| Julia The Elder |
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| ancient roman women | |
| 39 bc births | |
| 14 deaths | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
For other Roman women named Julia Caesaris, see Julia Caesaris Known to her contemporaries as Julia Caesaris filia or '''Julia Augusti filia''' (PIR2 I 634) ( October 39 BC - 14 AD ) and widely referred to today as '''Julia the Elder''', she was the daughter and only natural child of Caesar Augustus . Augustus subsequently adopted several male members of his close family as sons. Julia resulted from Augustus' second marriage with Scribonia , her birth preceding by days Scribonia's divorce by Augustus to marry Livia Drusilla . Early Life Julia's childhood was far from happy. Almost as soon as she was born, she was taken from her biological mother (whom Augustus had 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 where she underwent her education as an aristocratic Roman girl. It was Augustus' desire that Julia should be exemplary, and so her education appears to have been strict and somewhat old-fashioned. Thus as well as her studies, Suetonius informs us (''Vita Augusti'' 64) that she was even taught spinning and weaving. Macrobius mentions that 'her love of literature and considerable culture, a thing easy to come by in that household' (''Saturnalia'' 2.5.1-10) Julia's social life was severely controlled, and she was only allowed to talk to people whom her father had vetted (Suetonius ''Vita Augusti'' 64). However, Julia must have been a very attractive child and it was hard for her to avoid attention from people. Augustus had a great affection for his daughter and made sure she had the best teachers available. Macrobius (''Saturnalia'' 2.5) 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.'') Daughter of Octavian The career of Octavian progressed steadily after Julia's birth. In was to marry Julia, who was now two years old. The engagement never led to a marriage, as civil war broke out. In 31 BC , at the Battle Of Actium , Octavian and Agrippa defeated Antony and his wife, Cleopatra VII Of Egypt . In Alexandria , they both committed suicide, and Octavian thus became sole ruler of the Roman Empire . In 27 BC , he adopted the honorific name Augustus . He killed Caesarion (Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar ) and Antyllus, sparing only the younger children. CAREER As with most aristocratic Roman women of the period, the career of Julia focused squarely on her successive marriages and family Alliances . She had two failed alliances, first with Antyllus, son of Marcus Antonius and second with Cotiso (''M. Antonius scribit primum eum Antonio filio suo despondisse Iuliam, dein Cotisoni Getarum regi'', Suetonius , LXIII, ''Life of Augustus''). Like many Roman girls, she was married off in her early teens. First marriage In , when Julia was but sixteen. The union produced no children, possibly because Julia was still fairly young. Marriage to Agrippa In describes him as “a persistent paramour” 1.53 ). Nor according to Suetonius did her marital status prevent her from conceiving a passion for Augustus' stepson Tiberius , so it was widely rumoured ("''vulgo existimabatur"'', ''Vita Tiberii'' 7). The newly-weds lived in a villa in Rome that was excavated near the modern , Agrippa and Julia started a tour through the eastern provinces, where they visited the king of Judaea, Herod . In October 14 BC , the couple travelled to Athens , where Julia gave birth to her fourth child, Agrippina. Augustus, who took care of their education personally, adopted the boys Lucius and Gaius Caesar after their father's death in 12 BC . After the winter, the family returned to , her stepbrother. Marriage to Tiberius After the death of Agrippa, Augustus sought to promote his stepson Tiberius , believing that this would best serve his own dynastic interests. Tiberius then married Julia (11 BC), but to do this he had to divorce Vipsania Agrippina (daughter of 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, ''Vita Tiberii'' 7.3). Suetonius alleges that Tiberius had a low opinion of Julia's character ("''Iuliae mores improbaret''" (''loc.cit''.), while Tacitus claims she disdained Tiberius as an unequal match and even sent her father a letter denouncing Tiberius, written by Sempronius Gracchus (''Annals'' 1.53). By 6 BC , when Tiberius departed for Rhodes , if not earlier, they had separated. Scandal Even when Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa were alive, Augustus as her '' Pater Familias '' exerted an enormous influence on her family. His kin were expected to be paragons of Roman virtue. Sadly, the demands that Augustus placed on their standards of conduct were not matched by his own (his infidelities were the talk of the town). As the daughter of Augustus, mother of two of his heirs, Lucius and Gaius, and wife of another, Tiberius, it must have seemed to Julia that her future was assured. 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. Augustus asserted in public that she had been plotting against the life of her own father (Pliny ''NH'' 7.149 ''adulterium filiae et consilia parricidae''). At the time Augustus had been passing legislation to promote family values, and the discovery of his own daughter's actions proved to be a great blow. Several of her supposed accomplices were exiled (including Sempronius Gracchus), or put to death (especially Iullus Antonius , son of Mark Antony and Fulvia ). It is hard to reconstruct what actually happened, but it was proved that she had taken part in nightly drinking parties on the Roman Forum and that Iullus Antonius was certainly her lover. Many other men were also reported to have enjoyed her favors, but this may have been Gossip . Exile Hesitating whether or not to execute her, Augustus decided on Julia's exile, in harsh conditions. She was confined on an island named Pandataria (modern Ventotene ), with no men in sight, forbidden even to drink wine (Suetonius, ''Vita Augusti'' 65). The island itself measures less than 1¾ km&2. 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" Suet. ''ibid''.). Scribonia , Julia's biological mother, accompanied her into exile (Velleius Paterculus 2.100, Dio Cassius 55.10). Upon any mention of him and Julia, he would say: ''aith ophelon agamos t'emeni agonos t'apolesthai'', "Would I were wifeless, or had childless died!" the Iliad (Suetonius, LXV, ''Life of Augustus''). 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 she was brought back to the mainland. Yet Augustus never forgave her and ordered her to remain in Rhegium ( Reggio Di Calabria ). He explicitly gave instructions that she should never be buried in his Mausoleum Of Augustus . When Tiberius became emperor, he cut off her allowance and ordered that she be confined to the one room in her house and to be deprived of all human company. Death She died from Malnutrition some time after Augustus' death in 14 , but before 15 (clearly stated in Tacitus, ''Annals'' 1.53 ("That same year Julia ended her days..."); cf. ''Ann''.1.55, which commences the narration of events of AD 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 the marriage, had starved her 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 fourteen years of exile on Cercina ( Kerkenna ) off the African coast, was executed at Tiberius' instigation (Tacitus, ''Annals'' 1.53), or on the independent initiative of Nonius Asprenas, proconsul of Africa. After her death Suetonius claims that Caligula (Julia's grandson), son of Agrippina (Julia's daughter) and Germanicus (Julia's nephew), loathed the idea of being grandson of Marcus Agrippa (Julia's second husband). He disliked him because of his undistinguished background and felt it insulted his noble and strong family line direct from Augustus. Hence he invented the idea that his mother Agrippina was the product of an incestuous union between Julia and Augustus ( Suetonius , ''Vita Caligulae'' 23). PERSONALITY Among ancient writers Julia is almost universally remembered for her flagrant and promiscuous conduct. Thus Marcus Velleius Paterculus (2.100) describes her as being “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" (''admissos gregatim adulteros'', ''De Beneficiis'' 6.32); 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 the Forum'' sold her favours, and sought the right to every indulgence with even an unknown paramour." Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius (''Saturnalia'' 2.5) provides invaluable details of her personality. Julia was well known for her gentle quick wit and sharp tongue. Once, when asked her secret for having affairs, while bearing children resembling her husband, she laughed as she stated that she only took on new passengers when the boat was already full, ''"numquam enim nisi navi plena tollo vectorem"'' ( Macrobius , Saturnalia, II, 5, 9-10), which meant she only allowed herself affairs when she was already pregnant, and thus would not shame her father or her husband. She was equally celebrated for her abilities and her shameless profligacy. However, he also mentions that "she abused the indulgence of fortune no less than that of her father" (Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 2.5.) Despite Julia's soiled reputation, the people who knew her described her as a good-hearted and kind woman, who never intended to hurt anyone whose only real fault was that she was caught in her actions. Julia was not only physically attractive but her father seems to have deeply loved her. She is described as being very popular not least because of "her kindness and gentleness and utter freedom from cruelty" (''mitis humanitas minimeque saevus animus''" -- Macrobius , ''Saturnalia'' 2.5)." JULIA IN LITERATURE AND FILM Literature
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