Julia Livilla

Iulia Livilla (* early 18 AD on Lesbos ; † early 42 AD on Pandateria ?) Was the sister of the Roman emperor Caligula .

Life

Iulia Livilla was the youngest daughter of Germanicus and the older Agrippina ; evidently she was given the nickname Livilla in honor of the aged Empress Livia . Among the ancient authors, on coins and inscriptions, she is almost without exception called Iulia , rarely on some inscriptions Livilla ; the double name Iulia Livilla is not found at all.

Iulia Livilla was a year younger than her sister Drusilla . Her nurse came from the servants of Augustus and Livia. She was raised with her sister by her grandmother Antonia . First Iulia Livilla became engaged to a distant cousin, Quinctilius Varus, son of the Germanic governor Publius Quinctilius Varus , who perished in the fight against Arminius , but after he was charged with maiestas (27 AD), the wedding did not take place. Tiberius hesitated a long time about whom to marry Iulia Livilla; In 33 AD she gave her hand to the elderly Senator Marcus Vinicius , whom an inscription says she might have accompanied to Asia when he was proconsul there (38/39 AD).

It has been alleged that Caligula and his three sisters Iulia Livilla, Iulia Drusilla and Agrippina the Younger committed incest. In any case, all of his sisters were divinely worshiped when he took office. On the back of Roman coins they appear as goddesses ( Securitas , Concordia and Fortuna ) with their individual names fixed in writing (Agrippina, Drusilla and Iulia). Her name was mentioned in all public oaths on Caligula. They received the rights of the Vestals . With this official exposure of still living family members, Caligula went far beyond the measures taken by his predecessors Augustus and Tiberius.

When the former husband of her now deceased sister Drusilla, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , was tried for a conspiracy against Caligula, Iulia Livilla and her sister Agrippina were accused of having committed adultery with him and of having been one of his accomplices; both were exiled to the Pontic Islands in 39 AD .

Soon after his accession to the throne in AD 41, Claudius allowed the sisters, his nieces, to return and arranged for their goods to be returned. Tensions between Iulia Livilla and Claudius' wife Valeria Messalina quickly developed . According to Cassius Dio, the empress did not feel duly paid attention to by Iulia Livilla, who perhaps, because of her direct descent from Augustus, considered herself to be of equal rank. In addition, Messalina was jealous of her great beauty and regular meetings with the emperor. At Messalina's instigation, Livilla was accused of adultery with the young Seneca , who later became the emperor Nero's advisor . As a result, she was probably exiled to the island of Pandateria and killed without being able to prove that she had committed a crime. Messalina shifted the suspicion on to Iulia Livilla's husband Marcus Vinicius, who also soon perished as a victim of the empress. Iulia Livilla was later buried in the Augustus mausoleum in Rome.

In addition to her portraits on coins, Iulia Livilla has been assigned some portrait heads (Leptis Malta type).

literature

Kurt Fitzler : Iulius 575 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume X, 1, Stuttgart 1918, Col. 938 f.
The new Pauly , Vol. 7, Col. 368.
Werner Eck : The Julian-Claudian family. Women next to Caligula, Claudius and Nero . In: Hildegard Temporini-Countess Vitzthum (ed.): The Empresses of Rome . Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-49513-3 , pp. 103-163.
Carlo Pietrangeli : La famiglia di Augusto , Rome 1938.

Web links

Commons : Iulia Livilla - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ See the compilation of the passages in the classical authors, the coins and inscriptions in Fitzler, Sp. 938.
^ Suetonius , Gaius 7.
↑ CIL 6, 4352 .
^ Suetonius, Gaius 24.
↑ Seneca the Elder , Controversiae 1, 3, 10; Tacitus , Annals 4, 66.
^ Tacitus, Annals 6, 15, 1
↑ Suetonius, Gaius 24; Cassius Dio 59, 11, 1; among others
↑ For example, she glorified Pergamon as the new Nikephoros ( Inscriptions from Pergamon , no. 497).
^ Suetonius, Gaius 15.
↑ Werner Eck , The Julisch-Claudian Family , p. 110f.
↑ Suetonius, Gaius 24; Cassius Dio 59, 22, 6ff.
^ Cassius Dio 60, 4, 1.
↑ Tacitus, Annalen 13, 42; Cassius Dio 60, 8, 5; 61, 10, 1; Scholien to Juvenal 1, 155; 5, 109; on this Werner Eck, Die iulisch-Claudische Familie , p. 121f.
↑ Cassius Dio 60, 8, 5; Suetonius, Claudius 29, 1; Tacitus, Annals 14, 63, 2; after the younger Seneca ( Apocolocyntosis 10, 4) and the tragedy Octavia (verse 946f.) attributed to Seneca , she allegedly died by the sword.
^ Cassius Dio 60, 27, 4.
↑ CIL 6, 891 .

personal data
SURNAME	Livilla, Julia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Sister Caligulas
DATE OF BIRTH	18th
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lesbos
DATE OF DEATH	42
Place of death	Pandateria

[1] See the compilation of the passages in the classical authors, the coins and inscriptions in Fitzler, Sp. 938.

[2] Suetonius , Gaius 7.

[3] CIL 6, 4352 .

[4] Suetonius, Gaius 24.

[5] Seneca the Elder , Controversiae 1, 3, 10; Tacitus , Annals 4, 66.

[6] Tacitus, Annals 6, 15, 1

[7] Suetonius, Gaius 24; Cassius Dio 59, 11, 1; among others

[8] For example, she glorified Pergamon as the new Nikephoros ( Inscriptions from Pergamon , no. 497).

[9] Suetonius, Gaius 15.

[10] Werner Eck , The Julisch-Claudian Family , p. 110f.

[11] Suetonius, Gaius 24; Cassius Dio 59, 22, 6ff.

[12] Cassius Dio 60, 4, 1.

[13] Tacitus, Annalen 13, 42; Cassius Dio 60, 8, 5; 61, 10, 1; Scholien to Juvenal 1, 155; 5, 109; on this Werner Eck, Die iulisch-Claudische Familie , p. 121f.

[14] Cassius Dio 60, 8, 5; Suetonius, Claudius 29, 1; Tacitus, Annals 14, 63, 2; after the younger Seneca ( Apocolocyntosis 10, 4) and the tragedy Octavia (verse 946f.) attributed to Seneca , she allegedly died by the sword.

[15] Cassius Dio 60, 27, 4.

[16] CIL 6, 891 .