Vatican Museums

The two fragments of this bronze plate bear the inscription of the text of the Senatus Consultum regarding the funerary honours bestowed by the Senate upon Drusus Caesar Tiberii Augusti filius on the occasion of his death. Drusus the Younger was the son of the emperor Tiberius and his first wife Vipsania Agrippina, born around 13 A.D. Following the premature death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in 19 A.D. he was destined for the succession to the governance of the Empire, but he too died in 23 A.D. Only several years later did it come to light that he had been poisoned by the powerful prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Sejanus, with the complicity of Livilla, Drusus’ wife, whom he had seduced. Tiberius exerted a terrible revenge.