The emperor had despatched two prætorian cohorts with
instructions that the magistrates of
Calabria,
Apulia, and
Campania were to pay
the last honours to his son's memory. Accordingly tribunes and centurions
bore Germanicus's ashes on their shoulders. They were preceded by the
POPULAR GRIEF, OFFICIAL INDIFFERENCE |
standards unadorned
and the fasces reversed. As they passed colony after colony, the populace in
black, the knights in their state robes, burnt vestments and perfumes with
other usual funeral adjuncts, in proportion to the wealth of the place. Even
those whose towns were out of the route, met the mourners, offered victims
and built altars to the dead, testifying their grief by tears and wailings.
Drusus went as far as
Tarracina with Claudius,
brother of Germanicus, and the children who had been at
Rome. Marcus Valerius and Caius Aurelius, the consuls,
who had already entered on office, and a great number of the people thronged
the road in scattered groups, every one weeping as he felt inclined.
Flattery there was none, for all knew that Tiberius could scarcely dissemble
his joy at the death of Germanicus.
