Julia Livia

Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Chronology
Augustus 27 BC – 14 AD
Tiberius 14–37 AD
Caligula 37–41 AD
Claudius 41–54 AD
Nero 54–68 AD
Family
Gens Julia
Gens Claudia
Julio-Claudian family tree
Category:Julio-Claudian dynasty
Succession
Preceded by
Roman Republic		 Followed by
Year of the Four Emperors

Julia Drusi Caesaris Filia (Classical Latin: IVLIA•DRVSI•CAESARIS•FILIA [1] 5-43) or Julia Livia, was the daughter of Drusus Julius Caesar and Livilla and granddaughter to the Roman Emperor Tiberius, she was also first cousin of the emperor Caligula and niece of the emperor Claudius.

Chronology

At the time of Emperor Augustus' death in AD 14, Julia was ill. Before he died, Augustus had asked his wife Livia whether Julia had recovered.[2]

In 20, Julia married her cousin Nero Caesar (the son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder). The marriage appears to have been an unhappy one, and fell victim to the machinations of the notorious palace guardsman Sejanus, who exploited his intimacy with Livilla to scheme against Germanicus’ family. In the words of Tacitus,

"Whether the young prince spoke or held his tongue, silence and speech were alike criminal. Every night had its anxieties, for his sleepless hours, his dreams and sighs were all made known by his wife to her mother Livia [i.e. Livilla] and by Livia to Sejanus".[3]

Later in 29, owing to the intrigues of Sejanus, and at the insistence of Tiberius, Nero and Agrippina were accused of treason. Nero was declared a public enemy by the Senate and taken away in chains in a closed litter. Nero was incarcerated on the island of Pontia (Ponza). The following year he was executed or driven to suicide. Cassius Dio[4] records that Julia was now engaged to Sejanus, but this claim appears to be contradicted by Tacitus, whose authority is to be preferred. Sejanus was condemned and executed on Tiberius’ orders on 18 October 31.

In 33, Julia married Gaius Rubellius Blandus, a man from an equestrian family who was consul suffect in 18 and later proconsul of Africa.[5] Their children were Gaius Rubellius Plautus (33-62) (cf. Raepsaet-Charlier, p. 89 for Plautus' praenomen) and a daughter Rubellia Bassa who married a maternal uncle of the future Roman Emperor Nerva. Juvenal, in Satire VIII.39, suggests another son, also named Gaius Rubellius Blandus. According to an inscription, Julia may also have been the mother of a certain Rubellius Drusus.[6]

Around 43, an agent of the Roman Emperor Claudius' wife, Empress Valeria Messalina, had falsely charged Julia with incest and immorality. The Emperor, her uncle Claudius, without securing any defence for his niece, had her executed 'by the sword' (Octavia 944-6: "ferro... caesa est"). She may have anticipated execution by taking her own life.[7] Her distant relative Pomponia Graecina remained in mourning for 40 years in open defiance of the Emperor, but was unpunished for this. Julia was executed around the same time as her cousin Julia Livilla, the daughter of Germanicus and sister of the former Emperor Caligula.

Ancestry

Robert Graves

In Robert Graves' novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God Julia was known as "Helen the Glutton". Graves did this as comic relief in the novels, but in reality she did not have a reputation for gluttony.

In the 1976 television adaptation she was played by Karin Foley. It unhistorically has her mother attempting to poison her to prevent Sejanus from marrying her, but it is not explicit about whether she died as a result, so glossing over her fate under Claudius.

Notes

  1. ↑ E. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen - e.a. (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III (PIR), Berlin, 1933 - I 636
  2. ↑ Suetonius, Vita Augusti, 99
  3. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 4.60
  4. ↑ Cassius Dio, 58.3.9
  5. ↑ Raepsaet-Charlier, Prosopographie des femmes de l'ordre sénatorial, p. 89
  6. ↑ Prosopographia Imperii Romani R 83
  7. ↑ Barrett, Agrippina, pp. 87; 104

References

Biography

Portraiture

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