Julia the Elder (30 October 39 BC – AD 14), known to her contemporaries as Julia Caesaris filia or Julia Augusti filia (Classical Latin: IVLIA•CAESARIS•FILIA or IVLIA•AVGVSTI•FILIA), (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III (PIR), Berlin, 1933, I 634. was the daughter and only surviving biological child of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, and his second wife, Scribonia. Julia was also 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. Her epithet "the Elder" distinguishes her from her daughter, Julia the Younger.
Life
Early life
At the time of Julia's birth, 39 BC, Augustus had not yet received the title "Augustus" and was known as "Gaius Julius Caesar Divi Filius", though historians refer to him as "Octavian" until 27 BC, when Julia was 11. Octavian divorced Julia's mother on the day of her birth and took Julia from her soon thereafter.Dio Cassius, Roman History, Book 48, Ch. 34.3. Octavian, in accordance with Roman custom, claimed complete parental control over her. She was sent to live with her stepmother Livia and when she was old enough learned how to be an aristocrat. Her education appears to have been strict and somewhat old-fashioned. Thus, in addition to her studies, according to Suetonius, she was taught spinning and weaving.Suetonius. Life of Augustus, Ch. 64 Macrobius mentions "her love of literature and considerable culture, a thing easy to come by in that household".Macrobius, Saturnalia: Julia's Wit, Book 2, Ch. 5.1-10 Julia remained the only living biological child of Octavian, after her half-sibling born by Livia died as result of preterm birth.Suetonius, Lives of the 12 Caesars, Aug.63
Julia's social life was severely controlled, and she was allowed to talk only to people whom her father had vetted.Suetonius. Life of Augustus, Ch. 64. 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."(Inter amicos [Augustus] dixit duas habere se filias delicatas, quas necesse haberet ferre, rem publicam et Iuliam.) Macrobius, Saturnalia, Book 2, Ch. 5.4
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 marriage because civil war broke out. In 31 BC, at the Battle of Actium, Octavian and Agrippa defeated Antony and Cleopatra. In Alexandria, the defeated couple both committed suicide, and Octavian became sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
First marriage As with most aristocratic Roman women of the period, expectations of Julia focused on marriage and on the resulting family alliances. Moreover, Augustus desired a male issue; as his only living child, Julia's duty would be to provide her father with grandsons whom he could adopt as his heirs.Suetonius. Life of Augustus, Ch. 63-4.
In 25 BC, at the age of fourteen, Julia married her first cousin Marcellus, the son of her father's sister Octavia, who was some three years older than she. Augustus himself was not present for the wedding as he was fighting a war in Spain and had fallen ill. Instead, he commissioned Agrippa to preside over the ceremony and hold the festival in his absence.Dio Cassius. Roman History, Book 53, Ch. 27.5
The decision to marry Marcellus to Julia, and then Augustus's choice to raise Marcellus to the pontificate and curule aedileship,Tacitus, Annals, Book 1, Ch. 3. was perceived to be an indication that he would be Augustus's successor in power, despite his youth.Velleius Paterculus, The Roman History, Book 2, Ch. 93. This put him at odds with Agrippa, who, people believed, would oppose Marcellus' accession to power; the apparent preference for Marcellus is allegedly the catalyst that led Agrippa to withdraw to Mytilene, Greece.Suetonius. Life of Augustus, Ch. 66.
However, 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's most trusted general and friend. This step is said to have been taken partly on the advice of Maecenas, who in counseling Augustus remarked: "You have made him so great that he must either become your son-in-law or be slain."Dio Cassius, Book 54, Ch. 6 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").Tacitus, Annals, Book 1, Ch. 53 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's stepson, and thus her stepbrother, Tiberius, so it was widely rumoured.("vulgo existimabatur") Suetonius, Life of Tiberius, Ch. 7
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, Julia the Younger, Lucius Caesar, Agrippina the Elder (mother of 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 across 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.Dio, Book 54, Ch. 18; Suet. Life of Augustus, Ch. 64 He took care of their education personally. Although Agrippa died in 12 BC, Augustus did not adopt the third brother, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Postumus, 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 travelled to meet Agrippa where he was campaigning. She was caught up in a flash flood in Ilium (Troy), and almost drowned.Nicolaus of Damascus (Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker 2 A): 421-2; Josephus, Antiquities 16.2.2 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 betrothedDio Cassius. Roman History, Book 54, Ch. 31 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. Suetonius alleges that Tiberius had a low opinion of Julia's character,("Iuliae mores improbaret"), loc.cit. Suetonius, Life of Tiberius, Ch. 7 while Tacitus claims that she disdained Tiberius as an unequal match and even sent his father a letter, written by Sempronius Gracchus, denouncing him.Tacitus. Annals, Book 1, Ch. 53. The marriage was thus blighted almost from the start, and the son that Julia bore him died in infancy.Suetonius, Life of Tiberius, Ch. 7.3 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 the pater familias, Augustus, either 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's 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.Pliny the Elder. Natural History, Book 7.149 (adulterium filiae et consilia parricidae) Though at the time Augustus had been passing legislation to promote family values, collectively known as the Leges Iuliae, 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.Levick, Barbara, Tiberius the Politician, p26-29.
Exile Reluctant to execute her, Augustus decided instead to confine Julia on Pandateria, an island that measures less than , with no men in sight and forbidden even to drink wine.Dio Cassius, Roman History, Book 55, Ch. 10; Suetonius, Life of Augustus Ch. 65 Her mother, Scribonia, accompanied her into exile.Velleius Paterculus, The Roman History, Book 2, Ch. 100.Dio Cassius, Book 55, Ch. 10 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.Suetonius, ibid.