feminhistory:Women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty:(Top to bottom) Livia Augusta, Julia the Elder, Agr

feminhistory:Women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty:(Top to bottom) Livia Augusta, Julia the Elder, Agrippina the YoungerLIVIA•AVGVSTA;Livia was the wife and advisor of Augustus. She was born in 58 BC and her father had fought against Augustus, then known as Octavian, during the civil wars that erupted after the assassination of Julius Caesar. A general pardon was issued when Augustus was victorious and she was introduced to him in 39 BC. Despite her being married and 6 months pregnant with her second child, Augustus immediately divorced his own wife Scribonia and either persuaded or forced Livia’s husband - Tiberius Claudius Nero - to divorce her and they were married in January 38 BC, mere months after their first meeting and remained so for 51 years. The untimely deaths of Augustus’ nephew Marcellus and grandsons Gauis and Lucius - obstacles to Tiberius’ accession - are often attributed to Livia. Tacitus and Cassius Dio even suggest that she played a role in the death of Augustus in AD 14. Upon her son’s accession her influence began to weaken. In AD 29 at 87 years of age she fell ill and died. She was stripped of all honours granted to her during her lifetime and her will was left unfulfilled. Her ashes were placed alongside Augustus’ in the Mausoleum of Augustus without the pomp or ceremony befitting her status. It was not until AD 42, during the reign of her grandson Claudius, that her honours were restored to her, she was deified (becoming Diva Augusta - the Divine Augusta) and her statue was erected alongside her husband’s in the Temple of Augustus. Her turbulent and eventful life is well documented by the historians of the time. A dignified, proud and intelligent woman, she deeply influenced Augustus’ policies throughout his reign and helped him establish his dynasty.IVLIA•AVGVSTI•FILIA; Julia the Elder, known by her contemporaries as Julia Augusta Filia, was the daughter and only biological child of the emperor Augustus. Her mother was Augustus’ first wife, Scribonia, whom he divorced for Livia on the day that Julia was born. Julia and her father were never close and it is documented that he often called her his “cancer”. Her first marriage took place in 25 BC when she was just 14 years old. She was married to Marcellus, her cousin and Augustus’ heir. Upon his death in 23 BC, Julia was remarried to her father’s best friend Marcus Agrippa who was 25 years her senior. Their marriage took place in 21 BC and resulted in 5 children. Augustus arranged the marriage after being advised by one Maecenas that Agrippa’s power had grown to such levels that he must either be slain or brought into the family. Of their 5 children, 3 died during Julia’s lifetime; two of them - Lucius and Gaius died during Augustus’s reign and one - Agrippa Postumus - was exiled by Augustus and killed at the beginning of Tiberius’ reign. Her daughter Agrippina the Elder was the mother of the future emperor Caligula and the grandmother of the future emperor Nero. Upon Agrippa’s death in 12 BC Julia was married once again, this time to her step brother and future emperor Tiberius. The couple deeply disliked each other, lived separately and had no children. In 2 BC Augustus brought charges of adultery and treason against her and she was exiled to Pandateria alongside her mother Scribonia. She spent 5 years there and upon any mention of her or her mother Augustus would recite the Illiad; “Never to have married, and childless to have died!”. Julia’s death came about soon after Augustus’ death, with no sons or her father to protect her she was left wholly at the mercy of Tiberius. She starved to death in exile in AD 14. Her ashes were prevented from being buried alongside her family in the Mausoleum of Augustus by Augustus’ will.IVLIA•AGRIPPINA•MINOR; One of the most prominent and well remembered women of the Julio-Claudian family, Agrippina the Younger was the great grand daughter of Augustus, the sister of Caligula, the wife and niece of Claudius and the mother of Nero. She was born to Agrippina the Elder and Germanicus in AD 14. At 13 years old, in 28 AD Agrippina married her first husband, a distant relative to the Julio-Claudian family, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus to whom she bore her only biological child, the future emperor Nero. Upon Tiberius’ death in 37 AD, her only surviving brother - Caligula - became emperor. Caligula gave his sisters unprecedented privileges. The sources suggest that he sexually assaulted Drusilla and Livilla, but details of his relationship with Agrippina are obscure. As Caligula’s reign deteriorated in to a reign of terror, his surviving sisters became the focus of his attacks. In 39 AD Livilla, Agrippina and a man named Marcus Lepidus were accused of treason. Accused of plotting Caligula’s murder Livilla and Agrippina were exiled to the Pontine Islands. After Caligula’s assassination and Claudius’ accession in 41 AD, Livilla and Agrippina returned to Rome. In 49 AD Agrippina married Claudius in a bid to place her son on the throne. She successfully convinced Claudius to name Nero as joint heir to his own son Britannicus and the sources of the period suggest that it was she who poisoned him in 54 AD to hurry Nero’s accession. During the early parts of Nero’s reign Agrippina exercised genuine power in the government of Rome. This lead to a power struggle, which culminated in several assassination attempts on Nero’s part. Cassius Dio claims that his final attempt was a self-sinking boat which automatically collapsed in open water with Agrippina aboard it. She, however, managed to swim to shore where assassins sent by Nero awaited her, her final words were “smite my womb”, wishing for it to be the first part of her body to be destroyed as it had let her give birth to such an “abominable son”, she died aged 43 in AD 59. The guilt of his mother’s murder stayed with Nero till the end of his own life and is attributed as one of the contributing factors for his downward spiral into the complete savage cruelty and depravity with which he ruled Rome during the remainder of his reign. -- source link

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