction of Praetor, and the badges of magistracy, and with him the legions were instructed: so that if acts of hostility were by his opponents attempted, with how much better warrant could he avow assuming arms in his own right and defence, who was thus vested with the authority of general, and acted under special orders from the Emperor. Rumours too were to be neglected, and left to perish with time: in truth to the sallies and violence of recent hate the innocent were often unequal: but were he once possessed of the army, and had well augmented his forces, many things, not to be foreseen, would from fortune derive success. Are we then preposterously hastening to arrive at Rome with the ashes of Germanicus, that you may there fall, unheard and undefended, a victim to the wailings of Agrippina, a prey to the passionate populace governed by the first impressions of rumour? Livia, it is true, is your confederate; Tiberius is your friend; but both secretly: and indeed none will more pompously bewail the violent fate of Germanicus, than such as for it do most sincerely rejoice."
Piso of himself prompt to violent pursuits, was with no great labour persuaded into this opinion, and, in a letter transmitted to Tiberius, accused Germanicus "of luxury and pride: that for himself, he had been expulsed, to leave room for dangerous designs against the State, and now resumed, with his former faith and loyalty, the care of the army." In the meantime he put Domitius on board a galley, and ordered him to avoid appearing upon the coasts or amongst the isles, but, through the main sea, to sail to Syria. The deserters, who from all quarters were flocking to him in crowds, he formed into companies, and armed all the retainers to the camp; then sailing over to the continent, intercepted a regiment of recruits, upon their march into Syria; and wrote to the small kings of Cilicia to assist him with present succours: nor was the younger Piso slow in prosecuting all the measures of war, though to adventure a war had been against his sentiments and advice.
As they coasted Lycia and Pamphilia, they encountered the ships which carried Agrippina, with hostile spirit on each side, and each at first prepared for combat; but as equal dread of one another possessed both, proceeded not further than mutual contumelies. Vibius Marsus particularly summoned Piso, as a criminal, to Rome, there to make his defence: he answered with derision "that when the Praetor, who was to sit upon poisonings, had assigned a day to the accusers and the accused, he would attend." Domitius, the while, landing at Laodicea, a city of Syria, would have proceeded to the winter quarters of the sixth legion, which he believed to be the most prone to engage in novel attempts, but was prevented by Pacuvius, its commander. Sentius represented this by letter to Piso, and warned him, "at his peril to infect the camp by ministers of corruption; or to assail the province of war;" and drew into a body such as he knew loved Germanicus, or such as were averse to his foes: upon them he inculcated with much ardour, that Piso was with open arms attacking the majesty of the Prince, and invading the Roman State; and then marched at the head of a puissant body, equipped for battle and resolute to engage.
Neither failed Piso, though his enterprises had thus far miscarried, to apply the securest remedies to his present perplexities; and therefore seized a castle of Cilicia strongly fortified, its name Celendris: for, to the auxiliary Cilicians, sent him by the petty kings, he had joined his body of deserters, as also the recruits lately intercepted, with all his own and Plancina's slaves; and thus in number and bulk had of the whole composed a legion. To them he thus harangued: "I who am the lieutenant of Caesar, am yet violently excluded from the province which to me Caesar has committed: not excluded by the legions (for by their invitation I am arrived), but by Sentius, who thus disguises under feigned crimes against me, his own animosity and personal hate: but with confidence you may stand in battle, where the opposite army, upon the sight of Piso, a commander lately by themselves styled their Father, will certainly refuse to fight; they know too, that were right to decide it, I am the stronger; and of no mean puissance in a trial at arms." He then arrayed his men without the fortifications, on a hill steep and craggy, for all the rest was begirt by the sea: against them stood the veterans regularly embattled, and supported with a body of reserve; so that here appeared the force of men, there only the terror and stubbornness of situation. On Piso's side was no spirit, nor hope, nor even weapons save those of rustics, for instant necessity hastily acquired. As soon as they came to blows, the issue was no longer doubtful than while the Roman cohorts struggled up the steep: the Cilicians then fled, and shut themselves up in the castle.
Piso having the while attempted in vain to storm the fleet, which rode at a small distance, as soon as he returned, presented himself upon the walls; where, by a succession of passionate complaints and entreaties, now bemoaning in agonies the bitterness of his lot, then calling and cajolling every particular soldier by his name, and by rewards tempting all, he laboured to excite a sedition; and thus much had already effected, that the Eagle-bearer of the sixth legion revolted to him with his Eagle. This alarmed Sentius, and instantly he commanded the cornets and trumpets to sound, a mound to be raised, the ladders placed, and the bravest men to mount, and others to pour from the engines volleys of darts and stones, and flaming torches. The obstinacy of Piso was at last vanquished; and he desired "that upon delivering his arms he might remain in the castle till the Emperor's pleasure, to whom he would commit the government of Syria, were known;" conditions which were not accepted; nor was aught granted him save ships and a passport to Rome.
After the illness of Germanicus grew current there, and all its circumstances, like rumours magnified by distance, were related with many aggravations; sadness seized the people; they burned with indignation, and even poured out in plaints the anguish of their souls. "For this," they said, "he had been banished to the extremities of the Empire, for this the province of Syria was committed to Piso, and these the fruits of Livia's mysterious conferences with Plancina: truly had our fathers spoken concerning his father Drusus; that the possessors of rule beheld with an evil eye the popular spirit of their sons; nor for aught else were they sacrificed, but for their equal treatment of the Roman People, and studying to restore the popular state." These lamentations of the populace were, upon the tidings of his death, so inflamed, that, without staying for an edict from the magistrates, without a decree of Senate, they by general consent assumed a vacation; the public courts were deserted, private houses shut up, prevalent everywhere were the symptoms of woe, heavy groans, dismal silence; the whole a scene of real sorrow, and nothing devised for form or show; and, though they forbore not to bear the exterior marks and habiliments of mourning; in their souls they mourned still deeper. Accidentally some merchants from Syria, who had left Germanicus still alive, brought more joyful news of his condition: these were instantly believed, and instantly proclaimed: each, as fast as they met, informed others, who forthwith conveyed their light information with improvements and accumulated joy to more, and all flew with exultation through the city; and, to pay their thanks and vows, burst open the temple doors: the night too heightened their credulity, and affirmation was bolder in the dark. Nor did Tiberius restrain the course of these fictions, but left them to vanish with time: hence with more bitterness they afterwards grieved for him, as if anew snatched from them.
Honours were invented and decreed to Germanicus, various as the affections and genius of the particular Senators who proposed them: "that his name should be sung in the Salian hymns; curule chairs placed for him amongst the priests of Augustus, and over these chairs oaken crowns hung; his statue in ivory precede in the Cercensian games; none but one of the Julian race be, in the room of Germanicus, created flamen or augur:" triumphal arches were added; one at Rome; one upon the banks of the Rhine; one upon Mount Amanus, in Syria; with inscriptions of his exploits, and a testimony subjoined, "that he died for the Commonwealth:" a sepulchre at Antioch, where his corpse was burnt; a tribunal at Epidaphne, the place where he ended his life. The multitude of statues, the many places where divine honours were appointed to be paid him, would not be easily recounted. They would have also decreed him, as to one of the masters of eloquence, a golden shield, signal in bulk as in metal; but Tiberius offered to dedicate one himself, such as was usual and of a like size with others; for that eloquence was not measured by fortune; and it was sufficient glory, if he were ranked with ancient writers. The battalion called after the name of the Junii was now, by the equestrian order, entitled the battalion of Germanicus, and a rule made that, on every fifteenth of July, these troops should follow, as their standard, the effigies of Germanicus: of these honours many continue; some were instantly omitted, or by time are utterly obliterated.
In the height of this public sorrow, Livia, sister to Germanicus, and married to Drusus, was delivered of male twins: an event even in middling families, rare and acceptable, and to Tiberius such mighty matter of joy, that he could not refrain boasting to the fathers, "that to no Roman of the same eminence, before him, were never two children born at a birth:" for to his own glory he turned all things, even things fortuitous. But to the people, at such a sad conjuncture, it brought fresh anguish; as they feared that the family of Drusus thus increased, would press heavy upon that of Germanicus.
The same year the lubricity of women was by the Senate restrained with severe laws; and it was provided, "that no woman should become venal, if her father, grandfather or husband, were Roman knights." For Vistilia, a lady born of a Praetorian family, had before the Aediles published herself a prostitute; upon a custom allowed by our ancestors, who thought that prostitutes were by thus avowing their infamy, sufficiently punished. Titidius Labeo too was questioned, that in the manifest guilt of his wife, he had neglected the punishment prescribed by the law; but he alleged that the sixty days allowed for consultation were not elapsed; and it was deemed sufficient to proceed against Vistilia, who was banished to the Isle of Seriphos. Measures were also taken for exterminating the solemnities of the Jews and Egyptians; and by decree of Senate four thousand descendants of franchised slaves, all defiled with that superstition, but of proper strength and age, were to be transported to Sardinia; to restrain the Sardinian robbers; and if, through the malignity of the climate, they perished, despicable would be the loss: the rest were doomed to depart Italy, unless by a stated day they renounced their profane rites.