There were those who missed the pomp of a public funeral, and compared with this the superior honours and magnificence bestowed by Augustus on that of Drusus the father of Germanicus; "that he himself had travelled, in the sharpness of winter, as far as Pavia, and thence, continuing by the corpse, had with it entered the city; round his head were placed the images of the Claudii and Julii; he was mourned in the Forum; his encomium pronounced in the Rostras; all sorts of honours, such as were the inventions of our ancestors, or the improvements of their posterity, were heaped upon him. But to Germanicus were denied the ordinary solemnities, and such as were due to every distinguished Roman. In a foreign country indeed, his corpse because of the long journey, was burnt without pomp; but afterwards, it was but just to have supplied the scantiness of the first ceremony by the solemnity of the last: his brother met him but one day's journey; his uncle not even at the gate. Where were those generous observations of the ancients; the effigies of the dead borne on a bed, hymns composed in memory of their virtue, with the oblations of praise and tears? Where at least were the ceremonies and even outside of sorrow?"
All this was known to Tiberius; and, to suppress the discourses of the populace, he published an edict, "that many illustrious Romans had died for the Commonwealth, but none so vehemently lamented: this however was to the glory of himself and of all men, if a measure were observed. The same things which became private families and small states, became not Princes and an Imperial People: fresh grief indeed required vent and ease by lamentation; but it was now time to recover and fortify their minds. Thus the deified Julius, upon the loss of an only daughter; thus the deified Augustus, upon the hasty death of his grandsons, had both vanquished their sorrow. More ancient examples were unnecessary; how often the Roman People sustained with constancy the slaughter of their armies, the death of their generals, and entire destruction of their noblest families: Princes were mortal; the Commonwealth was eternal: they should therefore resume their several vocations." And because the Megalesian games were at hand, he added, "that they should even apply to the usual festivities."
The vacation ended, public affairs were resumed; Drusus departed for the army in Illyricum, and the minds of all men were bent upon seeing vengeance done upon Piso. They repeated their resentments, that while he wandered over the delightful countries of Asia and Greece, he was stifling, by contumacious and deceitful delays, the evidences of his crimes; for it was bruited abroad, that Martina, she who was famous for poisonings, and sent, as I have above related, by Cneius Sentius towards Rome, was suddenly dead at Brundusium; that poison lay concealed in a knot of her hair, but upon her body were found no symptoms of self-murder.
Piso, sending forward his son to Rome, with instructions how to soften the Emperor, proceeded himself to Drusus: him he hoped to find less rigid for the death of a brother, than favourable for the removal of a rival. Tiberius, to make show of a spirit perfectly unbiassed, received the young man graciously, and honoured him with the presents usually bestowed on young noblemen. The answer of Drusus to Piso was, "That if the current rumours were true, he stood in the first place of grief and revenge; but he hoped they were false and chimerical, and that the death of Germanicus would be pernicious to none." This he declared in public, and avoided all privacy: nor was it doubted but the answer was dictated by Tiberius; when a youth, otherwise easy and unwary, practised thus the wiles and cunning of age.
Piso having crossed the sea of Dalmatia, and left his ships at Ancona, took first the road of Picenum and then the Flaminian way, following the legion which was going from Pannonia to Rome, and thence to garrison in Africa. This too became the subject of popular censure, that he officiously mixed with the soldiers, and courted them in their march and quarters: he therefore, to avoid suspicion; or, because when men are in dread, their conduct wavers, did at Narni embark upon the Nar, and thence sailed into the Tiber. By landing at the burying-place of the Caesars, he heightened the wrath of the populace: besides, he and Plancina came ashore, in open day, in the face of the city who were crowding the banks, and proceeded with gay countenances; he attended by a long band of clients, she by a train of ladies. There were yet other provocations to hatred; the situation of his house, proudly overlooking the Forum, and adorned and illuminated as for a festival; the banquet and rejoicings held in it, and all as public as the place.
The next day Fulcinius Trio arraigned Piso before the Consuls, but was opposed by Vitellius, Veranius, and others, who had accompanied Germanicus: they said, "that in this prosecution Trio had no part; nor did they themselves act as accusers, but only gathered materials, and, as witnesses, produced the last injunctions of Germanicus." Trio dropped that accusation; but got leave to call in question his former life: and now the Emperor was desired to undertake the trial; a request which the accused did not at all oppose, dreading the inclinations of the people and Senate: he knew Tiberius, on the contrary, resolute in despising popular rumours, and in guilt confederate with his mother: besides that truth and misrepresentations were easiest distinguished by a single judge, but in assemblies odium and envy often prevailed. Tiberius was aware of the weight of the trial, and with what reproaches he was assaulted. Admitting therefore a few confidants, he heard the charge of the accusers, as also the apology of the accused; and left the cause entire to the Senate.
Drusus returned the while from Illyricum; and though the Senate had for the reduction of Maroboduus, and other his exploits the summer before, decreed him the triumph of ovation; he postponed the honour, and privately entered the city. Piso, for his advocates, desired Titus Arruntius, Fulcinius, Asinius Gallus, Eserninus Marcellus, and Sextus Pompeius: but they all framed different excuses; and he had, in their room, Marcus Lepidus, Lucius Piso and Liveneius Regulus. Now earnest were the expectations of all men, "how great would prove the fidelity of the friends of Germanicus; what the assurance of the criminal, what the behaviour of Tiberius; whether he would sufficiently smother, or betray his sentiments." He never had a more anxious part; neither did the people ever indulge themselves in such secret murmurs against their Emperor, nor harbour in silence severer suspicions.
When the Senate met, Tiberius made a speech full of laboured moderation: "That Piso had been his father's lieutenant and friend; and lately appointed by himself, at the direction of the Senate, coadjutor to Germanicus in administering the affairs of the East: whether he had there by contumacy and opposition exasperated the young Prince, and exulted over his death, or wickedly procured it, they were then to judge with minds unprejudiced. For, if he who was the lieutenant of my son violated the limits of his commission, cast off obedience to his general, and even rejoiced at his decease and at my affliction; I will detest the man, I will banish him from my house, and for domestic injuries exert domestic revenge; not the revenge of an Emperor. But for you; if his guilt of any man's death whatsoever is discovered, show your just vengeance, and by it satisfy yourselves, satisfy the children of Germanicus, and us his father and grandmother. Consider too especially, whether he vitiated the discipline and promoted sedition in the army; whether he sought to debauch the affections of the soldiers, and to recover the province by arms: or whether these allegations are not published falsely and with aggravations by the accusers, with whose over-passionate zeal, I am justly offended: for, whither tended the stripping the corpse and exposing it to the eyes and examination of the populace; with what view was it proclaimed even to foreign nations, that his death was the effect of poison; if all this was still doubtful, and remains yet to be tried? It is true I bewail my son, and shall ever bewail him: but neither do I hinder the accused to do what in him lies to manifest his innocence, even at the expense of Germanicus, if aught blamable was in him. From you I entreat the same impartiality: let not the connection of my sorrow with this cause, mislead you to take crimes for proved because they are imputed. For Piso; if the tenderness of kinsmen, if the faith of friends, has furnished him with patrons, let them aid him in his peril, show their utmost eloquence, and exert their best diligence. To the same pains, to the same firmness I exhort the accusers. Thus much we will grant to the memory of Germanicus, that the inquest concerning his death, be held rather here than in the Forum, in the Senate than the common Tribunals. In all the rest, we will descend to the ordinary methods. Let no man in this cause consider Drusus's tears; let none regard my sorrow, no more than the probable fictions of calumny against us."
Two days were then appointed for maintaining the charge; six for preparing the defence, and three for making it. Fulcinius began with things stale and impertinent, about the ambition and rapine of Piso in his administration of Spain: things which, though proved, brought him under no penalty, if acquitted of the present charge; nor, though he had been cleared of former faults, could he escape the load of greater enormities. After him Servaeus, Veranius, and Vitellius, all with equal zeal, but Vitellius with great eloquence urged "that Piso, in hatred to Germanicus, and passionate for innovations, had by tolerating general licentiousness, and the oppression of the allies, corrupted the common soldiers to that degree, that by the most profligate he was styled Father of the Legions: he had, on the contrary, been outrageous to the best men, above all to the friends and companions of Germanicus; and, at last, by witchcraft and poison destroyed Germanicus himself: hence the infernal charms and immolations practised by him and Plancina: he had then attacked the Commonwealth with open arms; and, before he could be brought to be tried, they were forced to fight and defeat him."
In every article but one his defence was faltering. For, neither his dangerous intrigues in debauching the soldiery, nor his abandoning the province to the most profligate and rapacious, nor even his insults to Germanicus, were to be denied. He seemed only to wipe off the charge of poison; a charge which in truth was not sufficiently corroborated by the accusers, since they had only to allege, "that at an entertainment of Germanicus, Piso, while he sat above him, with his hands poisoned the meat." It appeared absurd that amongst so many attending slaves besides his own, in so great a presence, and under the eye of Germanicus, he would attempt it: he himself required that the waiters might be racked, and offered to the rack his own domestics: but the Judges were implacable, implacable from different motives; Tiberius for the war raised in the province; and the Senate could never be convinced that the death of Germanicus was not the effect of fraud. Some moved for the letters written to Piso from Rome; a motion opposed by Tiberius no less than by Piso. From without, at the same time, were heard the cries of the people, "that if he escaped the judgment of the Senate, they would with their own hands destroy him." They had already dragged his statues to the place from whence malefactors were precipitated, and there had broken them; but by the orders of Tiberius they were rescued and replaced. Piso was put into a litter and carried back by a tribune of a Praetorian cohort; an attendance variously understood, whether as a guard for his safety, or a minister of death.