The Annals of Aelius -- A History of Rome Under the Julian Emperors

[Atamolos]

IN· ANNALIBVS· ÆLIVS·
HISTORIA· ROMÆ· SVB· IVLIANO· IMPERATORIBVS
SCRIPTVM· A· PVBLIVS· ÆLIVS· ADRIANVS
·················
The Annals of Imperial Rome Beginning in 745 AUC
by Publius Aelius Adrianus
Translated by Clodius Theodoricus Alexander, MDXXIII ab Urbe Condita for the Imperial Universities at Byzantium, Athens, and Claudianopolis

*** The Annals ***

Volume 1 - The Last Consul (lost)
Books 1 to 5
From the assassination of the Divine Julius until the death of Antonius the triumvir

Volume 2 - A Country for Naught (lost)
Books 6 to 9
From the constitutional settlements of the Divine Augustus until the Germanic wars

Volume 3 - Have I Played My Part Well?
Books 10 to 13
From the death of Tiberius until the death of Augustus

Volume 4 - The Prince's Legions
Books 14 to 16
From the accession of Drusus until the height of his power

Volume 5 - The House of Agrippa
Books 17 to 21
From the campaigns on the Danube until the Julian Schism

Volume 6 - Birthright Throne
Books 22 to 27
From the accession of Germanicus until the Long March

Volume 7 - Changing of the Guard
Books 28 to 33
From the division of Germanicus' family until the death of Vopiscus

Volume 8 - The House of Drusus
Books 34 to 38
From the accession of Gaius to the accession of Marcus

Volume 9 - Enlightened and Elect
Books 39 to 45
...

Volume 10 - The House of Caesar
Books 46 to 50
...

Volume 11 - Den of Thieves
Books 51 to 56
...

Volume 12 - The House of Nero (partial)
Books 57 to 62
...

The Empire at the time that Volume Three begins​

Volume Three - Have I Played My Part Well?​

Despite the recent sack of Aggrippanople by the Venedi, many historical documents from the early imperium have been recovered from the smoldering imperial archives by the victorious general Basilus and his legions, which have fortunately made it to the court here in Byzantium, where I have been able to translate them from the original archaic Latin to modern Latin and Greek. I will translate the original text for use by the university in the city, but I will also compile summaries of each book in Greek for the casual historians who may read these histories as a passing interest. If the university is pleased and wishes to finance my translation of a number of other historical texts including the recovered works of Titus Livius, Lucius Sertorius, and Aemilius Callisto, notify me at your leisure. At present, the recovered works of Aelius only account for the period ranging from 744 to 862 AUC, as well as a portion of the period from 862-882. The first books of his annals covering the period from 723-744 have been completely lost unfortunately.

A brief biography of the author for the unfamiliar reader: Publius Aelius Adrianus was a Spanish-born patrician, descended from Roman colonists who arrived in the region of Baetica not long after the seizure of Hispania from Carthago. His family would enter the ranks of the senate early in the imperium, during the reign of Germanicus, and their wealth would distinguish the family as loyal subjects of Rome in Spain. Aelius' grandfather, one Aelius Marcellinus, would be the first to achieve the consulship in 811, serving as suffect consul at the end of the year the colleague of Aulus Vibius Habitus. Under the Julian emperors, the other Aelii and their relatives the Ulpii and Pedianii would become distinguished administrators in Spain and many of them would be senators and magistrates in Rome. Publius Aelius would embrace politics and use them as an ends to publish history and ethics, which were his true passions. He was a tribune in the latter Dacian Wars, then quaestor in Africa before obtaining the coveted peregrine praetorship. After this, he would be consul twice, once as an ordinary consul, and later for six months as a suffect consul. He would be further distinguished for his career in the provinces, serving as governor of Macedonia and then as a legatus in Pannonia before his retirement back to Rome. In this time, he was primarily a scholar of Greek history, and would author a number of volumes detailing the Persian Wars, the Peloponesian Wars, and the life of Alexander, but his magnum opus was his "Annals of Imperial History", which covers in great detail the early life of the Empire, the political dealings of the Julian emperors, and the institutional history of Rome over nearly two centuries. Volumes one and two of his Annals including the first nine books, which cover the civil wars of the Second Triumvirate as well as Augustus' early reign, have been lost, but the rest of his volumes have survived to the present, and stand as one of the only comprehensive histories of the early imperium.

A bust of Aelius kept by the Imperial University at Barcino, probably sculpted during his father's proconsulship in Tarraconensis​

Chronicle of Volume Three (744 - 756 AUC)​

While on campaign against the Cherusci in 9 BCE, Drusus heard terrible news. His brother Tiberius, while on campaign against the Pannonians, had fallen from his horse and sustained wounds that were now infected. Drusus sped across the wilderness accompanied by only a single guide and made it to Tiberius’ bedside just days before his death. However, his grief would be put on hold as the campaigns in Germania would soon take precedence. To replace Tiberius, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus would be given the Illyrian command, which drew protest from many legati, but Domitius was a loyal partisan of Augustus, so these cries fell on deaf ears.

However, in the senate, Tiberius would not be missed, as Gaius Asinius Gallus made clear during his term as consul in 8 BCE, which gained him no friends thanks to Livia’s influence with many powerful senators. Drusus’ victories in Germania that year, which included the cognomen “Germanicus” and the coveted spolia optima, which only three men had ever received in Roman history (the first being Romulus himself), won many senators over to his camp, which he would discover on his triumphal return to Rome the next year. The surprises would continue as Drusus was hailed as pater patriae, and even adopted by Augustus, who wished for a quick succession, as he had fallen sick again that year. Drusus would use his new tribunician authority to pass a number of laws relating to the succession of the office of princeps, but Livia’s allies discovered that this earned the ire of a number of senators, some of whom would be banished from Rome as a result. Drusus would be shooed bak to Germania before any conspiracy could come to fruition.

The next year, Augustus would try to win over more senators by marrying Vipsania to Lucius Piso and Julia to Gnaeus Lentulus, although none of these marriages would yield children, and Julia would engage in numerous affairs for years afterward. In the same year, the comita centuria would elect Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the sons of Agrippa, as co-consuls, but Augustus would intercede on this decision, and would not let either serve as consul before they were twenty years old. However, in 5 BCE, Augustus saw to it that any member of his family elected to public office would receive tribunician authority, and that any of his posterity elected consul would be given at-large proconsular authority.

Reforms would also be prominent during this period, as Augustus would consolidate a few cohorts of soldiers to form the elite praetorian guard, which would be commanded by two jointly ranked prefects, and Domitius would spend more time on campaign than in his province. In particular, Domitius and his proconsular colleague, Gaius Sentius Saturninus, would begin a two-pronged invasion of the Marcomannic kingdom. This war would climax on the slopes of the mountains just North of the Danube, with the Marcomannic king falling in battle and their army routing, and the survivors fleeing into the countryside. Augustus would appoint a client king to the Marcomannic throne and seven legions would spend the winter in Germania.

Augustus would be busy for the years 2 BCE and 1 BCE, as he traveled to Southern Gaul as the final part of his tax reform program, which had been carrying the Lex Julia, passed in 59 BCE by Julius Caesar to its natural conclusion. As a measure of preventing rebellions against potentially petty or corrupt governors, Augustus stabilized the tax rate and passed a law preventing any governor from changing these tax rates for 80 years, which also applied to the equestrian prefecture of Egypt. In the meantime, Drusus was given overall command of the Eastern provinces, which he would manage from Rome and mirror the tax reforms in the West.

While Drusus would command the East overall, the legions on the ground were commanded by Gaius after his consulship in 1 CE. Despite years of training with more experienced commanders, he was forced to defer to Gaius Lollius, Lucius Domitius, and a number of other more senior officers. The Parthian king was open to negotiations over the status of the Armenian king, who had been ousted by rebels who were stoked on by agents of some in the Arsacid royal family. The Parthian king agreed to disown the insurgent royals and cede all claims to Armenia as Gaius’ legions marched into the country. The rebels would attempt to negotiate, but Gaius’ envoy, Lucius Sejanus would be killed when it became apparent that the negotiations were a trap. By the year’s end, the Romans were once again in control of Armenia, and after a brief punitive campaign in Arabia in 3 CE, Gaius would return to Rome.

Drusus would not be satisfied with the rising stars of Gaius and Lucius however, and he successfully lobbied Augustus to have his sons marry the daughters of Agrippa and receive military training of their own in Germania. Drusus’ elder son Germanicus would even be slated for a consulship in 10 CE.

However, the imperial family would receive even more terrible news in 4 CE. While on retreat to his villa in Nola, Augustus was once against struck by illness. He summoned Drusus to his bedside and spoke plainly with his adopted son. He died later that year, and Drusus returned to deliver the news to the senate, who hailed him as princeps. He spent the remainder of the year assigning his clients to important posts around the empire. The security of his reign was uncertain, and the suspense hung in the air. It would be a long time before his guard was down, and the next few years would prove a very busy time indeed.

A statue of Augustus, commissioned after his death​

 

[Atamolos]

Liber Tertius ——— DCCXLIV ad DCCLVI Annos ab Urbe Condita
Book Ten - The Rise of Drusus​

An altar to Tiberius built by Drusus on his brother's death​

—In the consulship of Drusus Claudius Nero and Titus Quinctius Crispinus…
The dynastic designs of Augustus took a third devastating blow. When news reached Rome that his stepson, Tiberius, had fallen from his horse and become stricken with an infection, Caesar became tormented by his shaken succession plans. The younger prince, Drusus Nero, dispatched his command in Germania and raced to speak to his elder brother one final time. As news of Tiberius’ death reached the Princeps, his awareness of his own frequent infirmities grew in his mind, and the issue of finding an adequate successor overtook the normally level and aloof mind of Caesar. Fearing a vacuum in the command of the Rhenian legions, the emperor commanded the aggrieved Drusus to return to his army and resume his campaign against the Germans. Drusus left Illyricum, with a heavy heart, and would continue on the march against the Marcomanni and their king Marobodus.

However Caesar would not detract his ambitions for the death of a mere stepson, and he instead hastened his plans which were already in motion. The need for a new imperator of the Danuvian legions would see the ambitions of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus realized at the order of the princeps. The elder Domitius was a man of unsubtle character and excess, who had been an erstwhile ally of the younger Caesar during the last war of the Republic, and was rewarded with a consulship and the command of the legions in Africa in the intervening years. His appetites for power no longer satiated by political obscurity, he lobbied the elder Caesar for a command, which the princeps was loath to give him but for lack of any other capable commanders outside his family, for Domitius was the husband of Antonia Major, the daughter of Antonius and Octavia.

Thus, the elder Domitius was dispatched to the upper banks of the Danuvius, which Caesar saw fit to incorporate as the province of upper Illyricum, having extinguished the spirits of the tribes therein. Domitius’ command was fraught with his abuses of power, which were well documented by the legati under him, such as Sextus Aelius Catus and Lucilius Longus, both of whom were in the favor of Caesar, and protested mightily at their treatment by Domitius. Their cries did little to the ill repute of their imperator, who prosecuted a campaign along the bend of the Danuvius, engendering to the native Pannonian tribesmen that the death of their conqueror would not make them desirous against the tranquility of the empire.

Surveying his empire, the divine Caesar had stationed loyal commanders on all three frontiers of his realm. On the Rhenus was Drusus, his young and capable stepson. On the Danuvius was his indulgent and excessive yet fervently loyal nephew-in-law Domitius. And lastly, on the Euphrates was his loyal and experienced lieutenant, Gaius Sentius Saturninus, who oversaw the equestrian governor of Aegypt and the proconsul of Africa in his steadfastness.

Saturninus was a novus homo who had served Caesar since his defection from Antonius in the consulship of Agrippa for the First Time and Caninus Gallus. He had governed Syria for the consulship of Drusus and Crispinus, and had shown great clemency for men who had been accused of subversion against the Jewish king Herod, although they would be turned over to him in the end and executed at the order of the princeps. The prophet of the Christians would also be supposedly born during his governorship of the province. He would serve Caesar loyally, and his martial prowess and administrative skill would prove invaluable in the years to come.

A coin struck to commemorate Drusus' victories in Germania
​

—In the consulship of Gaius Marcius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius Gallus…
The consuls ordinarii were disputed in their terms. Gaius Gallus denounced the recently deceased Tiberius before the assembled senate, and at the behest of his wife Livia, Caesar attempted to have him stripped of his rank, having insulted the sensibilities of the Claudians. The senate was incensed at the subversion of their prerogatives and Caesar was compelled to rescind his efforts, however many of the incoming consulships would be assigned to men of low fibre and without achievement. These sycophants, and many like them would assume the consulship in the following years, vulgarizing the office at the command of the princeps.

More acclaim would be held by Drusus in Germania. He campaigned for a fifth consecutive year, this time as the proconsul of the new province of Germania, which had been consolidated by Caesar in the previous years. At the head of eight legions, a tribute would be levied upon the tribes on the hither side of the Albis. The barbarian tribes which had been pacified in the campaigns since the late Tiberius had crossed the Rhenus would send from among their young men, a group sufficient to constitute several cohorts which would be trained in the fashion of the legions. Among the number levied would be several of the sons of men of noble birth among the Cherusci and the Chatti, who would receive training as centurions of varying ranks. Among these noble men, the Cherusci prince Arminius would distinguish himself in the service of Drusus as a man of great charisma, who would surround himself with many lesser-willed barbarians who would become his clients following his dismissal from the service of the legions.

In the same year, Drusus would gain the coveted spolia optima wherein he defeated a barbarian king in single combat, having sought out numerous Germanic chiefs with specifically this honor in mind. He became only the fourth man in all of history, the first of which was the divine Romulus himself, to attain this high honor, and in this year he was served by many barbarians well, for even without civilization they honored these and like displays of the power of the empire. By this display, but also through the hard fought serve of the legions, many of the tribes of Germania were laid low before his pilum. The Angili, the Mattiaci, the Ermunduri, and the Naristae would each pay tribute before the legions of the Rhenus before the year’s end.

In the same year, the elder Caesar was again struck by infirmity and was confined to his bed for a succession of months. At his bedside his clients were fraught with tales of conspiracy and malcontent on the part of the senate, which cowed at the feet of the mighty Augustus on all accounts, but which connived and schemed in the fashion of powerful old men, just as they had done during the reign of his father. At this, the princeps was uneasy. Persistently unwell, and at the mercy of the senate despite his ample concessions to them, the aging Caesar feared his looming death. Even if he should not fall at the hands of the senate, what would become of the empire he had built, and the powers that he had consolidated?

To this end, he would establish an agency of the legionaries out of the praetorians which could serve him at Rome, and do the same for his dynasty. When he arose from his bed in the latter days of the year, he appointed Publius Salvius Aper and Quintus Ostorius Scapula to become joint prefects of the praetorian cohorts. He dared not appoint a single man to this position, as such an arrangement would engender imperium over all of Italy to a single man, who himself was not emperor, and for the security of his posterity, Caesar alone must hold such imperium. The senate was incensed at this measure, even though they themselves had given imperium over Italy to the office of Augustus in the consulship of Saturninus and Vinicius. At their protests, Caesar did nothing, for he had consolidated these cohorts expressly to oppose their schemes.

A feast in Rome believed to depict Augustus (far right) and Drusus (to his left) from around this time​

—In the consulship of Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso and Gaius Sulpicius Galba…
Caesar recalled Drusus to Rome and saw fit to award him a triumph. Several allies of the family of Caesar were elevated to the curule aedileships for the same year, and the public of Rome was awed by the bread and the circuses strewn forth upon them by the Caesars, and they heaped praises upon the emperor and his family. The senate, in their public sycophancy, elected to bestow upon the triumphal regalia of Drusus the title “pater res publica”, although it had become common knowledge among the ranks of the Caesars that the Republic had passed from history decades prior, the veneer of the old commonwealth was a charade imposed by the princeps, and upheld on behalf of both the senate and people of Rome.

However, Caesar surprised the assembled senate by announcing his legal adoption of Drusus into his family, making him the lawful elder brother of Gaius and Lucius, and placing him in clear first in the line of men who would succeed the princeps. The senate fell over themselves to bestow upon Drusus the same honors which they had given to the earlier, now deceased heirs apparent to the elder Caesar. He was imbued with the authority of the tribuneship in perpetuity and given perpetual proconsular imperium over whichever of the imperial province within which he dwelt. Having secured a stable successor who was of consular age and had established for himself a military career of his own, the august Caesar was satisfied, and retired to his palace for the remainder of the year.

But Drusus would not be quiescent in Caesar’s absence. With his new tribunician authority, he was realized with a multitude of ambitions which he would extoll upon the senate, as he knew many of their number had first favored his boldness over the meekness of Tiberius. They acknowledged his prerogative in doing so, but having seen him govern autonomously without the guiding hand of the elder Caesar, they began to caution themselves of this idealism in his approaching imperatorship on the death of his father. Drusus would legitimize the process of the automatic investment of tribunician authority upon the adoption of any son of the princeps or the election of any likewise natural sons to the various magistracies.

The senate was cowed and their lust for the old commonwealth shone bare, and when Caesar heard of his son’s boldness, he feared for Drusus, who to him was not taking the threat of the senatorial class with any weight, even though they had butchered his grandfather in the Theater of Pompeius during the last days of the Republic. His mother Livia was the most fearful for his wellness at this critical juncture of the succession. She had at once gathered her allies in the senate, among whom were the consul for that year, Gaius Sulpicius Galba, and her relative Marcus Claudius Marcellus, whose father had likewise been consul. From the throes of these men and their clients, the malcontents among the senate were exposed, among who were several of the powerful gentes of the Servilii and Caecilii. These men, having their intentions exposed, prostrated themselves before the powerful Livia, who laid out upon them no mercy in her wickedness. A number of their men would be tried for a conspiracy against a tribune and exiled to Achaea and to Sicily.

With Caesar having tired himself with public life in the meantime, Livia resolved to protect Drusus by encouraging his departure from Rome for the legions once more and enshrouding her influence through the aperture of her clients. Drusus would arrive in Castra Vetera on the Lupia and prepare for another year of campaigns, as his legionaries had grown impatient in their inactivity during the intervening year.

 

[Unknown]

Good start.

What's the PoD?

BTW, like the current writing style...

 

[Atamolos]

Good start.

What's the PoD?

BTW, like the current writing style...

POD is Tiberius dies in 9 BCE instead of Drusus, leaving Drusus as the heir to the empire. Secondary PODs are all over the place, Gaius and Lucius don't die in 1 CE 4 CE respectively, and Augustus dies 10 years before IOTL so Drusus can become emperor, rather than Gaius or Lucius, who would be too young at the time. Also, Sejanus dies in Armenia in 2 CE, and Varus is never assigned to govern Germania (since Tiberius wasn't alive to declare it a "pacified territory" like he did IOTL)

And thanks, it took a while to get the exact style right, so expect updates on this TL to be very slow

 

[alcibiades]

Subbed. Reading through it now looking great so far.

 

[piratedude]

This is great, i only ask that you break it up a little into more threadmarks if you can.

 

[Flavius Iulius Nepos]

I really like your annalistic style, it reminds me Tacitus and considering the periods it seems really appropriate. I'll follow this.

 

[Atamolos]

By popular demand, I'm gonna break the first post up into a few more thread marks so it's easier to read

EDIT: I think I'll post them in 2-4 year installments from now on, rather than one full book at a time

 

[Atamolos]

Book Eleven - Campaigns in the North​

Augustus reconciles Drusus (left) and Gallus (right) during Drusus' time in Rome.
​

—In the consulship of Decimus Laelius Balbus and Gaius Antistius Vistus…
Vipsania Agrippina would have her second marriage arranged by Livia. She would be betrothed to one of Tiberius’ allies, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, younger brother of the consul prior from the previous year. Piso was a lawyer and a loyal member of his family, with whom he shared a close confidence. He had also won the respect of the late Tiberius, with whom he had shared a close friendship, and to whom he felt indebted as Tiberius’ influence had won Piso the prize of the peregrine praetorship in the consulship of Tubero and Fabius Maximus. This marriage would bring the numbers of the Calpurnii into the fold of the Caesars. The erstwhile allies of the family would include a number of the equites of Rome and of Campania as well as the gentes of the Domitii and the Claudii, and a number of the Cornellii from the Sullae and the Lentuli as well as the family and descendants of Marcus Lepidus, the previous pontifex maximus.

At the same time, Julia, who had known no husband since the death of Tiberius, would be betrothed to Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Augur, who had been consul eight years hence with Crassus Dives. She would be unhappy in this marriage, which was now her fourth such political marriage after Marcellus, Agrippa, and then Tiberius. Her new husband would prove an unremarkable and unambitious man of low energy, although he was staunchly disciplined and had accrued great wealth, and his inability to satisfy her would lead to her carrying on a number of affairs in the years to come, as she had with Tiberius.

The public at Rome would remain in their fervor having been roused in the previous year by the triumph of Drusus, now the son of Caesar. In the consular elections which had taken place on the ides of Quintilis, as was the custom, the comita centuria heaped praises as numerous as the previous year upon the Caesars. The elder Caesar himself would stand for the consulship in the next year, and he was awarded the prior consulship without contestation, however the tribes assembled would elect his son, the likewise named, Gaius Caesar as his posterior consul. However, as a strident proponent of the defense of the institutions of the old Commonwealth, was unwilling to accept the results of this election and interposed his tribunician veto upon the results of the election. He did this because Gaius had only reached the age of fifteen and was not eligible for the consulship, even by the reduced standards of the times. Caesar desired not yet to reduce the consulship to this level of degredation openly, despite that the status of the consulship would wane in the years to come.

Caesar thusly commuted Gaius and Lucius’ terms as consul designate for future years and Gaius stood for the consulship in six years while his brother Lucius stood for the same office in nine years, and the public at Rome were satiated.

Gaius (left) and Lucius (right) in busts sculpted to commemorate their consulships designate​

—In the consulship of Gaius Julius Caesar for the Twelfth Time as Augustus and Lucius Cornelius Sulla…
Caesar would enact a multitude of decrees to secure the stability of his regime such that the transition of power upon his looming death would be ensured. His three sons were already in line to receive the tribunician authority to which they were owed by the Lex Claudia, passed by the comita two years previous. However, Caesar would see the same powers imbued in his grandchild, Drusus Julius Caesar, the child of his son Claudius Drusus, who would later be known by the praenomen, Germanicus. The same would be owed to Drusus Claudius Nero, the son of the deceased Tiberius, and to Agrippa’s youngest son Marcus Agrippa Postumus. The younger son of Drusus, Tiberius Julius Caesar, was judged to be too infirm to serve as a tribune or pursue a military career.

Caesar would also ensure the military supremacy of his family by persuading the senate to award an overwhelming proconsular imperium at-large to any member of his family who had served as consul to any province they inhabit, except for Italy, proconsular authority over which fell solely to the princeps, nor over the senatorial provinces. Caesar would subsequently oversee the ceremony imbuing upon his son Gaius the trappings of manhood as he came of age. The aediles for that year were clients of Caesar and they would organize lavish games including a multitude of excesses, which would be financed by the personal treasury of Caesar. In his activity.

While Italy was embroiled in the festivities to which they had become accustomed during the reign of the Caesars, the commanders of the legions were supremely active in a manner not seen in several years. Gaius Saturninus would have his command in Syria given to the proconsul Publius Quinctilius Varus while he himself would travel to Germania and take command of three legions on the upper length of the Rhenus. Drusus himself would command the remaining six legions on the lower length of the Rhenus, though he would also receive decisive imperatorship over Saturninus’ legions as well as those of Domitius, who was still in upper Illyricum commanding six legions. This force of thirteen legions would begin a protracted campaign into lower Germania as well as the territory of the Marcomanni and their allies.

Domitius, who had levied an additional legion with the consent of Caesar, the XXIII Illyrica, had left them and another legion in their castra at Carnutum to enforce the peace in Illyricum. The remainder of three legions marched promptly northward, engaging the Quadi in battle along the North bank of the Danuvius, and burning a number of their villages thereafter. Saturninus would move likewise to the East, with the aim of joining forces with Domitius as well as with a number of auxiliary cavalry recruited from Noricum, who were clients of Caesar at the time. The Naristae would resist this advance, but Saturninus was a patient man without urgency as a commander, and his Norican auxiliaries joined with him in due time, which were more than a match for the Germanic marauders. They were dispatched in short order and Satuninus’ legions marched East.

Saturninus and the Noricans joined with the Marcomanni in battle at the southernmost pass through the Lusatian mountains. The Norican cavalry had considerable difficulty during this battle, but the scouts of the legions located a secondary pass just to the North and were able to surround the disorganized Marcomanni after several days of impasse. Domitius was erstwhile marching westward and the man force of the barbarians had avoided engaging his legions in their cowardice. He marched up the length of the Danuvius, finally engaging with a force of Marcomanni and a number of mercenaries of the Lugii from the hither side of the Albis. The battle of two days that ensued was unremarkable, and after a significant melee, the right flank, commanded by a legatus named Gaius Silius, was able to route the forces of the Lugii and encircle the remainder of the Germans. Tributes were levied upon a number of the tribes and Saturninus installed one of Drusus’ clients, a barbarian named Tertionus, as the new king of the Marcomanni, and the lower flank of Germania had been secured. The legions would construct a number of temporary castra along the slopes of the Lusatian mountains opposite the North bank of the Danuvius, and upon the onset of winter they would remain there.

Gaius Saturninus, proconsul of Raetia​

—In the consulship of Quintus Haterius and Lucius Passenius Rufus…
Caesar became uneasy at Rome and recalled Drusus once more to the eternal city for fear of an incongruous succession. In his stead, for Drusus had planned a campaign against the Cherusci and the Cauci in their disquiet, Caesar sent the brother of Vipsania’s wife Lucius, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, who had been consul three years hence, to command the legions along with his lieutenant, Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, who had been a friend of Tiberius and Drusus in their earlier years.

Gnaeus Piso was a relative of the third wife of the divine Julius, with whom he had shared no particularly close ties. He had held command of the imperial mint and performed admirably, although he was a deeply unpleasant man, having earned a reputation for his decisive temper during his praetorship several years hence. He was not ambitious or honorable, but he was a loyal compatriot of Caesar, as had been his father, hence his political career was marked with honor and success. His colleague, Cossus Lentulus, was a lazy man, believed by many among the senate to be unsuited to command legions. However, the patient Caesar saw promise in the young man and was thus imbued with a number of important Italian magistracies.

When Drusus finally arrived at Rome, he was stricken with a great sullenness, as he had grown accustomed to the simpler comforts of his praetorian tent. However, his family was relieved to have left the castrum at the Colonia on the Rhenus, and return to the comforts and wealth of Rome. He was awarded the agnomen Germanicus, which his eldest son Drusus would take as his praenomen and his younger son Tiberius, would also take as an agnomen. Livia cautioned Drusus against any brazen exercise of his tribunician or proconsular authority for fear of backlash from the senate, as many of the allies of the Caesars were commanding the legions in Germania and Illyricum, and she feared that the clients of the Caesars may be unable to protect the family from any backlash by their enemies in the senate, among whom was Quintus Haterius, who was consul for that year.

The remainder of the year would be constituted by the diversion of various governing affairs from Caesar to Drusus, including orders and assignments sent to the civil magistrates of the provinces as well as Italy and the legions serving at the breadth of the empire.

Germanic campaigns of the previous years​

—In the consulship of Gaius Calvisius Sabinus and Lucius Cornelius Lentulus…
Gnaeus Piso served his term as the proconsul of Germania. His lieutenants Cossus Lentulus and Publius Varus would serve as legates of his numerous legions, and the seven legions there assembled, along with the three commanded by Saturninus in the South, would begin a renewed campaign to pacify the perennially rebellious barbarians. Lentulus would march on the Marsi and besiege them at one of their improvised forts along their borders. They enlisted the aid of the armed men of the Chatti, who would be routed at the Marsic fort and retreat across the Visurgis, where they would be turned away by the pacified Cherusci and forced to engage with Lentulus in battle, where they were beaten in short order, despite their superior numbers. The Cherusci auxiliaries in particular would be lauded by their legatus for their superior service in this campaign.

While Lentulus was exacting a tribute upon the Marsi, Piso had heard word through the Germanic clients of Drusus that the Cauci had become restless since their servitude of the empire had begun after the first campaign of Drusus in the consulship of Messalla and Quirinius. The Cauci sent a diplomatic envoy to meet Piso on the East bank of the Visurgis, but the lot of them were dispatched by Piso’s legions, which exacerbated the ire of the barbarians, who marched at once against the men of Rome. They were dispatched in short order and their retreating number fled to the same bend of the Albis along which the legions had won a great victory over the Cherusci in the consulship of Drusus and Crispinus. In the first of the battles, the Germans overran and surrounded the forces of Piso, but with aid of his quick wit and superior generalship, the legions were able to retreat to their fortified castrum just to the North. In the second battle, a number of tribesmen from the far side of the Albis, among whom were the Suebi and the Langobardi, were called by their allies among the nobility of the Cauci and joined their order of battle.

This addition, which outnumbered the four legions of Piso, was offset with the arrival of Lentulus, who having previously humiliated the Marsi, joined his three legions with those of Piso and Varus, along with a number of their auxiliaries. Having heard this, the fearful barbarians were ferried across the Albis where they would join with a number of Suebi who had been assembled in reinforcement. They would join in battle with the legions at Lake Virunum and a number of the Suebi would flee at the outset of the battle. The remainder of the barbarians would be engulfed and overwhelmed by the superior discipline of the legions, and a great multitude of them would be taken as slaves, while the rest would be killed and scattered about the barren lands of lower Germania. For these victories, Piso would be awarded the proconsulship of Africa while Lentulus would become consul two years hereafter.

Germania would scarcely raise arms against Rome in the years following this decisive victory, although a number of former centurions of the Germanic auxiliaries would be inclined to revolution in decades to come, although these would not pose a serious threat to the force of ten legions stationed in Gaul and Germania, as well as the provinces adjacent. For these victories, Caesar would see the ovations of these generals, and they would become loyal clients of the princeps and his family in the coming years.

 

[Atamolos]

Book Twelve - Tax Reforms of Augustus

A commemorative coin to celebrate Augustus' second visit to Gaul​

—In the consulship of Gaius Julius Caesar for the Thirteenth Time as Augustus and Marcus Valerius Messalla…
Caesar would oversee the ceremony bestowing upon his son Lucius the trappings of manhood, as he had reached the necessary fifteen years of age. His brother Gaius was absent from the city receiving military training from the legions in Hispania and would remain there until his consulship. The festivities and ceremonies were plentiful on the hills at Rome, as the posterior consul for the year would finance a number of chariot races which were lauded with great renown by the plebeians in droves. Messalla, who was the husband of Caesar’s niece Claudia Marcella, would be rewarded by the princeps, who would advance his rank within the senate considerably, despite his youth among the senators.

However Caesar would not let his consulship pass having simply overseen a religious ceremony. The prescient and foresighted princeps had seen storm clouds gathering among the breadth of his provinces. Hispania had been quiescent, but Gaul was perennially discontented at imperial levies and demands, and the loyalties of the Illyrians and the Pannonians were fickle and the stability of these critical frontiers was ambiguous. As his first measure, Caesar dismissed the governors of these provinces outright, and brought in men whom he deemed to be capable administrators with patience in temperament and steadiness in their hands. To Illyricum, he would send one of his ablest governors, Publius Quinctilius Varus, who had been governor in Syria and overseer of the king in Judea after Gaius Saturninus, and had commanded a legion under Piso in the Germanic rebellion of the previous year. Domitius, who had governed Illyricum for an extraordinary length of six years was given command of a single legion and remained in the province.

Paullus Fabius Maximus, who was a descendant of Lucius Paullus Macedonicus and had been consul nine years hence, would be sent to Hispania and oversee the legions there, assisted by his senatorial colleague Gaius Galba, who was consul five years hence. These men would ensure the latter years of Gaius Caesar’s education in all matters with respect to the legions and affairs of the consulship. Aegypt would be commanded by the equite, Publius Octavius, who was unambitious and of meticulous character, and had been a tax collector and magistrate of the treasury at Rome, and had served admirably as quaestor under the Aegyptian legions in the consulship of Haterius and Passenius Rufus. Lastly was the matter of the Rhenian legions, who remained under the command of Gnaeus Piso and Lentulus. Piso would be sent to Africa as proconsular governor and replaced in Germania with Sulla, the consular colleague of three years hence with the princeps himself, and whom the princeps trusted.

Drusus, who had hosted his court at Rome for a number of years would be placed in command of all the fleets of Rome, the legions in Syria, and all correspondence addressed towards Rome in the absence of Caesar, who himself was planning a number of travels in the coming years. Caesar himself had resigned the consulship by the onset of winter, as he desired to reach Vienna before the Alpine passes were closed, and he was replaced in his magistracy by Aulus Plautius, who was a friend of Messalla. Drusus himself cared little for the consulship, and was desirous of a field command in Syria, though he would remain in Italy for a number more years, governing in the stead of his father and the youth of his brothers. However, he would dispatch his sons to the legions in Syria in like fashion to Gaius and Lucius under the general Gaius Caninus Rebilus, the suffect consul of ten years hence. The younger Drusus, whom by this time would be called Germanicus by a number of the legions in honor of his father, and Tiberius would return to Rome years later.

Lucius Piso, the consul and augur​

—In the consulship of Cossus Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Calpurnius Piso…
The city of Rome would be at peace on all quarters, and Drusus ordered the Gates of Janus closed for the first time since the consulship of Tiberius and Varus. Caesar was calmed at this news, although his apprehensions on the staying power of his empire were not dismissed completely, and he would employ the administrative skills of his governors in Gaul, among whom were Gaius Valgius Rufus in Belgica, Marcus Titus in Aquitania, and Quintus Sulpicius Quirinus in Lugdunensis. They joined with the senator Poppaeus Sabinus who was the governor of Narbo in that year, and the five men, along with a number of freedmen advisors and the chieftains of the subject Gauls, would author laws relating to the common taxation of all the Gauls, removing such prerogatives from future governors, except for Narbonensis, the taxation of which would remain the purview of the senate.

Caesar wished that Gaul, which was the critical flank of the empire which held the supply lines of the legions in Germania, should not want for rebellion, less they threaten the whole of both Gaul and Germania’s submission to the Caesars. The rates of taxation being well established, Caesar assembled the governing council of the Gauls, who would enthusiastically accept the terms of these taxes, although it was not their prerogative to do so, in an implicit exchange for the construction of roads under the personal finance of Caesar.

This would become extrapolated by a number of proconsuls and propraetors of varying ranks, as well as the governors of a number of the imperial provinces according to the settlements of Caesar from the early years of his reign. These and like decrees of Caesar would form the basis from which a number of taxes and levies would be standardized from across the provinces. This was aided by Drusus, who curried for the favor of the mighty Caesar, as he wished for his own sons to be considered for the consulship, and eventually the throne. To this end, orders would be sent to Syria to remove the tax authority from later governors and centralizing the taxation of these cities under the authority of the princeps. These taxes would include a levy of one-twenty-fifth of price on the sale of slaves, a levy of one-twentieth on the inheritance of landed estates, and a levy of one-one-hundredth of all goods sold at auction, although there would be additional levies placed upon rents of the imperial estates in Aegypt.

In Rome, Livia feared for the health of her husband, for if he had deceased while outside Italy, there may have been a gap in the succession during which time the civil wars of the last century might resume, undoing all the works that Caesar had done during his lifetime. Gaius, who had returned from Spain in the months preceding, departed for Syria in the near aftermath of his brief stay at Rome. Among his entourage were Augustus’ close friends Marcus Lollius, who had been consul with Quintus Lepidus twenty years hence and Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, who would replace Gaius as the governor of Syria upon the completion of his consulship and a brief proconsulship and who’s brother was the governor of Lugdunensis. Lucius Domitius was also party to this advisory group, as he had tired of the cold woods and plain food of Illyricum, and he yearned for the warmth and festivals of the Mediterranean. The final, and most junior member of this council would be the equite Lucius Aelius Sejanus, whose father was Caesar’s favorite centurion of the praetorians and would eventually replace Quintus Ostorius as junior prefect of the guard in the coming years. This entourage would arrive in Smyrna and spend the winter there before departing for Antioch the next year.

 

[Atamolos]

Book Thirteen - Gaius in the East

The elder Domitius, who accompanied Gaius to the East​

—In the consulship of Gaius Julius Caesar and Lucius Aemilius Paullus…
Only one of the consuls would even be present in the eternal city for the entire year. This was of little administrative consequence, as Drusus remained active in the city and Caesar would arrive back in Italy during the latter months of the year, but this criticism would be levied against Gaius by the senate, bemoaning the abandonment of Rome by the regime of the Caesars. But Drusus would pay the senate no mind in this matter, and the council of old mean was left to their own devices for the year, moderated only by the guiding hand of the consul Lucius Paullus, who was the brother-in-law of Gaius and Lucius by their sister Julia Vipsania.

The governor of Syria for that year, Gaius Rebilus, had been organizing his legions for an invasion of Armenia that year as the Roman-allied king had been deposed and a relative of the Parthian King of Kings, Phraates, had attempted to seize control over the country. However, Gaius was not trained in accordance with the great nuances of administration in the ancient polities of the East. As a consequence, he relied on the elders in his entourage, Lollius, Domitius, Quirinius to take the initiative thereof, despite their numerous flaws in character. Lollius in particular was a greedy and opportunistic man, whose loyalties were fickle, except to Caesar, who albeit was absent from the Syrian command. In his avarice, he was even alleged to have attempted a pact with the Parthian king to reach a settlement and was prepared to make concessions to the Parthian court in exchange for a sum of sesterces from their treasury at Ctesiphon.

By the year’s conclusion, the Parthian king had seen sense and conceded the throne of Armenia to the legions, abandoning his own relatives, in their endeavor to seize the Armenian throne. At the end of his consulship, a number of allied nobles from Mauritania, Cappadocia, and the other eastern kingdoms, would assemble in Gaius’ court at Antioch where they would, at the behest of their agents in the Parthian court, reveal the treachery of Lollius and encourage the young consul to expel him from the city. He cowed to their advice, and Lollius would remain in exile for the rest of his life, where he would later commit suicide.

The rest of the empire would stir slightly in this activity. A minor uprising in Germania among the number of the Suebi living south of the Cherusci would be crushed by Sulla, who was in his final year as proconsul. The Illyrians would likewise stir from their number among the Pannonians, although Varus would show no mercy in the exaction of his retribution against these tribesmen. On a third front, the Gaetuli, who were among the number of the Berbers, who dwellt south of Numidia in the sea of sand. The year would end as the legions stood tensely on the borders with their legati anxious and awake, unused to this silence but ordered to remain in their castra.

Gaius leads his troops against the rebellious Armenians
​

—In the consulship of Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio and Lucius Aelius Lamia…
Gaius would assume the governorship in Syria as his legions marched East against the Armenians. The prince of Media, whom Gaius had placed on the Armenian throne with the assent of the princeps, had stoked tensions with a number of his nobles, some of whom had loyalties to the Arsacids, who were the dynasty which ruled Parthia. Emboldened by his agreement with Phraates, Gaius accepted these diplomatic overtures by the revolutionaries, and he would send his lieutenant, Sejanus to meet with the Arsacid leaders. However, when he entered their chamber, he was set upon by a number of assassins, who believed him to be Gaius, and as his guard fought them off, he became wounded. The unfortunate young equite would die of an infection later that year. Outraged in his grief, Gaius marched on the rebel fortress at Artagira, which was to the East of the border with Commagena. After a siege lasting a number of weeks, the legions stormed the city, and the leaders of the rebellion were crucified outside of Artagira’s crumbled walls.

At Rome, Drusus would be realized with an ambition of his own, as he was desirous for the success of his own sons in the regime of the Caesars. The princeps had clearly favored Gaius and Lucius for the office to succeed him, although Drusus was the elder and more experienced general among them. His sons had returned to Rome early in the year, and Drusus wished for his sons to marry into the lineage of the Julii. Caesar would acquiesce in the case of Germanicus, who was betrothed to Agrippina, the younger daughter of Agrippa and Julia. Although the stammering Tiberius would not receive a Julian wife, but rather he would be arranged to marry Domitia Lepida, the daughter of Lucius Domitius, who was at the time accompanying Gaius’ governorship of Syria, and Antonia Major, the daughter of Octavia.

Caesar would be shaken when he heard that Lucius had become stricken with an illness while resting at Massillia. However, the fates would not claim Lucius on this day, as he recovered quickly with the treatment of the most skilled doctors at Narbo who had traveled to the young Caesar with their services. He would be welcomed into Rome by his elder father, who feared the loss of any of his heirs, and his martial training would be completed at the behest of Caesar by the praetorian centurions in Rome during that year among whom was Lucius Seius Strabo, the trusted equite lieutenant of Caesar.

Caesar would spend the rest of the year taking stock of the junior members of the imperial family. Drusus Nero and Marcus Agrippa Postumus, who were living in Rome but whom had not yet served public office by this time would be jointly elected to the curule aedileship for the next year. In the following years, each would serve as a quaestor with Agrippa’s step-uncle Lucius Lentulus in Germania in successive years while the other would serve as a tribune laticlavius during the quaestorship of their partner. This would suffice for their military training, and each of them was assured of a consulship within ten years of their return from this training.

Augustus' villa in Campania​

—In the consulship of Aulus Caecina Severus and Lucius Volusius Saturninus…
Caesar would evacuate his entourage from the city of Rome to his villa at Nola in Campania, including his two present sons and their respective companies. The travel struck the august Caesar with another of his infirmities, which left him sequestered from his family for the majority of the year. He spoke with Drusus only sparingly through his aides, who would educate the young Caesar on the realities of rule with which he would have to deal upon the seemingly imminent death of his father. Caesar’s clients in Rome were in command of the praetorian guard, the urban cohorts, and the vigiles, as well as the legions of the majority of the imperial provinces, and had ensured that on his death, each of them would acclaim the accession of Drusus to the august title.

But the duties of the imperatorship would weigh heavily on Drusus, and he would spend only a brief time in Nola before returning to Rome with Lucius. Drusus himself would complete a great deal of Lucius’ training, and Lucius would come to admire his elder brother in his advanced experience, having fought a number of campaigns in Raetia as well as Germania. Drusus would see to it that Lucius would be assigned the command in Illyricum under the tutelage of his senior colleague Varus during his consulship the following year. Lucius would depart Rome in September for his command, and Drusus would remain in sole command of Italy.

The Syrian legions, in their activity, would march southward into Arabia in support of Aretas IV, the king of the Nabateans, as he had been forced to flee his capital of Petra following riots by his army. Gaius’ Syrian legions quickly routed the undisciplined Arabs and ushered Aretas back to his throne, after which a number of cavalry auxilia from Mauritania would be proscribed by Juba, who was king of that country as well as a diplomatic envoy with Gaius’ court in the East.

—In the consulship of Lucius Julius Caesar and Publius Vinicius…
Lucius would serve his consulship in Illyricum while Publius Vinicius, who was a close friend and ally of Lucius Piso, would serve as the primary legislative agent of Drusus and Caesar in the senate. Gaius would also return from Syria during the year to great fanfare among the many clients of the Caesars. Drusus would see fit to award the young Caesar with a triumph, although Livia would staunchly encourage her son not to acquiesce to his father’s preference for Gaius and Lucius as his heirs.

Meanwhile at Nola, Caesar was resolved to breathe his last among his family in the comfort of his Summer home. The breadth of his reign had been spent searching for an adequate heir, but fate had seized his nephew Marcellus, his son-in-law Agrippa, and his stepson Tiberius, and he resolved to leave his mortal coils before he could outlive yet another heir to the princeps. Many believe that he conspired with Livia to poison himself to hasten this end and confer the title of Augustus upon Drusus. Caesar would call Drusus personally to his bedside during that year and confer his plans for the empire upon his son. Augustus was desirous that Gaius and Lucius should become the heirs after Drusus after their consulships in the coming years, and that any sons of Drusus or Tiberius would see the throne in due time, but that the elder sons of Agrippa would see their turns take precedence. He warned against the influences of the senate and the praetorian cohorts, as well as the perennial treachery of the legions, and that he had compiled a number of documents that would aid Drusus in his rule. This being resolved, Caesar died just before the kalends of Maius, and Drusus would ascend to the office of princeps. His parting words echoed the playwrights of his day drawing to a close the humility of his reign, “Have I played my part well? Then please applaud as I exit.” He was sixty-eight years old, and had ruled the Empire for thirty-two years.

Drusus returned to Rome shortly thereafter, and read the late princeps’ will to the senate. He posthumously left a sum of sesterces to each Roman citizen as well as a surprising posthumous adoption of his surviving wife, Livia Drusilla, who would thereafter be known as Livia Augusta, although this was likely done so that the senate could not discredit her position now that her husband was dead. The will furthermore made it clear that Drusus would be the sole heir to the command of Caesar, which the senate would laud with great fanfare over the coming weeks. The senate would go on to deify the late Caesar as the divine Augustus and the expense of his funeral procession would be borne by their personal incomes. Drusus would be ratified as the princeps and upon him would be conferred the titles of Augustus, Imperator, and the Corona Civica.

His first acts as the undisputed princeps were to re-assign a number of magistracies and commands to those of his clients rather than the allies of the now dead Augustus. Quintus Ostorius would be assigned the prefecture of Aegypt and replaced by Gaius Petronius as the junior prefect of the praetorians. He moved to assign his loyal consular allies, as well as his family members, to serve provincial commands. Gaius Gallus, consul eleven years hence, and Gaius Caesar were given the commands in Germania for the following year while Saturninus, who was the governor of Raetia that year, would be awarded with a command in Illyricum where Jullus Antonius, who was the half brother of Drusus’ wife Antonia, was given a secondary command in the lower part of Illyricum and the legions therein, although Varus would remain an important administrator in the province. Lastly would be the command of the Syrian auxiliaries, which would be given to Lucius Piso, who would likewise be dismissed from Africa in favor of Quintus Fabricius.

With his reign now secure, Drusus sought about ensuring that his various heirs would receive the military commands that they were due and sent Germanicus and Tiberius to train with the legions in Hispania, who were commanded by Gaius Galba, who was consul ten years hence, and whom was a friend of Drusus. For the rest of the year, all was quiet, and the reign of Drusus hung in the air, as many believed it would be the end of the regime of the Caesars.

The Roman Empire at the death of Augustus​

 

[Zulfurium]

This is absolutely fantastic. I really enjoy how much immersion writting in a "Roman Historian" style brings to the endeavor. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for Drusus, I would expect that there are a series of major rebellions around the corner given the large extension into Germania and Illyricum coupled with the strain on Gaul. Either way, it will be fun to follow.

 

[CHKeeley]

Any ideas for Christianity in this timeline?

 

[CHKeeley]

Also I have a WorldA Roman Empire I just made based off of the map above in case you want to use it for future uploads.

 

[Atamolos]

Any ideas for Christianity in this timeline?

Gonna be honest, I haven't even started thinking about Christianity. IIRC they don't really feature too prominently in mainstream history until Nero's persecutions around the 50s and 60s CE, so I'll have some time to think about it, since I'm writing this year-by-year. But tbh I don't see this TL being particularly different from OTL with respect to church history. My plan is to have an extremely long Julian dynasty that lasts until the 130s, and none of them IOTL cared much for Christians, so it'll probably be a back and forth between toleration and persecution depending on whether or not the emperor has anything better to do with his time. I may even incorporate Christians into the upcoming Jewish revolts, since a more powerful and entrenched Julian dynasty would provide a consistent enemy for both Jews and Christians. If this is the case, early Christianity may develop on more similar lines to Judaism, but I'm just spitballing, and I'll have to read up on early church history to come up with something plausible

Also thanks for the map!

 

[Atamolos]

This is absolutely fantastic. I really enjoy how much immersion writting in a "Roman Historian" style brings to the endeavor. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for Drusus, I would expect that there are a series of major rebellions around the corner given the large extension into Germania and Illyricum coupled with the strain on Gaul. Either way, it will be fun to follow.

Thanks so much! I honestly didn't know if it would seem too repetitive with all so many, "who was consul x years hence" and "x arrived at Rome to much fanfare" but I'm glad people are enjoying it.

And don't worry, I have plenty of revolts planned for the near future, and it'll all be very exciting

 

[ThatRomanFanatic]

WorldA

What's WorldA?

 

[CHKeeley]

It’s a category of maps used on this site pretty often in the Map Thread, there’s a set of basemaps you can check out right here.

 

[RyuDrago]

I am so delighted and happy of this timeline, just for the fact we have a surviving TTL Ab Urbe Condita up to the early Principate, and historian!Hadrian is so right, probably he is even the Pliny the older of his times, maybe even Strabo as well.

Anyway, great times for the Empire, Tiberius dead, Seianus too, Drusus reigns, Germania for now is Roman and likely staying that way, and the house of Agrippa is alive as well, albeit I fear there may be a possible conflict in the future between Germanicus and Gaius for the imperial succession.

About Christianity I have some ideas, maybe I can share you in private.

 

[Atamolos]

I am so delighted and happy of this timeline, just for the fact we have a surviving TTL Ab Urbe Condita up to the early Principate, and historian!Hadrian is so right, probably he is even the Pliny the older of his times, maybe even Strabo as well.

Anyway, great times for the Empire, Tiberius dead, Seianus too, Drusus reigns, Germania for now is Roman and likely staying that way, and the house of Agrippa is alive as well, albeit I fear there may be a possible conflict in the future between Germanicus and Gaius for the imperial succession.

About Christianity I have some ideas, maybe I can share you in private.

Don't jump the gun on Gaius and Germanicus, that'll have to wait until Drusus is dead, so stay tuned for 15-20ish more years and we'll see how that unfolds. And feel free to message me about any ideas you have for the TL, I only have the broadest strokes planned already, so everything else is pretty fluid and I'm always open to suggestions.