Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso (d. AD 20)

Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso became governor of Syria in AD 17, chosen by Tiberius (Tacitus, Annals 2. 43).

Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso became governor of Syria in AD 17, chosen by Tiberius (Tacitus, Annals 2.43). He was haughty and hot-tempered. He believed he had been given the province to obstruct Germanicus, and in Rome it was said he had secret instructions from the emperor for this. Tacitus merely reports this opinion.

After a quarrel Germanicus broke off their friendship (2.70). After the general’s death in AD 19, Piso was accused of poisoning him. In AD 20 the Senate tried him, but Piso was found dead before a verdict was reached. Tacitus records suicide, though he also knows stories of murder (3.15–16). The Senate’s decree on his trial does not mention poison.