Germanicus

Germanicus was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the adopted son of Tiberius and one of Rome’s most popular generals. He campaigned across the Rhine after the Varus disaster, recovered legionary standards and fought Arminius without permanently conquering Germany. Sent east with broad authority, he quarrelled with the governor Piso and died at Antioch in AD 19. Rumours that he had been poisoned intensified suspicion of Tiberius and made Germanicus an ideal lost prince.

Germanicus is a major character in Robert Graves’s I, Claudius and appears in Ben Kane’s Eagles of Rome trilogy. Historical fiction commonly depicts him as charismatic, honourable and destined to be a better emperor than Tiberius. That image follows ancient authors sympathetic to his family, so novelists must decide whether to accept the legend or expose the political uses made of his early death.

Robert Fabbri’s Tribune of Rome places Germanicus within a narrative shaped by political ambition and government, family, marriage and personal loyalty, and exploration, travel and cultural encounter. Ben Kane’s Eagles in the Storm places Germanicus within a narrative shaped by military command and battlefield decision-making. Other novels featuring Germanicus include Ben Kane’s Hunting the Eagles.