Cæsar, an illustrious Roman general, and one of the most virtuous and noble characters in the history of the empire, was born 15 B.C. He was the son of Claudius Drusus Nero and Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony, and niece of the emperor Augustus. He was thus the brother of the emperor Claudius, and the nephew of the emperor Tiberius, who adopted him in compliance with the request of Augustus. In his twenty-second year he went to assist his uncle in the war against the Dalmatians and Pannonians. For his services in these campaigns he was rewarded with a triumph on his return to Rome. About this time he married; and by his wife Agrippina, who was a granddaughter of Augustus, he had nine children, two of whom afterwards became notorious—Caius Caligula as emperor, and Agrippina as mother of Nero. After another campaign against the Germans in A.D. 11, Germanicus returned to Rome, where he was made consul without having held the Germanicus lower grades of public office. In the following year he was sent by Augustus to take command of the legions on the Rhine. When the news of Augustus' death reached these troops in A.D. 14, they broke out into open mutiny, the veterans claiming their discharge, and the young soldiers demanding an increase of pay. It was only with the utmost difficulty, and the use of fictitious letters purporting to have been received from Tiberius, that Germanicus was enabled to crush the outbreak. Hardly was it quelled when another, still more formidable, broke out. The general threw up his command in disgust, and prepared to leave the camp with his wife and family. This conduct brought the soldiers to their senses. Discipline was restored, the ring-leaders of the mutiny were put to death by the soldiers themselves, while the legions demanded to be led forthwith to battle against the Marsi and Bructei on the other side of the Rhine. Seizing the moment of enthusiasm, Germanicus marched upon the foe, and routed them with great slaughter. Similar success attended his arms in the following year when he marched against Arminius, the conqueror of Varus; but another campaign and two bloody battles had to be fought before full vengeance could be taken for the slaughtered legions. On the trophy which commemorated the rout of the famous German chief, the Roman general, modestly and prudently omitting all mention of himself merely inscribed "The army of Tiberius Caesar, having conquered the nations between the Rhine and the Elbe, consecrates this monument to Mars, Jupiter, and Augustus." Jealous of these successes, and alarmed by Germanicus' increasing popularity with the army, Tiberius recalled him to Rome; and though he prayed for one year more to finish the work he had so well begun, the tyrant was inflexible. In A.D. 17 Germanicus returned to Rome, and was honoured with a splendid triumph. In the following year he shared the consulate with Tiberius, and was sent to the east to quell the tumults and insurrections there. His movements, however, were watched and checked by the spies and creatures of his imperial master. One of these, Cn. Piso, governor of Syria, a man of haughty and violent temper, strained every nerve to thwart the plans and embitter the life of Germanicus, and succeeded only too well in his design. After accomplishing his mission to the east, Germanicus suddenly fell ill at Antioch, and on his deathbed declared to his wife and family that he believed himself the victim of hostile intrigue and malice. His friends, whether rightly or not cannot now be known, construed his words into a suspicion of poison. Certain it is, that with his dying words he called upon his family and friends to avenge his murder. Tacitus, however, to whose graphic pen we owe the best narrative of Germanicus' life, seems to incline to the opinion that poison was not found necessary to shorten the days of him to whom the Romans looked forward with hope and faith as their future sovereign. The insults and annoyances to which he was hourly exposed were found enough.

The character of Germanicus shows with a double lustre in the dark era of tyranny and cruelty in which he lived. Though, as a commander, he was fierce and stern in carrying out the orders of Tiberius against the enemies of the empire, as a man he displayed remarkable clemency towards his foes. His military talents were of the first order, and his successes in war were as brilliant as they were useful. But it was chiefly his personal virtues that endeared him to the Roman people. That he was disinterested is shown by his obstinate refusal to contest the imperial crown with his uncle, though he might have secured it without much difficulty. His sense of duty, his chastity, his munificent liberality, his attachment to his friends, and his great personal accomplishments, made his early death the subject of universal lamentation throughout the whole Roman empire. At the time of his death, which happened in A.D. 19, he had only reached his thirty-fourth year. The grief in every part of the world to which his fame had reached was intense, and the honours paid to his memory were almost without example in Roman history. Germanicus long enjoyed a considerable reputation as an author. There have been various editions of his remains. The best is that of Orelli, appended to the Phaedrus of that critic, Zurich, 1831. (Tacitus, Annal. i., ii.; Dion Cassius, lib. xxxvii.; Beaufort's Historie de Germanicus Caesar, &c., &c.)