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JULIA, DAUGHTER OF AUGUSTUS
With JULIA, daughter of Augustus, we have another member of his household,
but this time a VERY intelligent and independent one, being used as a political
pawn - a pawn now in the ‘dynastic’ interests of Rome’s new ‘FIRST FAMILY’.
JULIA (39 BC – AD 14)
1. It is surprising how little is known about SCRIBONIA,
Julia’s mother.
2. She seems to have been born about 68 BC and her
political importance resided in her being the closest
female relative of Sextus Pompeius (the only surviving
son of POMPEY) who was holding out in Sicily with a
rogue navy and disrupting the grain supply to Rome at
a time when Octavian wanted to seek an accommodation with him. JULIA
3. a) In 40 BC (when OCTAVIAN was about to require his sister OCTAVIA to marry
MARCUS ANTONIUS) SCRIBONIA, at about 28, was required to divorce her
second husband in order to free herself to marry OCTAVIAN.
b) OCTAVIAN, at 23, divorced his wife in order to be free to marry
SCRIBONIA.
c) There can be no doubt about the marriage being a political one, although
OCTAVIAN was probably also hoping for a son.
4. JULIA was born in 39 BC (probably on 30th October), whereupon OCTAVIAN
(now at war with Sextus Pompeius) divorced SCRIBONIA immediately, since he had
already met and formed an emotional bond with LIVIA (who would, of course,
be his wife for the next 50 years).
5. a) For the historian, the problem is whether JULIA immediately joined her
father’s household (given that he almost immediately acquired a new wife) OR
b) remained with her mother (which would be unusual).
6. a) Almost nothing his known about JULIA during her childhood, BUT,
b) …. given that Scribonia went into exile with Julia (voluntarily) in 2 BC,
mother and daughter must, somehow, have remained close.
7. a) At some point as a child JULIA joined her father’s household (probably
sooner rather than later: Cassius Dio [fl. AD 220] says almost immediately) since she
was living with him and LIVIA when he, as AUGUSTUS, arranged for her
to marry his nephew MARCELLUS (son of OCTAVIA) in 25 BC when she
was about 13.
[Julia had already been betrothed at the age of 2 to Antyllus, the son of Marcus Antonius and Fulvia, but, of
course, that intended marriage never happened because of the breakdown of relations between Octavian and
Marcus Antonius]
b) Her father was fighting in Spain and could not be present for the wedding, his
close friend Agrippa overseeing the ceremonies.
8. a) But JULIA soon found herself a widow, just before her sixteenth birthday, when
Marcellus died.
[There is NO evidence that Livia played any part in his death!]
b) They had no children.
9. AUGUSTUS, who had been critically ill in the spring of 23 BC and who was
very concerned about the future (as were many of his fellow citizens), lost no
time, in the interests of establishing a clear ‘dynasty’ [despite all the talk about “the
Republic” having been “restored”], in arranging for JULIA in 21 BC (at 18) to marry
his close associate and contemporary MARCUS VIPSANIUS AGRIPPA,
then aged about 42.
10. As we saw before, to be free to marry again AGRIPPA had had to divorce
Marcella, the daughter of OCTAVIA and niece of AUGUSTUS.
MARCUS
VIPSANIUS
AGRIPPA
JULIA
11. JULIA did her duty as a Roman wife.
12. She and Agrippa had five (surviving) children between 20 BC and 12 BC:
GAIUS CAESAR - born in 20 BC
JULIA (the Younger) - born in 19 BC (?)
LUCIUS CAESAR - born in 17 BC
AGRIPPINA (the Elder) - born in 14 BC (?)
AGRIPPA POSTUMUS - born in 12 BC [after his father’s death]
[There is uncertainty about which daughter, JULIA or AGRIPPINA, was the older]
13. With birth of a second grandson (Lucius) in 17 BC AUGUSTUS adopted both
GAIUS and LUCIUS as his sons [it was almost unheard of to adopt children rather than adults],
transferring them from their biological father’s manus (“legal control”) to his.
14. Since AGRIPPA and JULIA likely had a house on the Palatine close to that of
Augustus, this legal ‘transfer’ may not have made much difference to the boys’
upbringing.
GAIUS
LUCIUS
15. But in 12 BC, after nine years of marriage, AGRIPPA died, leaving JULIA at 26
or 27 a widow for the second time.
JULIA AND HER TWO SONS
ON A COIN OF THE MONEYER
GAIUS MARIUS [about 13 BC (?)]
16. AUGUSTUS had introduced legislation in 18 and 17 BC regulating, for the first
time in the history of the Roman state, who could marry whom and
stipulating inter alia
a) that citizens must be married between certain ages; and
b) that those whose partner had died or had divorced them must re-marry
within a set time limit.
17. Not surprisingly, then, he arranged for JULIA to marry for the third time in 11
BC, on this occasion to his thirty-one year old step-son Tiberius, the elder son
of LIVIA.
18. a) Despite the couple being of similar age, they appear to have despised each
other.
b) Tiberius had been forced to divorce the wife he loved dearly, giving his new
marriage a very rocky start.
TIBERIUS (born 42 BC)
c) The death very early on of their infant son alienated them from each other
even more.
19. TIBERIUS was clearly intended in Augustus’ scheme of things to play a role
i) not only in state affairs (being given, in 6 BC, formal powers to make this possible),
ii) but also as ‘guardian’, in some manner, of his two adopted sons until they
were ready to take on full responsibility in the state should anything happen
to him.
20. BUT, later in 6 BC, for reasons that we cannot go into here TIBERIUS went off
to the island of Rhodes to self-imposed exile for seven years
a) undermining whatever plans Augustus, his step-father and son-in-law had for
him in the state and its future, and
b) leaving JULIA married but bereft of a husband in practice.
21. It was now that JULIA, given free rein, began to indulge in the pleasures of
society in a manner not in keeping with what was expected of a Roman
matrona.
22. Her conduct was such that her father, AUGUSTUS, allegedly not knowing
anything about her affairs earlier, denounced her in a letter to the SENATE in
2 BC and, rather than bringing additional embarrassment by putting her on trial
for adultery (made a criminal offence for the first time under his own earlier
legislation), exercised his powers as her pater familias and sent her into exile on
a small island (the island of Pandateria [modern Ventotene]) ‘for life’ - as his
legislation required.
23. There JULIA was severely restricted (although her mother SCRIBONIA chose
to go with her): she was allowed no wine (the only drink other than water); no fancy food;
no direct contact with males (free or slave).
THE ISLAND OF VENTOTENE (ANCIENT PANDATERIA)
24. a) We do not know whether she was allowed to send and receive letters (which
will have been vetted on behalf of her father).
b) Since her mother, Scribonia, was not guilty of any offence, it is unclear
what ‘comforts’ she was able to provide.
25. i) After five years (when Augustus had lost both his adopted sons and, in their place,
adopted the now 45-year-old Tiberius who had returned two years earlier from his ‘exile’
and was living in private) her father, Augustus, allowed her to move to the
mainland (to the town of Rhegium on the toe of Italy) where some of the more
stringent restrictions were lifted.
ii) JULIA died there, still in exile, ten years later in AD 14.
It remains to consider:
a) what sort of individual JULIA was; and
b) what may really have been behind her fall in 2 BC.
JULIA’S CHARACTER
1. a) The ‘standard’ historians of the early imperial period do not make many
references to JULIA; when they do, they are short, negative comments.
b) For example, Suetonius (Life of Augustus 65) simply says: “[Augustus] sent his
daughter ….. into exile because [she was] tainted with every form of vice.”
2. It is clear that JULIA, in her father’s eyes, “violated the model of propriety for
royal women cherished by [him] and presented to the public eye by her
stepmother Livia” (Fantham, Foley, etc. Women in the Classical World 292).
3. a) But we are lucky in having a very different depiction of her from, admittedly,
a very late writer - Macrobius – in the early AD 400s – in his Saturnalia (2.5).
b) He was using an Augustan collection of witticisms by Domitius Marsus (ca AD
5).
4. a) Macrobius describes her as loving poetry, being very well-read, relaxed in her
father’s household, a woman of mild courtesy and of a good-humoured spirit
both of which won her immense popularity.
b) He does add that those who knew her vices marvelled at her contrasting
merits.
c) i) He describes various witty exchanges with her father.
ii) And, he says, that when a serious-minded family friend criticized her love
of luxury and recommended that she should model herself on her father’s
frugality, JULIA replied: “He forgets that he is Caesar, but I remember that
I am Caesar’s daughter.”
d) i) Her most notorious comment, perhaps, is her alleged reply to a frivolous
friend who asked how it was that her children all looked so like her
husband Agrippa, when she was so free with her favours.
ii) JULIA (allegedly) replied: “Oh, that’s because I only take on passengers when the cargo
is already loaded!” But this may be no more than an example of her wit.
JULIA’S FALL
1. When Tiberius (her third husband) went off to Rhodes and self-imposed exile in 6 BC,
JULIA (whatever her previous conduct) was left in a most unenviable position.
2. A woman who had been widowed or divorced was free to marry again, but this
was not the position JULIA found herself in.
3. Augustus, her pater familias, would not let her divorce when Tiberius took off.
4. Despite being the daughter of the ‘First Citizen’ (Princeps) Julia found herself in
many senses in limbo socially and, given her outgoing character, she probably felt
total frustration about her position.
5. It is not difficult, perhaps, to understand why she established all sorts of
relationships over the four years between her husband’s departure and her fall.
6. But it is puzzling that Julia’s father had no wind of her behaviour for four years.
7. The lack of certainty has led to much modern speculation.
i) Given who Julia’s five alleged named lovers were (all men from very
distinguished families which could trace their ancestry back centuries) it has been
argued that a political conspiracy against Augustus - centred on JULIA was in the
making. Certainly one alleged lover, Iullus Antonius, son of Marcus Antonius, was
executed - not the legally prescribed punishment for adultery.
ii) The counter to this is that the five were just bored younger socialites whose
families’ political influence had long since passed.
8. Although adultery was a frequent charge levelled against upper-class women,
JULIA probably was guilty.
9. Given the total lack of public opportunities outside marriage to a woman of
her intelligence, she was probably just bored and sought pleasure where she could
find it.