resolved not to allow Germanicus to involve Rome
too deeply in German affairs, and when it seemed to him that the youth
had fittingly proved his prowess and had made the enemies of Rome feel
its power sufficiently, he recalled him and in his stead sent Drusus,
who was his real, and not his adopted, son. But this recall did not at
all please the party of Germanicus, who were loud and bitter in their
recriminations. They began to murmur that Tiberius was jealous of
Germanicus and his popularity; that he had recalled him in order to
prevent his winning glory by an immortal achievement. Tiberius so
little thought of keeping Germanicus from using his brilliant qualities
in the service of Rome that shortly after, in the year 18 A.D., he sent
him into the Orient to introduce order into Armenia, which was shaken
by internal dissensions, and he gave him a command there not less
important than the one of which he had deprived him. At the same time
he was unwilling to intrust things entirely to the judgment of
Germanicus, in whom he recognized a young man of capacity and valor,
but, nevertheless, a young man influenced by an imprudent wife and
incited by an irresponsible court of flatterers. For this reason he
placed at his side an older and more experienced man in whom he had the
fullest confidence--Cnaeus Piso, a senator who belonged to one of the
most illustrious families in Rome.

It was the duty of Cnaeus Piso to counsel, to restrain, and to aid the
young Germanicus, and doubtless also to keep Tiberius informed of all
that Germanicus was doing in the East. When we remember that Tiberius
was responsible for the empire, no one will deny him the right of
setting a guard upon the young man of thirty-three, into whose hands
had been intrusted many and serious interests. But though this idea
was warrantable in itself, it became the source of great woe.
Germanicus was offended, and, driven on by his friends, he broke with
Piso. The latter had brought with him his wife Plancina, who was a
close friend of Livia, just as Germanicus had brought Agrippina. The
two wives fell to quarreling no less furiously than their husbands, and
two parties were formed in the Orient, one for Piso and one for
Germanicus, who accused each other of illegality, extortion, and
assuming unwarranted powers; and each thought only of undoing what the
other had accomplished. It is difficult to tell which of the two was
right or in how far either was ri