Note 8 — Chapter I

That the fall of Drusus took place in the region of the Saale we may be allowed to infer from Strabo, vii. 1, 3, p. 291, although he only says that he perished on the march between Salas and Rhine, and the identification of the Salas with the Saale rests solely on the resemblance of name. From the scene of the mishap he was then transported as far as the summer camp (Seneca, Cons. ad Marciam 3: ipsis illum hostibus aegrum cum veneratione et pace mutua prosequentibus nec optare quod expediebat audentibus), and in that camp he died (Sueton., Claud. 1). This camp lay in the heart of the barbarian land (Valerius Max. v. 5, 3) and not very far from the battlefield of Varus (Tacitus, Ann. ii. 7, where the vetus ara Druso sita is certainly to be referred to the place where he died); we may be allowed to seek it in the region of the Weser. The dead body was then conveyed to the winter–camp (Dio, lv. 2) and there burnt; this spot was regarded, according to Roman usage, also as the place of burial, although the depositing of the ashes took place in Rome, and to this is to be referred the honorarius tumulus with the annual obsequies (Sueton. l.c.). Probably we have to seek for this place at Vetera. When a later author (Eutropius, vii. 13) speaks of the monumentum of Drusus at Mentz, this is doubtless not the tomb, but the elsewhere mentioned Tropaeum (Florus, ii. 30: Marcomanorum spoliis et insignibus quendam editum tumulum in tropaei modum excoluit).