page_title: Germanicus
section_title: Recall
hierarchical_section_title: Germanicus / Career / Recall
context_page_description: Germanicus Julius Caesar was a popular and prominent general of the Roman Empire, known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4, he was adopted by his paternal uncle, Tiberius, who succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor a decade later. As a result, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family which he was related to on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii was further consolidated through a marriage between himself and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the older brother of Claudius, the father of Caligula, and the maternal grandfather of Nero.
  During the reign of Augustus, Germanicus enjoyed an accelerated political career as the heir of the emperor's heir, entering the office of quaestor five years before the legal age in AD 7. He held that office until AD 11, and was elected consul for the first time in AD 12.
context_section_description: At the beginning of AD 17, Germanicus returned to the capital and on May 26 he celebrated a triumph for his victories over the Germans. He had captured a few important prisoners, but Arminius was still at large. It was far from clear that Germanicus had won the war. Nonetheless, this did not take away from the spectacle of his triumph: a near contemporary calendar marks 26 May as the day in "which Germanicus Caesar was borne into the city in triumph", while coins issued under his son Gaius (Caligula) depicted him on a triumphal chariot, with the reverse reading "Standards Recovered. Germans Defeated."
  His triumph included a long procession of captives including the wife of Arminius, Thusnelda, and her three-year-old son, among others of the defeated German tribes. The procession displayed replicas of mountains, rivers, and battles; and the war was considered closed.
  Tiberius gave money out to the people of Rome in Germanicus's name, and Germanicus was scheduled to hold the consulship next year with the emperor. As a result, in AD 18, Germanicus was granted the eastern part of the empire, just as Agrippa and Tiberius had received before, when they were successors to the emperor.
caption: Thusnelda at the Triumph of Germanicus, by Karl von Piloty, 1873.[55]
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