Rubellia Bassa

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Rubellia Bassa or Bussa (born between 33-38) was the daughter of Gaius Rubellius Blandus, consul in 18 and his wife Julia (killed 43); she was the granddaughter of Roman prince Julius Caesar Drusus and the great-granddaughter of Roman Emperor Tiberius and his brother Nero Claudius Drusus.

[edit] Imperial ancestry

Her mother Julia (daughter of Julius Caesar Drusus and Livilla) and thus the granddaughter of Tiberius. Her brother Gaius Rubellius Plautus, one of the nearest heirs of the blood of Augustus, was forced to kill himself in 62 and his wife Antistia Pollitta and children were executed four years later (probably because the children were direct descendants of Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberius).

[edit] Marriage and possible descendants

She married Octavius Laenas, maternal uncle of the future emperor Nerva. Little else is known of the life of this great-granddaughter of Tiberius. Historian Ronald Syme claims that Sergius Octavius Laenas Pontianus, consul in 131 under Emperor Hadrian, set up a dedication to his grandmother, "Rubellia Blandi Bassa Octavi Laenatis". This Rubellia Bassa, Syme states, must be identical with the great-granddaughter of Tiberius. ^[1] This obscure link is probably the only continuation of the Julio-Claudian bloodline in the 2nd century.

[edit] References

1. ^ Syme: Tacitus, Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 627-8