Livilla (sister of Claudius)

Claudia Livia Julia
Spouse Gaius Caesar
Drusus Julius Caesar
Issue
Julia
Tiberius Julius Caesar Nero Gemellus
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Germanicus II Gemellus
Father Nero Claudius Drusus
Mother Antonia Minor
Born 13 B.C.
Lugdunum, Gaul, Roman Empire
Died 31 A.D. (aged 44)
For the same-named sister of the Emperor Caligula, see Julia Livilla.

(Claudia) Livia Julia (Classical Latin: LIVIA•IVLIA[1]) (c. 13 BC – 31 A.D.) was the only daughter of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor and sister of the Roman Emperor Claudius and Germanicus. She was named after her grand-mother, Augustus' wife Livia Drusilla, and commonly known by her family nickname Livilla (the "little Livia").

She was twice married to the potential successor in the Julio-Claudian dynasty, first to Augustus' grandson Gaius Caesar (died 4 AD) and later to Tiberius' son Drusus (died 23 AD). Allegedly, she helped her lover Sejanus in poisoning her husband and died shortly after Sejanus fell from power in 31 AD.

Contents

Marriages

Livilla was married twice, first in 2 BC to Gaius Caesar, Augustus' grandson and potential successor. Thus, Augustus had chosen Livilla as the wife of the future Emperor. This splendid royal marriage probably gave Livilla grand aspirations for her future, perhaps at the expense of the ambition of Augustus' granddaughters, Agrippina the Elder and Julia the Younger. However, Gaius died in 4 AD, cutting short Augustus' and Livilla's plans.

In the same year, Livilla married her cousin Drusus Julius Caesar, the son of Tiberius. When Tiberius succeed Augustus as Emperor in 14 AD, Livilla again was the wife of a potential successor. Drusus and Livilla had three children, a daughter named Julia in 5 AD and twin brothers in 19 AD: of these Germanicus Gemellus died in 23, whereas Tiberius Gemellus survived his infancy.

Livilla's standing in her family

Tacitus reports that Livilla was a remarkably beautiful woman, despite the fact she was rather ungainly as a child.[2] The Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre[3] indicates that she was held with the highest esteem by her uncle and father-in-law, Tiberius, and by her grandmother Livia Drusilla.[4]

According to Tacitus, she felt resentment and jealousy against her sister-in-law Agrippina the Elder, the wife of her brother Germanicus, to whom she was unfavourably compared.[5] Indeed, Agrippina fared much better in producing imperial heirs to the household (being the mother of the Emperor Caligula and Agrippina the Younger) and was much more popular. Suetonius reports that she despised her younger brother Claudius; having heard he would one day become Emperor, she deplored publicly such a fate for the Roman people.[6]

As most of the female members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, she may also have been very ambitious, in particular for her male offspring.[7]

Affair with Sejanus

Possibly even before the birth of the twins, Livilla had an affair with Lucius Aelius Sejanus, the praetorian prefect of Tiberius - later on, some (including Tiberius) suspected Sejanus to have fathered the twins. Drusus, heir apparent since the death of Germanicus in 23 AD, died in the same year, shortly after striking Sejanus in an argument. According to Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, Sejanus had poisoned Drusus, not only because he feared the wrath of the future Emperor but also because he had designs on the supreme power, and aimed at removing a potential competitor -, with Livilla as his accomplice. If Drusus was indeed poisoned, his death aroused no suspicions at the time.

Sejanus now wanted to marry the widowed Livilla. Tiberius in 25 rejected such a request but in 31 eventually gave way. In the same year, the Emperor received evidence from Antonia Minor, his sister-in-law, that Sejanus planned to overthrow him. Tiberius had Sejanus denounced in the Senate, then had him arrested and dragged off to prison to be put to death. A bloody purge then erupted in Rome, most of Sejanus' family (including his children) and followers sharing his fate.

Accusations and death

Hearing of the death of her children, Sejanus' former wife Apicata committed suicide. Before her death, she addressed a letter to Tiberius, accusing Sejanus and Livilla of having poisoned Drusus. Drusus' cupbearer Lygdus and Livilla's physician Eudemus were questioned and under torture confirmed Apicata's accusation.

Livilla died shortly afterwards, either being killed or by suicide. According to Cassius Dio, Tiberius handed Livilla over to her mother, Antonia Minor, who locked her up in a room and starved her to death.[8]

Early in 32, the Senate proposed "terrible decrees...against her very statues and memory".[9]

Posthumously, there were further allegations of adultery with her physician Eudemus[10] and with the senator and poet Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus.[11]

Portraiture

The iconographic identification of Livilla has posed many problems to date, mainly due to the damnatio memoriae voted against her by the Senate after her death. Several possibilities have been advanced but none has to date received widespread acceptance. However, a portrait type that survives in at least three replicas and which we may refer to as the Alesia type may very well represent Livilla.[12] As seen in the picture above, it shows the head of a lady in her blossom years, with a hairstyle clearly from the tiberian period. The physiognomy is close but not identical to portraits of Antonia Minor, Livilla's mother, and some replicas seem to bear the marks of voluntary damage (that one would expect from a damnatio memoriae). For all these reasons, it has been proposed to see in this portrait type a representation of Livilla.

A cameo portrait of a lady with the silhouettes of two infants, has been tentatively identified as Livilla.[13] Although it may be possible that the seated woman on right on the Great Cameo of France represents Livilla, it seems more probable that the female figure seated on the left and holding a roll is in fact representing Livilla, depicted there as the widowed wife of Drusus the Younger, seen just above her as one of the three heavenly imperial male figures.[14]

Appearance in media

The character of Livilla appeared in the 1968 British television series The Caesars and was portrayed by Suzan Farmer. She also appeared in the 1976 BBC TV series adoption of I, Claudius and was played by Patricia Quinn. In the 1985 mini-series A.D. Anno Domini, which chronicles the very beginning of Christianity and its struggle with the Roman Empire, the character of Livilla was played by Susan Sarandon.

Others with this same name

Julia Livilla, the youngest daughter of Germanicus, was named for her paternal aunt.

Ancestry

Notes

  1. ^ E. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen - e.a. (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III (PIR), Berlin, 1933 - L 303
  2. ^ Tacitus, Annals, 4.3
  3. ^ Beth Severy, Family and State in the Early Imperial Monarchy: The Senatus Consultum de Pisone Patre, Tabula Siarensis, and Tabula Hebana,” CP 95 (2000), pp. 318-337
  4. ^ Annelise Freisenbruch, Caesars' wives: Sex, Power and Politics in the Roman Empire. Free Press, New York, 2010, p. 90.
  5. ^ Tacitus, Annals, 2.43
  6. ^ Suetonius, Vita Claudii, 2.2.
  7. ^ Levick, Barbara, Tiberius the Politician. Routledge, 2nd edition, New York, 1999, p. 127
  8. ^ Dio Cassius, 58.11.7
  9. ^ Tacitus, Annals 6.2
  10. ^ Pliny Natural History 29.20.
  11. ^ Tacitus, Annales 6.29. Dio Cassius 58.24.5
  12. ^ F. Queyrel, Une princesse Julio-claudienne à Alésia in Revue. archéologique de l'Est et du Centre Est, 1993, n°44, pp. 411-428
  13. ^ http://www.jasperburns.com/gasvips.htm, figure 10
  14. ^ L. Giuliani, Leggere un'immagine. Il Grand Camée de France e la successione di Tiberio, storicamente.org (2004-2007)..