Julia Caesaris (Julia)

Julia Caesaris was the only child of Augustus, from his first marriage with Scribonia. She was born in 39 BC, only a few days before her father divorced her mother to marry Livia Drusilla.

Julia was first married to her cousin Claudius Marcellus (son of aunt Octavia) who died young. Then, Augustus gave Julia as wife to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a man from a modest family that became his most trusted general. The marriage resulted in five children: Julia Caesaris Minor, Agrippina Major (mother of Emperor Caligula), Lucius Caesar, Gaius Caesar and Agrippa Postumus (a posthumous son). Augustus, who took care of their education personally, adopted the boys Lucius and Gaius Caesar.

Even when Agrippa was alive as pater familias, Augustus exerted an enormous influence on the family. His kin should be the perfect example of Roman virtue, especially his daughter and granddaughters. They were forced to be role models of modesty and chastity, they spent their days taking care of the house, spinning and weaving the men's clothes, dressing with simplicity.

After the death of Agrippa and his sons Lucius and Gaius Caesar, Augustus nominated his stepson Tiberius as heir. To secure the claim, Tiberius then married Julia, but to do this he had to divorce Vipsania (daughter of a previous marriage of Agrippa), the wife he dearly loved. Due to this, Tiberius and Julia's marriage was unhappy from the start. Not a long time after, Julia was arrested for adultery charges and Tiberius divorced her immediately.

Augustus was deeply disappointed and considered her execution. He then decided for Julia's exile, in the harshest conditions possible. She was confined on an island, with no men in sight, deprived of every luxury. Five years later she was brought back to Italy but never again admitted in the Imperial family. Augustus never forgave her and in his will he explicitly excluded her to be buried in his Mausoleum and ordered to remain confined to an Italian city. Tiberius, who still detested her, pulled the punishment forward and ordered that she could not leave one room and see nobody. Later, Caligula, who loathed the idea of being grand-son of the up-start Agrippa, invented that his mother Agrippina was the product of an incestuous union between Julia and Augustus.