Nero Claudius Drusus
Nero Claudius Drusus stood at the bank of the Elbe in 9 BC, further east than any Roman army had marched before. An apparition appeared before him, the ancient sources report: a Germanic woman warning him to proceed no further and foretelling his death. He turned back. Within weeks, a fall from his horse set infection in motion. He was dead before he could reach home.
He was born in 38 BC as the youngest son of Livia Drusilla. His stepfather was the Emperor Augustus. His brother would become the Emperor Tiberius. His son ruled Rome as the Emperor Claudius. His grandson Caligula and his great-grandson Nero would follow. Few figures in Roman history touch so many dynastic threads. Yet Drusus himself remains far less known than any of the emperors his life made possible.
His campaigns ran from 12 BC to 9 BC, four years in which he pushed Roman arms into entirely new territory. Why his death mattered so catastrophically, and why his successors failed so completely, is bound up in what kind of commander he was.
Drusus married Antonia Minor, the daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, who was Augustus's own sister. Antony had been Augustus's great rival in the civil wars that preceded the empire. By the logic of Augustus's family politics, Drusus found himself married to the daughter of his stepfather's most powerful enemy.
Drusus gained a reputation, rare among Roman aristocrats, for complete faithfulness to Antonia. They had at least five children together. Three survived: the general Germanicus, the son Claudius, and a daughter named Livilla, meaning "little Livia." The other two died in childhood. Antonia never remarried after Drusus's death and outlived him by nearly five decades.
Tiberius named his eldest son after his brother, breaking the usual convention of naming firstborns after their own father or grandfather. Drusus returned the gesture by giving his second son, Claudius, the praenomen Tiberius.
According to Suetonius, Drusus was given the praenomen Decimus at birth, making his full birth name most likely Decimus Claudius Drusus. By the time he entered public life, it had become Nero Claudius Drusus. When and why this happened is not recorded.
Using his father's cognomen "Nero" as a praenomen had no precedent in the family. The prominence given to the cognomen "Drusus" also foregrounded his mother's ancestry over his father's, a reflection of Livia's standing in Augustus's household.
C.J. Simpson, writing in 1988, proposed three moments when the change was most likely to have occurred. The first was when Tiberius was briefly adopted by a man named Marcus Gallius. The second was when their father died in 33 BC. The third was when Drusus assumed the toga virilis, the rite marking a Roman boy's entry into manhood. Simpson favored the toga virilis as the most probable occasion. His reasoning was that pointing to their father's death would have drawn unwanted attention to Livia's remarriage. Mark Antony had already used that remarriage as propaganda against Augustus. Barbara Levick argued instead that the adoption of Tiberius by Gallius made it necessary for Drusus to carry the Nerones' name.
Lindsay Powell offered a third view. He suggested that Drusus himself, despite his young age, may have chosen the name as a tribute to his late father. Powell noted that "Nero" in ancient Sabine, the language of the people from whom the Claudii descended, meant "strong" or "valiant."
Drusus arrived in Gaul in late 15 BC to serve as governor of the three Gaulish provinces. He remained, in various roles, for much of the rest of his life. One durable trace of his administration is a unit of measurement: the pes Drusianus, or "Drusian foot," measuring about 33.3 centimeters. It remained in use in Samarobriva, present-day Amiens, and among the Tungri.
Between 14 and 12 BC, Drusus established the concilium Galliarum, a council of the Gaulish provinces. Each year on the first of August, the council elected a priest to celebrate games and venerate Rome and Augustus as deities. The ceremony was held at an altar Drusus founded at Condate. On that same date in 10 BC, his son Claudius was born in Lugdunum, the day the altar was first inaugurated.
Along the Rhine, Drusus supervised the construction of roughly fifty military bases and secured an alliance with the Batavi. He also commissioned canals to give his fleet access between rivers. In the spring of 12 BC, those canals carried his forces from near modern Nijmegen toward the mouth of the Ems.
The Chauci of present-day Lower Saxony concluded a treaty acknowledging Roman supremacy. Back in Rome that winter, Drusus was rewarded with the office of praetor urbanus. His achievements, including navigating the North Sea with Roman battle standards, were significant enough to be commemorated on coins.
In spring of 11 BC, Drusus crossed the Rhine from Vetera and marched up the River Lippe. He encountered the Tencteri and Usipetes and defeated both in separate engagements. At the Werra Valley he turned back, pressed by winter and dwindling supplies. The Cherusci ambushed his retreating forces at a place called Arbalo. The Romans broke through, and his troops acclaimed him as imperator. To show continued mastery of the territory, he garrisoned positions inside Germania through the winter of 11-10 BC. These included camps in Hesse and in Cheruscan territory.
In 10 BC, the Marcomannic king Maroboduus chose relocation over confrontation. He led his people from their homeland to Bohemia to avoid Roman arms. Drusus pushed on from bases near present-day Mainz and Rödgen. He established a new supply camp at Hedemünden and drove back the Chatti and the resurgent Sicambri.
In 9 BC, Drusus dedicated a temple to Caesar Augustus at Andemantunnum before rejoining his command at Mainz. That year's campaign carried the army through the territories of the Marsi and Cherusci and across the Elbe. He erected a trophy at the turning point, near what may have been the site of Dresden or Magdeburg.
During the four years of German campaigning, Drusus sought out enemy chieftains for individual combat at least three times. He was pursuing the spolia opima, Rome's highest individual military honor. Earning it required a Roman general to defeat an enemy king in personal combat. The general then stripped the fallen king of his armor and weapons.
Drusus is considered likely the fourth and final Roman in history to have achieved this honor. Whether he definitively killed a Germanic king in single combat is uncertain; the ancient sources are ambiguous. He died before the formal ceremony could take place, so the question was never settled.
Augustus deposited the laurels from his fasces in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius after Drusus's death. He had always placed them in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus before. The historian J.W. Rich reads the change as an affirmation of Drusus's memory. Had Drusus lived, he would have placed the spolia opima in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius himself.
Tiberius was with his brother when the infection took hold, having joined the campaign that summer. Drusus died in the summer of 9 BC, roughly a month after the fall.
Shortly before his death, Drusus wrote to Tiberius complaining about Augustus's style of rule. He discussed forcing the emperor to restore the republic. Suetonius reports that Drusus had also refused to return to Rome in his final weeks. What lay behind that refusal is not recorded. His ashes were deposited in the Mausoleum of Augustus.
Livia, his mother, was deeply affected by the loss. On the advice of the philosopher Areus, she commissioned many statues and images of Drusus and spoke of him often. A Latin work called the Consolatio ad Liviam was framed as a message of consolation to her on this occasion. Scholars generally consider it to have been written sometime between 29 and 37 AD.
His legions erected a monument in his honor at Mogontiacum, modern Mainz, called the Drususstein. Remnants of it still stand. The Senate raised a commemorative arch on the Appian Way, inscribed "DE GERM." It depicted his Elbe trophy and him fighting on horseback. He was posthumously granted the hereditary title "Germanicus," which his eldest son carried first. Three later emperors of the dynasty would bear it as well.
Augustus wrote a biography of Drusus, though it has not survived. He also ordered festivals to be held at Mogontiacum on the anniversary of Drusus's death and most likely on his birthday. In 41 AD, when Claudius became emperor, he revived his father's memory with new public honors. These included annual games in the Circus Maximus on the 14th of January. Coins were issued bearing Drusus's likeness and his commemorative arch. A monument near the Ara Pacis Augustae was also restored. Claudius completed a road from Italy into Raetia following Drusus's campaign route, with road markers commemorating his Alpine victories.
The historian Michael McNally has called Drusus the most able of all the Roman commanders who attempted to conquer Germania. His successors could not match what he had built. Tiberius fell out of imperial favor and chose self-exile in 6 BC. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus had some success but was largely bogged down in revolts. Then Publius Quinctilius Varus lost his entire army at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The Rhine became Rome's de facto permanent border.
In 2018, a bust of Drusus was purchased at a Goodwill shop in Texas for $34.99. It was later identified as an authentic antique, believed to have been taken from Aschaffenburg, Germany, during World War II. It was due to be returned to Aschaffenburg in 2023.
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Common questions
Who was Nero Claudius Drusus and why is he historically significant?
Nero Claudius Drusus (38-9 BC) was a Roman general who launched the first major campaigns across the Rhine into Germania. He was the stepson of Emperor Augustus and the father of Emperor Claudius, with three later emperors counting him as a direct ancestor: his son Claudius, his grandson Caligula, and his great-grandson Nero.
How did Nero Claudius Drusus die?
Nero Claudius Drusus died in the summer of 9 BC after falling from his horse while returning from his advance to the Elbe river. Infection set in over the following weeks, and he died roughly a month after the accident. His brother Tiberius had joined the campaign and was with him when he died.
What were the Germanic campaigns of Nero Claudius Drusus?
Nero Claudius Drusus conducted four consecutive campaigns into Germania from 12 BC to 9 BC, subjugating or concluding treaties with the Chauci, Sicambri, Batavi, Frisii, Usipetes, Marsi, Chatti, and Cherusci. He became the first Roman general to reach the Weser and Elbe rivers, crossing the Elbe in the final campaign of 9 BC.
What is the spolia opima and did Nero Claudius Drusus achieve it?
The spolia opima was Rome's highest individual military honor, awarded to a general who personally defeated an enemy king in combat and stripped him of his armor and weapons. Nero Claudius Drusus is considered likely the fourth and final Roman in history to have achieved it, but he died before the formal ceremony could take place.
Who were the children and descendants of Nero Claudius Drusus?
Nero Claudius Drusus and his wife Antonia Minor had three surviving children: the general Germanicus, the future Emperor Claudius, and a daughter named Livilla. Three later emperors were his direct descendants: Claudius his son, Caligula his grandson, and Nero his great-grandson.
What happened to Roman expansion into Germania after Nero Claudius Drusus died?
After the death of Nero Claudius Drusus in 9 BC, Roman expansion into Germania stalled under a succession of less capable commanders. Publius Quinctilius Varus eventually lost his entire army at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and the Rhine became the de facto permanent border of the Roman Empire.
All sources
21 references cited across the entry
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- 5BookThe Civilization of RomePierre Grimal — Allen & Unwin — 1963
- 6BookRoman Studies: Literary and HistoricalTimothy Peter Wiseman — F. Cairns — 1987
- 7BookPrinces and Political Cultures: The New Tiberian Senatorial DecreesGreg Rowe — University of Michigan Press — 2002
- 8BookTiberius the PoliticianBarbara Levick — Taylor & Francis — 2003
- 9JournalLivia before OctavianEric D. Huntsman — 2009
- 10BookGermanicusWillem Frederik Akveld — J.B. Wolters — 1961
- 11BookThe Republic in Danger: Drusus Libo and the Succession of TiberiusAndrew Pettinger — OUP Oxford — 2012
- 13JournalTiberius' adoption by M. Gallius and the elder Drusus' change in praenomenC.J. Simpson — John Pinsent — 1993
- 14BookSuetonius: ClaudiusJean Mottershead — Bristol Classical Press — 1986
- 15BookUntersuchungen zur vita Claudii des SuetonKlaus Scherberich — Universität zu Köln — 1995
- 16Powell (2011)Powell — 2011
- 17BookAntonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman LadyNikos Kokkinos — Psychology Press — 1992
- 18BookMainz – tours on footHans Kersting — Bayerische Verlagsanstalt — 2003
- 20BookTeutoburg Forest, AD 9 : the destruction of Varus and his legionsMichael McNally — Osprey Publishing — 2011
- 21JournalReview of Consolatio ad Liviam by Arnold WitloxArnold M. Duff — 1935
- 22NewsA woman bought a statue for $34.99 at a Goodwill in Texas. It turned out to be an ancient Roman artifact – and likely lootedCaitlin O'Caine — 5 May 2022