The painting was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597–1679), nephew of Pope Urban VIII and legate in France.

He called on Nicolas Poussin, then a young painter who had recently settled in Rome since 1624, whom he may have known thanks to the poet Giambattista Marino, perhaps through the intermediary of the banker and patron Marcello Sacchetti.

Barberini had already commissioned a Capture of Jerusalem (Israel Museum) from Poussin, painted around 1625-1626 and given as a gift to Cardinal Richelieu.

It describes the military successes of the Roman general Germanicus, elder brother of Claudius, in the service of the Emperor Tiberius, especially against the Germans, which earned him his nickname.

He made his wife Agrippina the Elder and the rest of his family swear to avenge his death, enjoying great popularity among the Roman people.

[2] The general composition of the painting could have been borrowed from the Death of Meleager, represented on several ancient Roman sarcophagi present in Rome at the time of Poussin.

Finally, he still inspired Eugène Delacroix in The Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 1844 (Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon).