DRUSO

DRUSUS. - A first name borne by two members of the family of Augustus. 1) Nero Claudius Drusus (known as the Elder), son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia, Augustus’s second wife, born in 38 BC. He subdued the Rhaetians in the Tridentine Alps, quelled a Gallic revolt, but his greatest achievement was the war against the German tribes of the Sicambri, Usipetes, Chatti, Cherusci, Suebi and Marcomanni. He constructed the navigable canal (Fossa Drusiana) between the Rhine and the sea. He died in Germany in 9 BC; his ashes, accompanied on foot by his brother Tiberius (who later became emperor) and met by Augustus himself at Pavia, were interred in the Mausoleum of Augustus. By his wife Antonia, daughter of the triumvir, he had three children: Germanicus, Livilla and Claudius. 2) Iulius Caesar Drusus (known as the Younger), son of Tiberius and Vipsania Agrippina, born between 15 and 12 BC, husband of Livilla by whom he had the twin sons Tiberius and Germanicus. He fought victoriously in Illyricum. He died from poison administered by his wife at the instigation of Sejanus.