By Germanicus he had three grandsons, Nero, Drusus, and Gaius, and by Drusus one, called Tiberius. mended Bereft of his own Nero and Drusus, children, he recomthe elder sons of Germanicus, to the senate, and celebrated the day when each of them came to his majority by giving largess to the commons. But as soon as he learned that at the beginning of the year vows were being put up for their safety also, he referred the matter to the senate, saying that such honours ought to be conferred only on those of tried character and mature years. By revealing his true teelings towards them from that time on, he exposed them to accusations from all quarters, and after resorting to various tricks to rouse them to rail at him, and seeing to it that they were betrayed when they did su, he brought most bitter charges against them both in writing; and when they had in consequence been pronounced public enemies, he starved them to death, Nero on the island of Pontia and Drusus in a lower room of the Palace. It is thought that Nero was forced to take his own life, since an executioner, who pretended that he came by authority of the senate, showed him the noose and hooks,* but that Drusus was so tortured by hunger that he tried to eat the stuffing of his mattress; while the cemains of both were so scattered that it was with difficulty that they could ever be collected.