A sudden catastrophe still further complicated the situation.  In 19 A.D.  Germanicus was taken ill at Antioch.  The malady was long and marked by periods of convalescence and relapses, but finally, like his father and like his brothers-in-law, Germanicus, too, succumbed to his destiny in the fullness of youth.  At thirty-four, when life with her most winning smiles seemed to be stretching out her arms to him, he died.  This one more untimely death brought to an abrupt end a most dangerous political struggle.  Is it to be wondered at, then, that the people, whose imagination had been aroused, should have begun to murmur about poison?  The party of Germanicus was driven to desperation by this death, which virtually ended its existence, and destroyed at a single stroke all the hopes of those who had seen in Germanicus the instrument of their future fortune.  They therefore eagerly collected, embellished, and spread these rumors.  Had Agrippina been a woman of any judgment or reflection, she would have been the first to see the absurdity of this foolish gossip; but as a matter of fact no one placed more implicit faith in such reports than she, now that affliction had rendered her even more impetuous and violent.

It was not long before every one at Rome had heard it said that Germanicus had been poisoned by Piso, acting, so it was intimated in whispers, at the bidding of Tiberius and Livia.  Piso had been the tool of Tiberius; Plancina, the tool of Livia.  The accusation is absurd; it is even recognized as such by Tacitus, who was actuated by a fierce hatred against Tiberius.  We know from him how the accusers of Piso recounted that the poison had been drunk in a health at a banquet to which Piso had been invited by Germanicus and at which he was seated several places from his host; he was supposed to have poured the poison into his dishes in the presence of all the guests without any one having seen him!  Tacitus himself says that every one thought this an absurd fable, and such every man of good sense will think it to-day.  But hatred makes even intelligent persons believe fables even more absurd; the people favorable to Germanicus were embittered against Piso and would not listen to reason.  All the enemies of Tiberius easily persuaded themselves that some atrocious mystery was hidden in this death and that, if they instituted proceedings against Piso, they might bring to light a scandal which would compromise the emperor himself.  They even began to repeat that Piso possessed letters from Tiberius which contained the order to poison Germanicus.

[Illustration:  Costumes of Roman men, women, and children in the procession of a peace festival.  These reliefs formed part of the outer frieze of the right wall of the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), erected by Augustus and dedicated 9 B.C.  This and another well-preserved section are in the Uffizi Palace, Florence.  One of two other fragments in the Villa Medici contains the head and bust of Augustus, and with the section here shown completes what is supposed to be a group of the family of Augustus.]