He was born at Rome to a prominent branch of the gens Claudia, the son of Tiberius and his first wife, Vipsania Agrippina.

Ancient historians, such as Tacitus and Suetonius, claim that he died amid a feud with the powerful Sejanus, Praetorian prefect of Rome.

Drusus was the maternal grandson of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a close friend of Augustus, and his first wife Caecilia Attica.

Being politically inclined, he was made a permanent member of the committee Augustus had founded in AD 13 to draw up the Senate's daily business.

Among his first acts as emperor, Tiberius instituted the Sodales Augustales, a priesthood of the cult of Augustus which members of the imperial family, such as Drusus, joined.

[4] Drusus had little time to mourn the death of Augustus or celebrate the ascendance of his father Tiberius: the legions in the Rhine and Illyricum were in mutiny.

[17] On 17 or 18 September, Drusus was sent to deal with the troops in Illyricum, and a delegation was sent to confer proconsular imperium maius upon Germanicus, who dealt with the situation on the Rhine.

[19] The three legions in Pannonia (VIII Augusta, XIX Hispana, and XV Apollinaris) were under the command of Junius Blaesus, who allowed his men a rest from military duties to mourn the death of Augustus.

The soldiers were rowdy, but as Tacitus says:At last, in an interval of the uproar, Drusus read his father's letter, in which it was fully stated that he had a special care for the brave legions with which he had endured a number of campaigns; that, as soon as his mind had recovered from its grief, he would lay their demands before the Senators; that meanwhile he had sent his son to concede unhesitatingly what could be immediately granted, and that the rest must be reserved for the Senate, which ought to have a voice in showing either favour or severity.Their demands were: a discharge from military service after only sixteen years (down from twenty), a reward for service, an increase of pay to one denarius a day, and that the veterans not be detained under a standard.

[22] Next morning, a lunar eclipse before dawn convinced the soldiery that their mutiny was doomed, and order was restored by daybreak as a result.

In Annals 1.77, Tacitus says the unruly behavior of actors and the crowds were later addressed by the Senate which passed measures allowing the praetors to punish riotous spectators.

Such were his excesses that Tiberius decided to make him governor of Illyricum the following year, both to give him experience in war and bolster his popularity with the troops - perhaps also to keep him away from the indulgences of city life.

[30][note 2] Also on 10 October 19, his wife Livilla had given birth to twin sons, Tiberius Gemellus and Germanicus, whom he named after his adoptive brother.

[31] Their birth was celebrated by his father who claimed that never before in the history of Rome had twins been born to a man as high in rank as Drusus, and the event was commemorated on the reverse of coins.

In addition to losing his adoptive son and heir, Tiberius lost a friend: Gnaeus Piso, whose family had been close supporters of the principate since the early days of Augustus.

The loss of Germanicus and the trial of Piso dealt a significant blow to Tiberius' popularity, and he came to resent the role of princeps.

Cornelius failed to give his seat to Corbulo at a gladiatorial show, and the incident sparked a debate between the rights of age and the defenders of tradition, in which Drusus argued a rapprochement.

The proposal was then abandoned, not because of the arguments made, but because of the intervention of an external force (the auctoritas of Drusus)--the same reason for the later repeal of the Oppian law (lex Oppia).

[40][41][42] Drusus then settled an incident involving the abuse of the protection afforded by icons of the princeps, in which the emperor's images were being used to shield the guilty.

Drusus was soon brought in to weigh on the matter, for the Senate felt only a member of the imperial family could speak on such a delicate issue.

[43] Later, he was given credit for the condemnation of two Roman equites, Considius Aequus and Coelius Cursor, who had attacked the praetor, Magius Caecilianus, with false charges of maiestas.

[46] After praising the loyalty of the legions in Gaul, Tiberius defended the statement he had made in 14, that neither he nor Drusus should have to "quit the capital" in response to every minor revolt in the empire.

[47][48] Thus the consulship of Drusus was successful, but at the end of the year he fell ill. His illness prompted the equestrian, Clutorius Priscus, believing his life to be in jeopardy, to write his elegy.

This induced Tiberius to introduce a law where the Senate must wait 10 days after such condemnations before making such decrees public as to allow him to learn of their decisions first.

[45][49][50] The following year, Tiberius asked the Senate of Rome to grant Drusus tribunicia potestas (tribunician power), which they responded to elatedly.

[51] Thus in the spring of AD 22 Drusus received tribunicia potestas, a distinction no senator could then aspire to, as the honor was reserved exclusively for the emperor and his immediate successors.

[61][62] Unlike Germanicus, Drusus was given a full funeral, and his body was interred in the Mausoleum of Augustus, alongside other deceased members of the imperial family.

[63] Nero was given the office of quaestor five years in advance and was married to Julia Livia, the daughter of Drusus, to combine the families of both possible successors.

[33][64] By 26, the emperor had withdrawn from politics altogether and moved to Capri, leaving the management of the empire to Sejanus who then began eliminating other members of the imperial family.

Germanicus' son Drusus was imprisoned within the dungeon under the Imperial palace on the Palatine Hill, where he starved to death not long after.