In the story of the death of Germanicus, there are haunting parallels to one of the most notorious conspiracy theories of modern times. A young man of military experience, beloved by the populace and marked for political greatness, dies in a city far from the capitol. His grieving widow travels back with his remains. Business comes to a halt as the people grieve openly. The cause of his death is unclear; foul play is suspected. A murderer with motive is identified, but he dies soon after indictment under equally suspicious circumstances and before any verdict can be rendered. The senate produces an exceptionally lengthy version of events and orders it to be published, not only in Rome, but ‘in the most frequented city of every province and in the most frequented place of that city’ and in the winter quarters of every legion in the empire (S.C.P.P. [‘Decree of the Senate concerning Gnaeus Piso the Father’, Senatus Consultum de Gn. Pisone Patre], lines 170–2). Only Diocletian’s edict fixing maximum prices in the year 301 is preserved in more copies and, while this may be an accident of circumstance, it also suggests a strong desire on the part of the Tiberian senate to control the narrative. And, yet, other versions of the story circulated; conjectures and rumours found their way into the historical record. In the end, doubt prevails. Think then if the assasination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas; Jackqueline Kennedy accompanying the body back to Washington, D.C.; the national outpouring of grief; the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, who insisted he was just being used; Oswald’s unexplained murder by Jack Ruby; the hefty Warren Commission Report; the endless scepticism.
– ‘Conspiracy theories in the Roman Empire’, in Paranoia within Reason: A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation (1999), p. 535