Name Julia Livia | Died 43 AD, Rome, Italy | |
Role Drusus Julius Caesar's daughter Spouse Gaius Rubellius Blandus (m. 33 AD–43 AD), Nero Julius Caesar (m. 20 AD–30 AD) Children Rubellius Plautus, Rubellia Bassa Parents Livilla, Drusus Julius Caesar Cousins Nero Julius Caesar, Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, Britannicus, Claudia Octavia Similar People Livilla, Drusus Julius Caesar, Julia the Elder, Nero Julius Caesar, Tiberius Gemellus | ||
Julia Livia (AD 5–43), sometimes referred to as Julia Drusi Caesaris filia (Julia, daughter of Drusus Caesar), was the daughter of Drusus Julius Caesar and Livilla, and granddaughter of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. She was also a first cousin of the emperor Caligula, and niece of the emperor Claudius.
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Chronology
At the time of Emperor Augustus' death in AD 14, Julia was ill. Before he died, Augustus had asked his wife Livia whether Julia had recovered.
In the year 20, Julia married her cousin Nero Caesar (the son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder). The marriage appears to have been an unhappy one, and fell victim to the machinations of the notorious palace guardsman Sejanus, who exploited his intimacy with Livilla to scheme against Germanicus’ family. In the words of Tacitus,
Whether the young prince spoke or held his tongue, silence and speech were alike criminal. Every night had its anxieties, for his sleepless hours, his dreams and sighs were all made known by his wife to her mother Livia [i.e. Livilla] and by Livia to Sejanus.Later in 29, owing to the intrigues of Sejanus, and at the insistence of Tiberius, Nero and Agrippina were accused of treason. Nero was declared a public enemy by the Senate and taken away in chains in a closed litter. Nero was incarcerated on the island of Pontia (Ponza). The following year he was executed or driven to suicide. Cassius Dio records that Julia was now engaged to Sejanus, but this claim appears to be contradicted by Tacitus, whose authority is to be preferred. Sejanus was condemned and executed on Tiberius’ orders on 18 October 31.
In 33, Julia married Gaius Rubellius Blandus, a man from an equestrian background. Despite that Blandus had been consul suffect in 18, the match was considered a disaster; Tacitus includes the event in a list of "the many sorrows which saddened Rome", which otherwise consisted of deaths of different influential people. Their children were Gaius Rubellius Plautus and a daughter Rubellia Bassa who married a maternal uncle of the future Roman Emperor Nerva. Juvenal, in Satire VIII.39, suggests another son, also named Gaius Rubellius Blandus. An inscription suggests Julia may also have been the mother of Rubellius Drusus, a child who died before the age of three.
Around 43, an agent of the Roman Emperor Claudius' wife, Empress Valeria Messalina, had falsely charged Julia with incest and immorality. The Emperor, her uncle Claudius, without securing any defence for his niece, had her executed 'by the sword' (Octavia 944-6: "ferro... caesa est"). She may have anticipated execution by taking her own life. Her distant relative Pomponia Graecina remained in mourning for 40 years in open defiance of the Emperor, yet was unpunished. Julia was executed around the same time as her cousin Julia Livilla, the daughter of Germanicus and sister of the former Emperor Caligula.
Robert Graves
In Robert Graves' novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God Julia was known as "Helen the Glutton". Graves did this as comic relief in the novels, but in reality she did not have a reputation for gluttony.
In the 1976 television adaptation she was played by Karin Foley. It unhistorically has her mother attempting to poison her to prevent Sejanus from marrying her, but it is not explicit about whether she died as a result, so glossing over her fate under Claudius.