(13 B. C.E.-23 C. E.) Son of Emperor Tiberius by his first wife, Agrippina
Drusus grew up in the imperial palace and married LIVILLA, the daughter of the Lady Antonia. As his father rose to prominence in Rome, so did he, especially after tiberius was adopted and granted full tribunician power in 13 C. E. Augustus also allowed Drusus honors and position. In 11 C. E. he received the rank of quaestor and in 13 was named to serve as consul in 15 c. e. By the year 14, he was an heir to the throne when Tiberius succeeded Augustus, carrying the will of the dead emperor into the Senate. In 14, Drusus was sent to pannonia to quell the mutiny of the legions there, which had revolted at Augustus’s death. Aided by an eclipse and foul weather, Drusus brought them to order. He then returned to Rome to take up the duties of his consulship.
He greeted with alarm the adoption of germanicus, son of Tiberius’s brother Drusus (see drusus [1]) but maintained good relations with him and with the entire party of Germanicus in Rome. In 19 C. E., however, Ger-manicus died, and Drusus faced a more formidable and ambitious rival, the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard Lucius Aelius sejanus, Sejanus had accompanied Drusus to Pannonia in 14 and had subsequently come to possess the ear and the trust of Tiberius. The two, Drusus and Sejanus, were naturally bitter enemies, as Drusus saw the officer as a grasping upstart. He complained about Sejanus to his father and even struck him on one occasion. Drusus was called hot-tempered, licentious, and cruel (the sharpest of Roman swords were called Drusian after him). Tiberius grew so angry with his behavior that, according to Dio, he shouted: “You will commit no act of violence or insubordination while I am alive, nor when I am dead either.”
Drusus served as consul again in 21, with his father, which had come to be considered an omen. All others who had served in that office with Tiberius had suffered horrible deaths. Sejanus used Livilla and the eunuch Spado to introduce into Drusus’s system a slow-acting but deadly poison. He finally died in 23 C. E. The aging emperor would rely increasingly upon Sejanus.
Drusus (4) (fl. first century c. e.) First son of Emperor Claudius (ruled 41-54 c. e.) and his first wife, Plautia Drusus was betrothed to the daughter of sejanus but died before the wedding, choking to death on a pear.
Duumviri (1) The magistrates in Rome who presided as judges over criminal cases. They ranked just below the PRAETORS in political influence.
See also law.
Duumviri (2) Also called duumviri municipales; two magistrates appointed in the Roman colonies and in municipal communities to serve as the highest officials of the local government. The Roman colonial systems mirrored the central government in organization, and as the local CURIA, or council, and decuriones and curiales were miniature Senates and senators, so were the duumviri the colonial equivalents of consuls, responsible for many of the same tasks as the consuls in Rome. The duumviri oversaw the functions of the local council and ensured that Roman law and order were maintained. Normally their terms of office were for one year, as in Rome. One of the more interesting variations of the office was that of the duumviri honorarii. The title of head of the city could be bestowed upon a visiting dignitary; Trajan, for example, was made duumvir honorarius of the city of Byzantium.
Dyrrhachium Seaport in Illyricum located on a peninsula in the Adriatic; originally called Epidamnus by the Greeks. The city served as a major port on the Adriatic and received most of the seaborne traffic out of brundis-lUM, about 100 miles away on the Italian coast. In 48 B. C.E., Dyrrhachium was the site of a major battle between Julius caesar and pompey the great, during the CIVIL WAR OF THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. After crushing the armies of Pompey in Spain and at massilia, Caesar returned to Italy and Rome to begin preparations for a final confrontation with the Pompeians. On January 4, 48 B. C.E., Caesar set sail from Brundisium with seven legions, equaling some 20,000 men. He left another 20,000 behind, as Marc ANTONY was to transport them.
Pompey, meanwhile, had raised an army of some 100,000 men, although the quality of these troops was suspect.
The Caesarean legions crossed the Adriatic, evading the ships of Pompey and landing in Epirus to allow for maneuvering room in the face of the enemy’s superiority in numbers. After several marches, however, Pompey failed to move directly against Caesar, electing to defend the town of Dyrrhachium instead. Caesar sent strict orders for Antony to move with his legions by sea as soon as possible, for no successful conclusion would be reached without him. Furthermore, winter was ending; without the Adriatic storms, Antony’s galleys would be easy prey for the Pompeians. Antony set sail in late February, barely scraped past the Pompeian fleet and landed on the present-day Albanian coast, north of Dyrrhachium.
Pompey was in the middle, between Antony and Caesar, and set about crushing the lieutenant and his newly arrived forces. But Caesar marched to join Antony and offer battle with their combined units. Pompey declined the confrontation and hurried to prevent other Caesarean elements from reaching Dyrrhachium. He failed, arriving at the port only to have Caesar bar his entry into the city. An advance guard of Pompey’s succeeded in taking some advantageous high ground south of Dyrrhachium, and soon Pompey’s entire army was sur-rounded—minus the sizable garrison of the port, which Caesar could not afford to besiege but which was unable to join Pompey With less than a quarter of Pompey’s strength, Caesar built fortifications around the enemy camps on the coast. Caesar’s army had to forage on a plain that had been reduced to dust. Pompey had the advantage, and could be supplied by sea.
Throughout the month of April the two sides built vast fortifications. Caesar was spread thin trying to maintain vigilance on his walls and forts, and food grew very scarce. His legions searched for supplies in desperation, surviving through sheer force of will. By late June, Pom-pey was compelled to act. The crops outside were ready for harvest, and malaria was soon to break out in his camp. In early July an attack was made. Luring Caesar away from his fortifications, Pompey struck hard along the lines and very nearly broke through, but was stayed by the Legate Sulla. A more straightforward assault was then tried, one designed to use the superiority of numbers. A small sortie engaged Caesar in the north, while a half-dozen legions threw themselves into an attack in the south. Caesar countered, but more and more of Pompey’s troops burst across the line.
Caesar terminated the siege and ordered a general retreat to the south, Pompey followed but without enough enthusiasm to compel the rattled legions of Caesar to turn and fight one last battle. Caesar had lost 1,000 men, Pompey fewer. Caesar escaped into Thessaly with his army intact. In August, at pharsalus, Caesar and Pompey would meet again.
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