Abstract
In the autumn of 19 A.D. Germanicus was taken seriously ill and died. This was interpreted as the result of poisoning (veneficium) or black magic (maleficium) by his followers. Some must, however, have doubted this interpretation because his followers arranged that the corpse of Germanicus was exposed stripped to waist (as Tacitus states Ann. 3, 12, 4) in the Forum of Antiochia in order to give the public the possibility of discerning whether he had died from poisoning/black magic or not. Cn. Calpurnius Piso was suspected of having caused/ordered the premature death of Germanicus. Tacitus does not affirm this nor do the editors of the senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone although its text expressis verbis refers to malificiorum socis.
© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany
