Iullus Antonius

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Iullus Antonius (* 45 BC in Rome ; † 2 BC ) was the younger son of the Roman politician and general Marcus Antonius and his third wife Fulvia . He became known as a lover of Augustus ' daughter Julia .

Life

youth

Iullus Antonius was born in the year before Caesar's murder, when his father was on the best of terms with the dictator and probably saw himself as his successor. Presumably that is why he gave his son the unusual name "Iullus", which is otherwise only known to members of the Iulians family from the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

After Caesar's murder, Mark Antony made an alliance with Caesar's heir Octavian, later Augustus, and married him to Clodia , Iullus' half-sister from Fulvia's first marriage to Publius Clodius Pulcher . But after the victory over the Caesar murderers, the balance of power changed. While Mark Antony was in the east of the empire, Fulvia and her brother-in-law Lucius Antonius faced Octavian in the Peruvian War .

Fulvia died 40 BC. In the same year, Marcus Antonius married Octavius' sister Octavia Minor . In her household in Athens and later in Rome, Iullus Antonius was raised by his stepmother. He also remained in her care when Antonius left her for Cleopatra , thus escaping the fate of his older brother, Marcus Antonius Antyllus , who died in 30 BC. Was executed on the orders of Octavian. According to Plutarch , he was the third possible successor after Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Livia Drusilla's sons. Since the inheritance of his parents was handed over to him at Octavian's request, he was very wealthy.

Marriage and career

About 21 BC BC Octavia arranged that Iullus Antonius marry his stepsister Claudia Marcella the elder , Octavia's daughter from her first marriage, from whom Agrippa had divorced shortly before, in order to marry the widowed Iulia on Augustus' orders. With Claudia Iullus had the son Lucius Antonius (20 BC - 25 AD) who is probably depicted like himself on the frieze of Ara Pacis . Lucius Antonius became quaestor in 15 and was possibly the father of the general Marcus Antonius Primus . A daughter who is mentioned in the inscription of one of the freedmen may have come from this marriage .

Even before the year 13 BC BC, in which Iullus Antonius officiated as praetor , he was accepted into the college of augurs . As praetor, he gave costly games in Augustus' honor. 10 BC He got the consulate . Probably 7/6 BC He was proconsul of the province of Asia .

Iullus Antonius probably also had literary ambitions. Horace describes him in an ode as a poet who tries to emulate Pindar and invites him to practice his art in honor of Augustus.

Relationship with Julia and Death

At some point during this time, Iullus Antonius' alleged relationship with Iulia began, who was very unhappy in her third marriage to Tiberius . Tiberius had therefore withdrawn into voluntary exile in Rhodes . 2 v. Augustus heard about his daughter's immoral life. He banished Iulia for adultery and charged her alleged lovers, among whom Iullus was the most prominent, of treason. Both Titus Livius and Cassius Dio accuse Iullus of attempting to seize the throne of his mistress. However, today's historians consider it unlikely that Julia would have wanted to endanger her own sons Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar , who were adopted by their grandfather and intended as successors. Barbara Levick rather suspects that Julia saw a danger for her sons in Tiberius and had chosen Iullus as their protector. Velleius reports that Iullus Antonius committed suicide after the affair was discovered, while Tacitus and Cassius Dio claim he was executed. Ronald Syme says in his work The Roman Revolution that this is irrelevant.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plutarch: Antonius 87, 1
  2. ^ Cassius Dio 51, 16, 7
  3. ↑ Plutarch: Antonius 87, 2f
  4. ↑ Tacitus: Annals 4,44,3
  5. ^ Gaius Stern: Women, Children, and Senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A Study of Augustus' Vision of a New World Order in 13 BC .; 2006, p. 381
  6. ^ Paul Rehak: Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius ; Univ. of Wisconsin Press 2009, p. 131
  7. ↑ CIL VI 11959
  8. ^ Cassius Dio 54, 26, 2
  9. ↑ Horace: Carmen IV, 2
  10. ^ Livy 10: 12-16
  11. ↑ Cassius Dio 55, 10.15
  12. ^ Barbara Levick: Tiberius the Politician , p. 26.
  13. ↑ Velleius II, 100.4
  14. ↑ Tacitus: Annals 4,44,3
  15. ↑ Ronald Syme: The Roman Revolution ; 2003, pp. 440f.
personal data
SURNAME Antonius, Iullus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman senator, consul 10 BC Chr.
DATE OF BIRTH 45 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 2 v. Chr.