ations, and accusations
against Piso. The populace, which admired her for her fidelity and
love for her husband, was even more deeply stirred, and on every hand
the cry was raised that an exemplary punishment ought to be meted out
to so execrable a crime.

If at first Piso had treated these absurd charges with haughty disdain,
he soon perceived that the danger was growing serious and that it was
necessary for him to hasten his return to Rome, where a trial was now
inevitable. One of Germanicus's friends had accused him; Agrippina, an
unwitting tool in the hands of the emperor's enemies, every day stirred
public opinion to still higher pitches of excitement through her grief
and her laments; the party of Germanicus worked upon the senate and the
people, and when Piso arrived at Rome he found that he had been
abandoned by all. His hope lay in Tiberius, who knew the truth and who
certainly desired that these wild notions be driven out of the popular
mind. But Tiberius was watched with the most painstaking malevolence.
Any least action in favor of Piso would have been interpreted as a
decisive proof that he had been the murderer's accomplice and therefore
wished to save him. In fact, it was being reported at Rome with
ever-increasing insistence that at the trial Piso would show the
letters of Tiberius. When the trial began, Livia, in the background,
cleverly directed her thoughts to the saving of Plancina; but Tiberius
could do no more for Piso than to recommend to the senate that they
exercise the most rigorous impartiality. His noble speech on this
occasion has been preserved for us by Tacitus. "Let them judge," he
said, "without regard either for the imperial family or for the family
of Piso." The admonition was useless, for his condemnation was a
foregone conclusion, despite the absurdity of the charges. The enemies
of Tiberius wished to force matters to the uttermost limit in the hope
that the famous letters would have to be produced; and they acted with
such frenzied hatred and excited public opinion to such a pitch that
Piso killed himself before the end of the trial.

The violence of Agrippina had sent an innocent victim to follow the
shade of her young husband. Despite bitter opposition, the emperor,
through personal intervention, succeeded in saving the wife, the son,
and the fortune of Piso, whose enemies had wished to exterminate his
house root and branch. Tiberius thus offered a further proof that