Tiberius having gained credit for forbearance by the check he
had given to the growing terror of the informers, wrote a letter to the
Senate, requesting the tribunitian power for Drusus. This was a phrase which
Augustus devised as a designation of supremacy, so that without assuming
the
DRUSUS INDICATED FOR SUCCESSION |
name of king or
dictator he might have some title to mark his elevation above all other
authority. He then chose Marcus Agrippa to be his associate in this power,
and on Agrippa's death, Tiberius Nero, that there might be no uncertainty as
to the succession. In this manner he thought to check the perverse ambition
of others, while he had confidence in Nero's moderation and in his own
greatness.
Following this precedent, Tiberius now placed Drusus next to
the throne, though while Germanicus was alive he had maintained an impartial
attitude towards the two princes. However in the beginning of his letter he
implored heaven to prosper his plans on behalf of the State, and then added
a few remarks, without falsehood or exaggeration, on the character of the
young prince. He had, he reminded them, a wife and three children, and his
age was the same as that at which he had himself been formerly summoned by
the Divine Augustus to undertake this duty. Nor was it a precipitate step;
it was only after an experience of eight years, after having quelled
mutinies and settled wars, after a triumph and two consulships, that he was
adopted as a partner in trials already familiar to him.