Julia the Elder Augustus daughter
Tiberius wife 11-14 B.C.
and How She would Appear on Authentic
Ancient Coins of Her Available for Sale
Buy certified authentic coins of Julia the Elder
Julia the Elder was the daughter and only biological child of Augustus,
the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Augustus subsequently adopted
several male members of his close family as sons. Julia resulted from
Augustus' second marriage with Scribonia, her birth occurring on the
same day as Scribonia's divorce from Augustus, who wished to marry Livia
Drusilla.
Enjoy incredible value as every coin purchased here comes with it's own,
signed, custom-made certificate of authenticity, a $50-$100 value,
absolutely free!
Check it out today.
 Julia
the Elder (30 October 39
BC AD 14), known to her contemporaries as Julia
Caesaris filia or Julia
Augusti filia (Classical
Latin: IVLIACAESARISFILIA or IVLIAAVGVSTIFILIA) was
the daughter and only biological child of Augustus,
the first emperor of
the Roman
Empire. Augustus subsequently adopted several male members of
his close family as sons. Julia resulted from Augustus' second marriage
with Scribonia,
her birth occurring on the same day as Scribonia's divorce from
Augustus, who wished to marry Livia
Drusilla.
She was the daughter of the Emperor Augustus, stepsister and second wife
of the Emperor Tiberius,
maternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and
the Empress Agrippina
the Younger, grandmother-in-law of the Emperor Claudius,
and maternal great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero.
Life
Early life
At the time of Julia's birth, Augustus had not yet received the title
"Augustus" and was known as Octavian until 27 BC, when Julia was 12.
Octavian divorced Julia's mother the day of her birth and took Julia
from her soon thereafter. Octavian,
in accordance with Roman custom, claimed complete parental control over
her. Once she became old enough, she was sent to live with her
stepmother Livia and
began her education as an aristocratic Roman girl. Her education appears
to have been strict and somewhat old-fashioned. Thus, in addition to her
studies, Suetonius informs
us, she was taught spinning and weaving. Macrobius mentions
"her love of literature and considerable culture, a thing easy to come
by in that household".
Julia's social life was severely controlled, and she was allowed to talk
only to people whom her father had vetted. However,
Octavian had a great affection for his daughter and made sure she had
the best teachers available. Macrobius preserves a remark of Augustus:
"There are two wayward daughters that I have to put up with: the Roman
commonwealth and Julia."
In 37 BC, during Julia's early childhood, Octavian's friends Gaius
Maecenas and Marcus
Vipsanius Agrippa concluded
an agreement with Octavian's great rival Mark
Antony. It was sealed with an engagement: Antony's
ten-year-old son Marcus
Antonius Antyllus was
to marry Julia, then two years old.
The engagement never led to a marriage because civil war broke out. In
31 BC, at the Battle
of Actium, Octavian and Agrippa defeated Antony and his
mistress, Cleopatra.
In Alexandria,
they both committed suicide, and Octavian became sole ruler of the Roman
Empire.
First marriage
As was the case with most aristocratic Roman women of the period,
Julia's life was focused on her successive marriages and family alliances.
Like many Roman girls, she was first married off in her early teens. In
25 BC, at the age of fourteen, Julia married her cousin Marcus
Claudius Marcellus, who was some three years older than she.
There were rumors that Marcellus had been chosen as Augustus' successor,
but Julia's father was not present: he was fighting a war in Spain and
had fallen ill. Agrippa presided over the ceremony. Marcellus died in
September 23 BC, when Julia was sixteen. The union produced no children.
Marriage to Agrippa
In 21 BC, having now reached the age of 18, Julia married Agrippa, a man
from a modest family who had risen to become Augustus' most trusted
general and friend. This step is said to have been taken partly on the
advice of Maecenas, who in counseling him remarked: "You have made him
so great that he must either become your son-in-law or be slain".[7] Since
Agrippa was nearly 25 years her elder, it was a typical arranged
marriage, with Julia functioning as a pawn in her father's dynastic
plans. There is from this period the report of an infidelity with one Sempronius
Gracchus, with whom Julia allegedly had a lasting liaison (Tacitus describes
him as "a persistent paramour"). This
was the first of a series of alleged adulteries. According to Suetonius,
Julia's marital status did not prevent her from conceiving a passion for
Augustus' stepson, and thus her stepbrother, Tiberius,
so it was widely rumoured.
The newlyweds lived in a villa in Rome that has since been excavated
near the modern Farnesina in Trastevere.
Agrippa and Julia's marriage resulted in five children: Gaius
Caesar, Vipsania Julia (also known as Julia
the Younger), Lucius
Caesar, Vipsania Agrippina or Agrippina
the Elder (mother
of Emperor Caligula),
and Agrippa
Postumus (a
posthumous son). From June 20 BC to the spring of 18 BC, Agrippa was
governor of Gaul,
and it is likely that Julia followed him to the country on the other
side of the Alps. Shortly after their arrival, their first child Gaius
was born, and in 19 BC, Julia gave birth to Vipsania Julia. After their
return to Italy, a third child followed: a son named Lucius.
In 17 BC, Augustus adopted the newborn Lucius and the three-year-old
Gaius. He took care of their
education personally. Although Agrippa died in 12 BC., Augustus did not
adopt the third brother, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Posthumus, until AD 4,
after the exile of Julia - and after the deaths of both Gaius and Lucius.
Nicolaus and Josephus mention
that during Julia's marriage to Agrippa, she was travelling to meet
Agrippa where he was campaigning, was caught up in a flash flood in Ilium (Troy),
and almost drowned. Agrippa
was furious, and in his anger he fined the locals 100,000 drachmae. The
fine was a heavy blow but no one would face Agrippa to request an
appeal. Only after Herod,
king of Judaea, went to Agrippa to request a pardon did he withdraw the
fine. In the spring of 16 BC, Agrippa and Julia started a tour through
the eastern provinces, where they visited Herod. In October 14 BC, the
couple traveled to Athens,
where Julia gave birth to her fourth child, Agrippina.
After the winter, the family returned to Italy.
Julia quickly became pregnant again, but her husband died suddenly in
March 12 BC in Campania at
the age of 51. He was buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus. Julia named
the posthumous son
Marcus in his honor. He was to be known as Agrippa Postumus. Immediately
after the boy was born, and while Julia was still in mourning, Augustus
had her betrothed and then
remarried to Tiberius, her stepbrother.
Marriage to Tiberius
After the death of Agrippa, Augustus sought to promote his step-son
Tiberius, believing that this would best serve his own dynastic
interests. Tiberius married Julia (11 BC), but first had to divorce Vipsania
Agrippina (daughter
from a previous marriage of Agrippa), the woman he dearly loved. The
marriage was thus blighted almost from the start, and the son that Julia
bore him died in infancy. Suetonius
alleges that Tiberius had a low opinion of Julia's character, while
Tacitus claims that she disdained Tiberius as an unequal match and even
sent her father a letter, written by Sempronius Gracchus, denouncing
him. By 6 BC, when Tiberius
departed for Rhodes,
if not earlier, the couple had separated.
Scandal
Because Augustus was her legitimate father, having married her mother
with conubium,
Augustus had Patria
Potestas over her. Patria
Potestas lasted until
either the Pater Familias,
Augustus, died, or emancipated his child. Marriage had no effect on Patria
Potestas, unless it was Manus
Marriage which was
rare at this point in time.
As the daughter of Augustus, mother (now legally the sister) of two of
his heirs, Lucius and Gaius, and wife of another, Tiberius, Julia's
future seemed assured to all. Yet in 2 BC she was arrested for adultery
and treason; Augustus sent her a letter in Tiberius' name declaring the
marriage null and void (Tiberius was at this time on the island of
Rhodes and unable to respond quickly). He also asserted in public that
she had been plotting against his own life. Though
at the time Augustus had been passing legislation to promote family
values, he likely knew of her intrigues with other men but hesitated for
some time to accuse her. Several of Julia's supposed lovers were exiled,
most notably Sempronius Gracchus, while Iullus
Antonius(son of Mark
Antony and Fulvia)
was forced to commit suicide. Others have suggested that Julia's alleged
paramours were members of her city clique, who wished to remove Tiberius
from favour and replace him with Antonius. This would explain the
letter, written by Gracchus, asking Augustus to allow Julia to divorce
Tiberius.
It is hard to reconstruct what actually happened, but historians agree
that she had taken part in nightly drinking parties on the Roman Forum
and that Antonius was her lover as he is the only lover mentioned by
more than two contemporary historians. Several men were also reported to
have enjoyed her favors, but this may have been mere gossip.
Memoirs from Julia's time in exile quote her saying, "My time here is
horrid, there's no wine to ease my stress and no lesser class people for
me to make a ridicule of them."
Exile
Reluctant to execute her, Augustus decided on Julia's exile, in harsh
conditions. She was confined on the island of Pandateria,
with no men in sight, forbidden even to drink wine. The
island itself measures less than 1.75 square kilometres (0.68 sq mi).
She was allowed no visitor unless her father had given permission and
had been informed of the stature, complexion, and even of any marks or
scars upon his body.[19] Scribonia,
Julia's biological mother, accompanied her into exile.Upon any mention
of her and Julia, he would say: aith
ophelon agamos t'emeni agonos t'apolesthai meaning
"Would I were wifeless, or had childless died!" [from the Iliad].[22] He
rarely called her by any other name than that of his three imposthumes,
or cancers. The exile of his daughter left Augustus both regretful and
rancorous for the rest of his life.
Five years later, Julia was allowed to return to the mainland, though
Augustus never forgave her and ordered her to remain in Rhegium.
He explicitly gave instructions that she should not be buried in his Mausoleum
of Augustus. When Tiberius became emperor, he cut off Julia's
allowance, ordered that she be confined to the one room in her house,
and that she should be deprived of all human company.
Death
Julia died from malnutrition some
time after Augustus' death in 14, but before 15. With
her father dead and no sons to take the throne, Julia was left
completely at the mercy of the new emperor, Tiberius, who was free to
exact his vengeance. The circumstances of her death are obscure. One
theory is that Tiberius,
who loathed her for dishonouring their marriage, had her starved to
death. Another theory is that upon learning her last surviving son Agrippa
Postumus had been
murdered, she succumbed to despair. Simultaneously, her alleged paramour Sempronius
Gracchus, who had endured 14 years of exile on Cercina (Kerkenna)
off the African coast, was executed at Tiberius' instigation, or
on the independent initiative of Nonius Asprenas, proconsul of Africa.
Julia's daughter Julia
the Younger was
also exiled in 8 AD on a charge of adultery on the same island as her
mother - but actually for involvement in the attempted revolt by her
husband Lucius
Aemilius Paullus attempted
revolt - and died in 29 AD after 20 years of exile; she was also
forbidden to be buried in Augustus' tomb by his will.
After her death
Suetonius claims that Caligula,
the son of Julia's daughter Agrippina and Tiberius's
nephew Germanicus,
loathed the idea of being grandson of Agrippa,
who came from non-elite origins. Hence, Caligula invented the idea that
his mother Agrippina was the product of an incestuous union between
Julia and Augustus.
Personality
Among ancient writers Julia is almost universally remembered for her
flagrant and promiscuous conduct. Thus Marcus
Velleius Paterculus (2.100)
describes her as "tainted by luxury or lust", listing among her lovers
Iullus Antonius, Quintius Crispinus, Appius Claudius, Sempronius
Gracchus, and Cornelius
Scipio. Seneca
the Younger refers
to "adulterers admitted in droves";[26] Pliny
the Elder calls
her an exemplum licentiae (NH 21.9). Dio
Cassius mentions
"revels and drinking parties by night in the Forum and even upon the Rostra"
(Roman History 55.10).
Seneca (De Beneficiis 6.32)
tells us that the Rostra was the place where "her father had proposed a
law against adultery", and yet now she had chosen the place for her
"debaucheries". Seneca specifically mentions prostitution: "laying aside
the role of adulteress, she there [in the Forum] sold her favours,
and sought the right to every indulgence with even an unknown paramour."
Modern historians discredit these representations as exaggerating
Julia's behaviour.
Macrobius provides
invaluable details of her personality. Julia was well known for her
gentle quick wit and sharp tongue. She was deeply loved by her father
who admired her wit. Once, when asked her secret for having affairs
while bearing children resembling her husband, she stated that she took
on new passengers only when the boat was already full. (meaning that she
only took lovers when she knew she was already pregnant by her husband) Julia
was equally celebrated for her beauty, intelligence and her shameless
profligacy but mentions that "she abused the indulgence of fortune no
less than that of her father." Despite
Julia's reputation, the people who knew her described her as a
good-hearted and kind woman who was very popular with the Roman people
not least because of "her kindness and gentleness and utter freedom from
vindictiveness."
Role in
Anno Domini chronology
In 1605, the Polish historian Laurentius
Suslyga, published a tract (later quoted by Kepler)
which for the first time suggested that Jesus Christ was in fact born
around 4 BC, not AD 1, as the Christian era would have it. Julia's
expulsion from Rome in 2 BC was featured in Suslyga's chronological
argument.
Julia in popular
culture
Literature
- In I,
Claudius, a novel by Robert
Graves, the description of Julia's life and personality
is generally accurate. She is a sympathetic person who never
intended any harm to others. Julia is described as a child who was
instantly snatched away from her mother and taken by her father's
new wife, Livia. As a child, her stepmother enforced strict
discipline and an austere life of labor. She was not allowed to have
any friends, and if she was caught talking to people not approved by
Livia, she was punished. (Graves describes an occasion, which is
probably fiction, when a commoner introduces himself to Julia, and
Julia has her hair cut off by Livia as punishment.) Livia's cruelty
is due to her desire for her line to rule (Tiberius and his
descendants), not Julia's, as Julia was from Augustus's previous
marriage. Julia's behaviour resulted from Livia's and her son
(Julia's 3rd husband) Tiberius'
mistreatment of her. Tiberius not being sexually attracted because
of her womanly curves (preferring nymph-like women), Livia has Julia
take Spanish Fly to try and seduce Tiberius, which leads to her
sexual appetite. In the end, Livia manages to turn even Augustus
against Julia and, as historical fact proves, she was sent into
exile. Augustus initially allows Livia to select the island, and
Julia was sent to tiny Pandataria.
He later relents and asks where she is; upon discovering that she is
stuck on that desolate, tiny isle, he selects the pleasant town of Reggio off
the strait of Messina instead.
- In Caesar's
Daughter, a novel by Edward Burton, Julia is a
three-dimensional character. Julia is described as a rebellious
little girl who is willful and passionate but with a gentleness and
compassion for the people of Rome. She is dearly beloved by nearly
everyone she meets except her stepmother, Livia.
Loyal to her father, but not afraid to criticize his decisions she
is (after Livia) his favourite consort. Julia grows up among
intrigue and ultimately becomes its victim. Despite her tragic fate,
Julia remains very cheerful and kind nonetheless.
- In Augustus a
novel by Allan
Massie, Julia is a beautiful,
desirable and happy-go-lucky character
who is spoilt by her father. They still both love each other deeply.
She is jealous of her father's relationship with her first husband Marcellus,
disgusted with her marriage to Agrippa (who
is thrilled with his younger and beautiful wife) and furious at her
marriage to Tiberius.
Her adulteries are justified by Augustus' bad treatment of her and
she decides finally to rebel, which he denies as true though he is
distraught by her banishment.
- Julia is the heroine of I
Loved Tiberius by Elisabeth
Dored.
- Julia is portrayed in the novel Cleopatra's
Daughter, by Michelle
Moran. In the novel she is a young teenager who befriends
Queen Cleopatra VII's daughter Selene and is in love with her
soon-to-be first husband Marcellus. It shown how her stepmother,
Livia, did not give her much freedom, and how she was surrounded by
all of the plots and people in Rome while she was growing up. She is
described as beautiful, generous and kind-hearted, but also spoilt
by privilege.
- Julia appears in The
Poetaster, a play by Ben
Jonson about
the poet Ovid.
- The character of Corinna in
Ovid's poems have widely been thought to be Julia the Elder,
daughter of Augustus.
-
William Auld wrote
a short poem called Julia
on Pandataria which
takes a brief look on Julia's tragedies.
- Julia is mentioned in Antony
and Cleopatra by Colleen
McCullough. She is described as very pretty from a young
age and intelligent. Augustus is not discouraged by the fact she is
a girl and demands that she be educated in the manner of a man
rather than a woman, describing her as a
queen in waiting.
- Julia appears in Taylor
Caldwell's novel Dear
and Glorious Physician, as the unhappy wife of Tiberius and
a seductress of Lucanus, the young evangelist St. Luke.
Julia is one of the narrators in Augustus,
by John Williams. There are a number of contributions in her name,
written as part of a diary she wrote while in exile in Pandateria. She
narrates events from her point of view, including her feelings about her
father, her marriages, the restrictions on her as a prominent Roman
matron, her relationships with her lovers and members of her family.
Film/Television
- In the 1976 BBC Television
adaptation of I,
Claudius Julia
was portrayed by Frances
White as the
overly optimistic, witty and beloved daughter of Augustus. Julia is
one of the few major female characters who does not plot to kill or
actually murder someone.
- In the Italian mini
series, Imperium:
Augustus, Julia was portrayed by Vittoria
Belvedere as a
very tragic character, a victim of domestic
abuse and rape.
For a majority of the story, Julia and her father, Augustus,
are at the centre of the story as Augustus recalls his life to her
just before she is about to marry Tiberius.
The character in question has lost her husband and both of her two
boys (inaccurately) to illness. She is at first innocent, loving,
and beloved deeply by her father, but she gets mixed up in an affair
with her father's enemy as the result of depression brought
on by Tiberius' cruelty towards her. The series took a more modern
view of her affairs, that among her lovers, she had only one true
love: Iullus
Antonius.
- In the film, The
Robe, she is played by Rosalind
Ivan, making an inaccurate appearance as Tiberius' wife.
Marriages and births
- 25 BC, Julia marries her cousin
Marcus Claudius Marcellus.
Marcellus died in September 23 BC. They have no children.
- 21 BC, Julia marries Marcus
Vipsanius Agrippa. They have the following children:
- 11 BC, Julia marries her
stepbrother Tiberius.
Their union produces the following:
- Infant son, not named in
contemporary sources (by some later historians dubbed Tiberillus),
died almost immediately.
| 
