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5These troops, then, were reduced to quiet in the manner described; but the soldiers in the province of Germany, where many had been assembled on account of the war, would not hear of moderation, since they saw that Germanicus was at once a Caesar and far superior to Tiberius, but putting forward the same demands as the others, they heaped abuse upon Tiberius and saluted Germanicus as emperor. 2When the latter after much pleading found himself unable to reduce them to order, he finally drew his sword as if to slay himself; at this they jeeringly shouted their approval, and one of them proffered his own sword, saying: “Take this; this is sharper.” 3Germanicus, accordingly, seeing to what lengths the matter had gone, did not venture to kill himself, particularly as he did not believe they would stop their disturbance in any case. Instead, he composed a letter purporting to have been sent by Tiberius and then gave them twice the amount of the gift bequeathed them by Augustus, pretending it was the emperor who did this, and discharged those who were beyond the military age; 4for most of them belonged to the city troops that Augustus had enrolled as an extra force after the disaster to Varus. As a result of this they ceased their seditious behaviour for the time. Later on came senators as envoys from Tiberius, to whom he had secretly communicated only so much as he wished Germanicus to know; 5for he well understood that they would surely tell Germanicus all his own plans, and he did not wish that either they or that leader should busy themselves about anything beyond the instructions given, which were supposed to comprise everything. Now when these men arrived and the soldiers learned about the ruse of Germanicus, they suspected that the senators had come to overthrow their leader’s measures, and so they fell to rioting once more. 6They almost killed some of the envoys and became very insistent with Germanicus, even seizing his wife Agrippina and his son, both of whom had been sent away by him to some place of refuge. Agrippina was the daughter of Agrippa and Julia, Augustus’ daughter; the boy Gaius was called by them Caligula, because, having been reared largely in the camp, he wore military boots instead of the sandals usual in the city. 7Then at Germanicus’ request they released Agrippina, who was pregnant, but retained Gaius. On this occasion, also, as they accomplished nothing, they grew quiet after a time. In fact, they experienced such a change of heart that of their own accord they arrested the boldest of their number, putting some of them to death privately and bringing the rest before an assembly, after which they either slew them or released them in accordance with the wishes of the majority.
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