Cheating the Public, or: Tacitus Vindicated

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On the 10th of December, in the year 20 AD, the most spectacular trial of the early principate ended.The defendant was charged with nothing less than the murder in Syria of Germanicus, adopted son and declared heir of the emperor Tiberius.The accusation was made against Cn.Calpurnius Piso and his wife Plancina, who had both been in Syria at the same time as Germanicus.The princeps' son had been put in charge of the reorgani sation of the eastern provinces of the empire from the beginning of the year 18 AD,2 at which time Piso had been governor of Syria, with its four legions and many auxiliary units.At the same time Piso was made adiutor to Germanicus.We cannot be sure what this title actually entailed, but basically Piso should have acted as his advisor on political and military matters.Piso was 58 years old, much older than the 33-year old Germani cus.Later it was claimed that Piso was supposed to keep an eye on Germanicus3which may not have been far from the truth.During the year 18, tensions were already apparent between the son and the legate of the Emperor.By the summer of 19, these tensions had exploded into open conflict.When Germanicus fell ill, he supposed that Piso had caused his illness by having slow poison put in his food.So Germanicus for mally renounced the political friendship of his advisor, whereupon Piso left the prov ince.Later, it was said that Germanicus had driven Piso out of the province -which may have been true, even if Germanicus had not ordered it in so many words.4A short time later the Emperor's son died, on 10th October 19 AD.When Piso heard of his death, he tried to return to Syria, and to this end assembled some troops.But Sentius Saturninus, the new governor of Syria, who had been nominated by the friends of This paper is an extended version o f a lecture I gave in November 1999 in Tel Aviv Univer sity, under the auspices o f the Sackler Institute for Advanced Study.I am very grateful to Susan Weingarten