Julia the Younger

Julia the Younger (19 BC – c. AD 29) (Classical Latin: IVLIA•MINOR^[1]) or Julilla (little Julia), Vipsania Julia Agrippina, Iulilla, Julia, Augustus' granddaughter, or Julia Caesaris Minor, was a Roman noblewoman of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the first daughter and second child of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. Along with her sister Agrippina the Elder, Julia was raised and educated by her maternal grandfather Augustus and her maternal step-grandmother Livia Drusilla.

Julia the Younger was the elder granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, sister-in-law, stepdaughter and daughter-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, maternal aunt of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, second cousin of the Emperor Claudius, and maternal great-aunt of the Emperor Nero.

Life

About 5 BC or 6 BC, Augustus arranged her to marry Lucius Aemilius Paullus.^[2] Paullus had a family relation to her as her first half-cousin, as both had Scribonia as grandmother: Julia's mother was a daughter of Scribonia by Augustus; Paullus' mother, Cornelia Scipio, was a daughter of Scribonia resulting from her earlier marriage to Publius Cornelius Scipio Salvito.

Paullus and Julia had a daughter, Aemilia Lepida and possibly a son, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (although the latter may also have been the son to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 6). According to Suetonius, she built a large pretentious country house. Augustus disliked large overdone houses and had it demolished.^[3]

In 8, according to ancient historians, Julia was exiled for having an affair with Decimus Junius Silanus, a Roman Senator. She was sent to Trimerus, a small Italian island, where she gave birth to a child. Augustus rejected the infant and ordered it to be exposed,^[4] or left on a mountainside to die. Silanus went into voluntary exile, but returned under Tiberius' reign.^[5]

Sometime between 1 and 14, her husband Paullus was executed as a conspirator in a revolt.^[6] Modern historians theorize that Julia's exile was not actually for adultery but for involvement in Paullus' revolt.^[7] Livia plotted against her stepdaughter's family and ruined them, according to some. This led to open compassion for the fallen family. In 29 AD, Julia died on the same island where she had been sent in exile twenty years earlier.^[8] Due to the adultery that Julia committed, Augustus stated in his will that she would never be buried in Rome.^[9] She was survived by daughter, possibly a son, and by several grandchildren.

Unusual naming variants

Julia the Younger was not a Julia Caesaris by birth: being the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa made her a Vipsania Agrippina by birth, although there are no contemporary sources that show that that name was ever used for her. She came to belong to the household of the Julio-Claudian dynasty as she was raised and instructed by her maternal grandfather Augustus.^[10] Further, Augustus adopted Tiberius as his son (and heir), and while Tiberius was remarried to Julia the Elder. Augustus became something of a paternal grandfather to Julia the Elder's children, too, including Julia the Younger. A formal adoption "in the family of the Caesars" among the offspring of Agrippa and Julia the Elder is however only recorded regarding Vipsania Julia's brothers Gaius — hence Gaius Caesar — and Lucius — hence Lucius Caesar.^[11] Her younger sister Agrippina the Elder and youngest full brother, Agrippa Postumus, were named after their natural father. Likewise, her eldest half-sisters, Vipsania Agrippina and Vipsania Marcella, were named after their father. Her younger half-brother, unnamed in contemporary sources, was later sometimes dubbed "Tiberillus," after his father Tiberius, and died young.

Ancestry

See also

• Julio-Claudian family tree

Notes

External links

• The Archeological museum of the University of Innsbruck displays a sculpted head that is presumably Vipsania Julia's: Inv. Nr. I/506 – Image at the university's website.