Drusus' first office was that of quaestor in AD 10. Being politically inclined, he was made a permanent member of the committee
Augustus had founded in AD 13 to draw up the
Senate's daily business. In August of AD 14 his adoptive grandfather Augustus died. In his honor, Drusus read a eulogy before the rostra at his funeral. This was not his first religious post though, as he had been a
pontifex since AD 7/8 - an important step to the prestigious
pontifex maximus. Since 14 May AD 14, he was a member of the
Fratres Arvales as well. On 17 or 18 September, Drusus was sent to deal with the troops in Illyricum, and a delegation was sent to confer proconsular
imperium maius upon Germanicus, who dealt with the situation on the Rhine. Drusus did not require proconsular powers because he was consul designate.
The revolt in Pannonia The three legions in
Pannonia (
VIII Augusta,
XIX Hispana, and
XV Apollinaris) were under the command of
Junius Blaesus, who allowed his men a rest from military duties to mourn the death of Augustus. There was a breakdown in discipline, and the soldiers stopped obeying orders as a result. They soon became restless and lashed out against their officers, including Blaesus and a prefect named Aufidienus Rufus. Having been dispatched with two Praetorian cohorts, Drusus and Praetorian prefect Sejanus reached the Pannonian legions at
Emona on 26 September. Next morning, a lunar eclipse before dawn convinced the soldiery that their mutiny was doomed, and order was restored by daybreak as a result. Drusus was allowed into the camp by Blaesus before an assembly of the troops in which Drusus commended the controlled behavior of the soldiery and promised to write a letter to his father addressing their demands. If Drusus' letter was dispatched on 28 September, it should have reached Rome by 3 or 4 October.
First consulship and command of Illyricum In AD 15 he held the consulship alongside
Gaius Norbanus Flaccus. It was this year that he hosted the gladiatorial games in his and Germanicus' name, which he enjoyed in such excess that it disturbed the other spectators. He reportedly carried out his duties as consul well, although he was prone to violence and earned the nickname "Castor" from fighting an
equestrian. There was also an incident at a theater between the Praetorians and
claqueurs ("actors") in which Drusus reportedly sided with the actors, preventing the Praetorian Guard from punishing unruly actors. In
Annals 1.77, Tacitus says the unruly behavior of actors and the crowds were later addressed by the Senate which passed measures allowing the praetors to punish riotous spectators. Such were his excesses that Tiberius decided to make him governor of Illyricum the following year, both to give him experience in war and bolster his popularity with the troops - perhaps also to keep him away from the indulgences of city life. For those reasons, Drusus was sent to Illyricum with proconsular
imperium maius, and would be governor there from AD 17 to 20. Since Germanicus had left the Rhine in AD 16, the German tribes that formerly fought alongside each other against the Romans had turned on each other. The two major forces in the region, the
Marcomanni under king
Maroboduus and the
Cherusci under
Arminius clashed and, after an indecisive battle, Maroboduus withdrew to the heart of his kingdom in the forests of Bohemia. Before that, two tribes (the
Semnones and
Langobardi) had defected to Arminius. Realizing his situation, Maroboduus requested Roman aid. It had been two years since the Marcommani refused to help the Romans against the forces of Arminius, and so Tiberius refused to send aid. Instead, Tiberius sent Drusus to further Roman interests at Maroboduus' expense as he knew the Marcomanni were vulnerable. During the summer of 18, Drusus received intelligence from a former captive of Maroboduus,
Catualda, that Maroboduus was weak and that it was a good time to attack. Hence, Drusus led a powerful force into the heart of the Marcomanni, and stormed their royal stronghold. Maroboduus fled, but was forced to seek asylum in Rome, which Tiberius granted. Later, Catualda lost a battle against the
Hermunduri, and he too was granted asylum.
Heir to the Principate While Drusus was in Illyricum, his adoptive brother Germanicus had died in Syria of illness or poison on 10 October AD 19. The death of Germanicus made Drusus the new heir, for which Germanicus' wife
Agrippina suspected murder. She believed Tiberius had her husband murdered to allow Drusus to become his heir. Historian
Barbara Levick says this is unlikely given the advancement of her son
Nero's career the following year. On the same day as Germanicus' death, Drusus' wife Livilla had given birth to twin sons, Tiberius Gemellus and Germanicus, whom he named after his adoptive brother. Their birth was celebrated by his father who claimed that never before in the history of Rome had twins been born to a man as high in rank as Drusus, and the event was commemorated on the reverse of coins. Tiberius had hoped that Drusus would keep the imperial family together and entrusted him with the guardianship of Germanicus' sons,
Nero and
Drusus. Drusus returned to Rome in December, and was present in 20 March when Agrippina arrived with Germanicus' ashes. He was also present for the trial of
Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, who was posthumously found guilty for the crime of
maiestas (treason). On 16 December, his father gave a eulogy for Germanicus during a Senate meeting, and he gave a eulogy the next meeting. It was decided that their eulogies would both be inscribed in bronze: that of Tiberius for future generations, but the
libellus (eulogy) of Drusus to demonstrate his devotion for his adoptive brother in a show of
pietas (piety). Several changes affected Tiberius' reign following the death of Germanicus. In addition to losing his adoptive son and heir, Tiberius lost a friend: Gnaeus Piso, whose family had been close supporters of the principate since the early days of Augustus. The loss of Germanicus and the trial of Piso dealt a significant blow to Tiberius' popularity, and he came to resent the role of princeps.
Second consulship . Maintaining the same interval of three years between Germanicus' and Drusus' first and second term as consul, Drusus was given the consulship again in AD 21, which he held with his father. The hardship of the last two years on his father had made him reclusive. For Tiberius, Drusus holding the consulship was a welcome sight, and with the state of his health, he retreated to
Campania, leaving Drusus alone in carrying out the obligations of the consulship. Tiberius' retreat lasted about twenty months. In another, it was proposed by
Caecina Severus that the wives of governors be banned from joining their husbands in the provinces. Caecina delivered a speech in support of the bill, followed with speeches by both
Valerius Messalinus and Drusus in opposition to it. The proposal was then abandoned, not because of the arguments made, but because of the intervention of an external force (the
auctoritas of Drusus)--the same reason for the later repeal of the
Oppian law (
lex Oppia). Drusus then settled an incident involving the abuse of the protection afforded by icons of the princeps, in which the emperor's images were being used to shield the guilty. Gaius Cestius Gallus brought a complaint into the Senate, and claimed he was being abused under this safeguard by Annia Rufilla. Drusus was soon brought in to weigh on the matter, for the Senate felt only a member of the imperial family could speak on such a delicate issue. At the request of many senators, Drusus had Rufilla arrested and imprisoned. Later, he was given credit for the condemnation of two Roman
equites, Considius Aequus and Coelius Cursor, who had attacked the praetor, Magius Caecilianus, with false charges of
maiestas. It is unlikely that he himself was responsible, for every verdict was given by the Senate with Tiberius' authority, but this did not prevent his popularity. Meanwhile, there had been a rebellion in Gaul led by Sacrovir and Florus, Gauls with Roman citizenship, but the rebellion was settled by
Gaius Silius (commander of the legions of the Lower Rhine) without the intervention of Tiberius or Drusus. After praising the loyalty of the legions in Gaul, Tiberius defended the statement he had made in 14, that neither he nor Drusus should have to "quit the capital" in response to every minor revolt in the empire. Thus the consulship of Drusus was successful, but at the end of the year he fell ill. His illness prompted the equestrian,
Clutorius Priscus, believing his life to be in jeopardy, to write his elegy. Priscus had previously written an elegy for Germanicus for which he was paid. He thought that he would be rewarded again, and so recited his elegy before an audience in preparation for Drusus' death. An unamused informer brought the matter before the Senate, and it was voted that he be executed. His execution was decreed and carried out without first consulting the emperor. This induced Tiberius to introduce a law where the Senate must wait 10 days after such condemnations before making such decrees public as to allow him to learn of their decisions first. The following year, Tiberius asked the Senate of Rome to grant Drusus
tribunicia potestas (
tribunician power), which they responded to elatedly. The Senate decreed statues, shrines, temples, an arch, and other "customary honors" upon the princeps and his son. Thus in the spring of AD 22 Drusus received
tribunicia potestas, a distinction no senator could then aspire to, as the honor was reserved exclusively for the emperor and his immediate successors. Only two men had been honored this way by Augustus—first Marcus Agrippa and then Tiberius himself—but Tiberius had never bestowed the power on Germanicus. It was then that Drusus shared the symbol of supreme power with his father. At the time the girl was only 4 years old but the marriage was prevented when the boy accidentally died a few days later of
asphyxiation. Regardless, his ambition to further expand his power was clear. By AD 23, Sejanus had come to exert considerable influence over the emperor. Such was his relationship with the emperor that he was referred to by Tiberius as
Socius Laborum ("my partner in my toils"). Sejanus' influence and position allowed him to be elevated to the rank of
praetor, a position rarely attained by members of the equestrian order. His supporters in the Senate were given advancement in their offices, By this time the enmity between Drusus and Sejanus had reached a critical point: Drusus had struck the prefect with his fist, and openly lamented that "a stranger was invited to assist in the government while the emperor's son was alive". According to Levick, there is nothing to suggest bad relations between the two before this point, especially not as far back as 14, during their expedition to Pannonia. She says, however, it may have been the clash between theatrical
claqueurs and the Praetorian Guard in 15 that began the quarrel, but not enough is known to say for certain. Of more concern to Drusus was, perhaps, that in 20 his father mentioned Sejanus to the Senate in terms that treated him as his partner in power. For Drusus, the heir of that exact position, this was a legitimate cause for concern. Cassius Dio says the actions of Sejanus were revealed in a letter by Apicata following his death in 31 October. ==Post mortem==