Family of Marcus AGRIPPA Vipsanius and Julia the Elder

Husband:	Marcus AGRIPPA Vipsanius (c. 63-12)
Wife:	Julia the Elder (39-14)
Children:	Vipsania Julia (c. 19-29)
	Aggrippina (14-33)

Husband: Marcus AGRIPPA Vipsanius

Wife: Julia the Elder

Name:	Julia the Elder
Sex:	Female
Father:	Augustus (63-14)
Mother:	Scribonia LIBO (c. 68- )
Birth	30 Oct 0039 B.C.
Death	0014 (age 52-53)

Child 1: Vipsania Julia

Name:	Vipsania Julia
Sex:	Female
Spouse:	Paullus (c. 35- )
Birth	c. 0019 B.C.
Death	0029 (age 47-48)

Child 2: Aggrippina

Note on Husband: Marcus AGRIPPA Vipsanius

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (c. 63 BC – 12 BC) was a Roman statesman and general.[2] He was a close friend, son-in-law, lieutenant and defense minister to Octavian, the future Emperor Caesar Augustus. He was responsible for most of Octavian’s military victories, most notably winning the naval Battle of Actium against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

 

He was the son-in-law of the Emperor Augustus, father-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, maternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero.

Agrippa was born between 23 October and 23 November in 64–62 BC,[3] in an uncertain location.[4] His father was perhaps called Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa.[5] He had an elder brother whose name was also Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa, and a sister named Vipsania Polla. The family had not been prominent in Roman public life.[6] However, Agrippa was about the same age as Octavian (the future emperor Augustus), and the two were educated together and became close friends. Despite Agrippa's association with the family of Julius Caesar, his elder brother chose another side in the civil wars of the 40s BC, fighting under Cato against Caesar in Africa. When Cato's forces were defeated, Agrippa's brother was taken prisoner but freed after Octavian interceded on his behalf.[7]

 

It is not known whether Agrippa fought against his brother in Africa, but he probably served in Caesar's campaign of 46–45 BC against Gnaeus Pompeius, which culminated in the Battle of Munda.[8] Caesar regarded him highly enough to send him with Octavius in 45 BC to study in Apollonia with the Macedonian legions, while Caesar consolidated his power in Rome.[9] It was in the fourth month of their stay in Apollonia that the news of Julius Caesar's assassination in March 44 BC reached them. Agrippa and another friend, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, advised Octavius to march on Rome with the troops from Macedonia, but Octavius decided to sail to Italy with a small retinue. After his arrival, he learnt that Caesar had adopted him as his legal heir.[10] Octavius at this time took Caesar's name, but is referred to by modern historians as "Octavian" during this period.

 

[edit] Rise in powerAfter Octavian's return to Rome, he and his supporters realized they needed the support of legions. Agrippa helped Octavian to levy troops in Campania.[11] Once Octavian had his legions, he made a pact with Mark Antony and Lepidus, legally established in 43 BC as the Second Triumvirate. Octavian and his consular colleague Quintus Pedius arranged for Caesar's assassins to be prosecuted in their absence, and Agrippa was entrusted with the case against Gaius Cassius Longinus.[12] It may have been in the same year that Agrippa began his political career, holding the position of Tribune of the Plebs, which granted him entry to the Senate.[13]

 

 

Bust of Agrippa, Pushkin MuseumIn 42 BC, Agrippa probably fought alongside Octavian and Antony in the Battle of Philippi.[14] After their return to Rome, he played a major role in Octavian's war against Lucius Antonius and Fulvia Antonia, respectively the brother and wife of Mark Antony, which began in 41 BC and ended in the capture of Perusia in 40 BC. However, Salvidienus remained Octavian's main general at this time.[15] After the Perusine war, Octavian departed for Gaul, leaving Agrippa as urban praetor in Rome with instructions to defend Italy against Sextus Pompeius, an opponent of the Triumvirate who was now occupying Sicily. In July 40, while Agrippa was occupied with the Ludi Apollinares that were the praetor's responsibility, Sextus began a raid in southern Italy. Agrippa advanced on him, forcing him to withdraw.[16] However, the Triumvirate proved unstable, and in August 40 both Sextus and Antony invaded Italy (but not in an organized alliance). Agrippa's success in retaking Sipontum from Antony helped bring an end to the conflict.[17] Agrippa was among the intermediaries through whom Antony and Octavian agreed once more upon peace. During the discussions Octavian learned that Salvidienus had offered to betray him to Antony, with the result that Salvidienus was prosecuted and either executed or committed suicide. Agrippa was now Octavian's leading general.[18]

 

 

Agrippa depicted in a relief of the "Altar of Peace," the Ara Pacis.In 39 or 38 BC, Octavian appointed Agrippa governor of Transalpine Gaul, where in 38 he put down a rising of the Aquitanians. He also fought the Germanic tribes, becoming the next Roman general to cross the Rhine after Julius Caesar. He was summoned back to Rome by Octavian to assume the consulship for 37 BC. He was well below the usual minimum age of 43, but Octavian had suffered a humiliating naval defeat against Sextus Pompey and needed his friend to oversee the preparations for further warfare. Agrippa refused the offer of a triumph for his exploits in Gaul – on the grounds, says Dio, that he thought it improper to celebrate during a time of trouble for Octavian.[19] Since Sextus Pompeius had command of the sea on the coasts of Italy, Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe harbor for his ships. He accomplished this by cutting through the strips of land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an outer harbor, while joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrinus to serve as an inner harbor.[20] The new harbor-complex was named Portus Julius in Octavian's honour.[21] Agrippa was also responsible for technological improvements, including larger ships and an improved form of grappling hook.[22] About this time, he married Caecilia Pomponia Attica, daughter of Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus.[23]

 

In 36 BC, Octavian and Agrippa set sail against Sextus. The fleet was badly damaged by storms and had to withdraw; Agrippa was left in charge of the second attempt. Thanks to superior technology and training, Agrippa and his men won decisive victories at Mylae and Naulochus, destroying all but seventeen of Sextus' ships and compelling most of his forces to surrender. Octavian, with his power increased, forced the triumvir Lepidus into retirement and entered Rome in triumph.[24] Agrippa received the unprecedented honor of a naval crown decorated with the beaks of ships; as Dio remarks, this was "a decoration given to nobody before or since".[25]

 

[edit] Life in public service

Hadrian's Pantheon was built to replace the previous temple that had been built during Agrippa's rule. Hadrian retained the legend M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT, which means Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul for the third time, built thisAgrippa participated in smaller military campaigns in 35 and 34 BC, but by the autumn of 34 he had returned to Rome.[26] He rapidly set out on a campaign of public repairs and improvements, including renovation of the aqueduct known as the Aqua Marcia and an extension of its pipes to cover more of the city. Through his actions after being elected in 33 BC as one of the aediles (officials responsible for Rome's buildings and festivals), the streets were repaired and the sewers were cleaned out, while lavish public spectacles were put on.[27] Agrippa signalized his tenure of office by effecting great improvements in the city of Rome, restoring and building aqueducts, enlarging and cleansing the Cloaca Maxima, constructing baths and porticos, and laying out gardens. He also gave a stimulus to the public exhibition of works of art. It was unusual for an ex-consul to hold the lower-ranking position of aedile,[28] but Agrippa's success bore out this break with tradition. As emperor, Augustus would later boast that "he had found the city of brick but left it of marble", thanks in part to the great services provided by Agrippa under his reign.

 

Agrippa's father-in-law Atticus, suffering from a serious illness, committed suicide in 32 BC. According to Atticus' friend and biographer Cornelius Nepos, this decision was a cause of serious grief to Agrippa.[29]

 

[edit] Antony and Cleopatra

Statue of Agrippa at the Archaeological Museum of VeniceAgrippa was again called away to take command of the fleet when the war with Antony and Cleopatra broke out. He captured the strategically important city of Methone at the southwest of the Peloponnese, then sailed north, raiding the Greek coast and capturing Corcyra (modern Corfu). Octavian then brought his forces to Corcyra, occupying it as a naval base.[30] Antony drew up his ships and troops at Actium, where Octavian moved to meet him. Agrippa meanwhile defeated Antony's supporter Quintus Nasidius in a naval battle at Patrae.[31] Dio relates that as Agrippa moved to join Octavian near Actium, he encountered Gaius Sosius, one of Antony's lieutenants, who was making a surprise attack on the squadron of Lucius Tarius, a supporter of Octavian. Agrippa's unexpected arrival turned the battle around.[32]

 

As the decisive battle approached, according to Dio, Octavian received intelligence that Antony and Cleopatra planned to break past his naval blockade and escape. At first he wished to allow the flagships past, arguing that he could overtake them with his lighter vessels and that the other opposing ships would surrender when they saw their leaders' cowardice. Agrippa objected that Antony's ships, although larger, could outrun Octavian's if they hoisted sails, and that Octavian ought to fight now because Antony's fleet had just been struck by storms. Octavian followed his friend's advice.[33]

 

On September 2 31 BC, the Battle of Actium was fought. Octavian's victory, which gave him the mastery of Rome and the empire, was mainly due to Agrippa.[34] As a token of signal regard, Octavian bestowed upon him the hand of his niece Claudia Marcella Major in 28 BC. He also served a second consulship with Octavian the same year. In 27 BC, Agrippa held a third consulship with Octavian, and in that year, the senate also bestowed upon Octavian the imperial title of Augustus.

 

In commemoration of the Battle of Actium, Agrippa built and dedicated the building that served as the Roman Pantheon before its destruction in 80. Emperor Hadrian used Agrippa's design to build his own Pantheon, which survives in Rome. The inscription of the later building, which was built around 125, preserves the text of the inscription from Agrippa's building during his third consulship. The years following his third consulship, Agrippa spent in Gaul, reforming the provincial administration and taxation system, along with building an effective road system and aqueducts.

 

[edit] Late life

The theatre at Merida, Spain; it was promoted by Agrippa, built between 16 and 15 BC.His friendship with Augustus seems to have been clouded by the jealousy of his brother-in-law Marcus Claudius Marcellus, which was probably fomented by the intrigues of Livia, the third wife of Augustus, who feared his influence over her husband. Traditionally it is said the result of such jealousy was that Agrippa left Rome, ostensibly to take over the governorship of eastern provinces - a sort of honorable exile, but, he only sent his legate to Syria, while he himself remained at Lesbos and governed by proxy, though he may have been on a secret mission to negotiate with the Parthians about the return of the Roman legions standards which they held.[35] On the death of Marcellus, which took place within a year of his exile, he was recalled to Rome by Augustus, who found he could not dispense with his services. However, if one places the events in the context of the crisis in 23 BC it seems unlikely that, when facing significant opposition and about to make a major political climb down, the emperor Augustus would place a man in exile in charge of the largest body of Roman troops. What is far more likely is that Agrippa's 'exile' was actually the careful political positioning of a loyal lieutenant in command of a significant army as a backup plan in case the settlement plans of 23 BC failed and Augustus needed military support.

 

It is said that Maecenas advised Augustus to attach Agrippa still more closely to him by making him his son-in-law. He accordingly induced him to divorce Marcella and marry his daughter Julia the Elder by 21 BC, the widow of the late Marcellus, equally celebrated for her beauty, abilities, and her shameless profligacy. In 19 BC, Agrippa was employed in putting down a rising of the Cantabrians in Hispania (Cantabrian Wars). He was appointed governor of the eastern provinces a second time in 17 BC, where his just and prudent administration won him the respect and good-will of the provincials, especially from the Jewish population. Agrippa also restored effective Roman control over the Cimmerian Chersonnese (modern-day Crimea) during his governorship.

 

Agrippa’s last public service was his beginning of the conquest of the upper Danube River region, which would become the Roman province of Pannonia in 13 BC. He died at Campania in 12 March of 12 BC at the age of 51. His posthumous son, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Postumus, was named in his honor. Augustus honored his memory by a magnificent funeral and spent over a month in mourning. Augustus personally oversaw all of Agrippa's children’s educations. Although Agrippa had built a tomb for himself, Augustus had Agrippa's remains placed in Augustus' own mausoleum, according to Dio 54.28.5.

 

[edit] Legacy

The Maison Carrée at Nîmes, modern France, built in 19 BC; Agrippa was its patron.Agrippa was also known as a writer, especially on the subject of geography. Under his supervision, Julius Caesar's dream[citation needed] of having a complete survey of the empire made was carried out. He constructed a circular chart, which was later engraved on marble by Augustus, and afterwards placed in the colonnade built by his sister Polla. Amongst his writings, an autobiography, now lost, is referred to.

 

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, along with Gaius Maecenas and Octavian, was a central person in the establishing of the Principate system of emperors, which would govern the Roman Empire up until the Crisis of the Third Century and the birth of Dominate system. His grandson Gaius is known to history as the Emperor Caligula, and his great-grandson Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus would rule as the Emperor Nero.

Note on Wife: Julia the Elder

Julia the Elder (30 October 39 BC - AD 14), known to her contemporaries as Julia Caesaris filia or Julia Augusti filia (Classical Latin: IVLIA•CAESARIS•FILIA or IVLIA•AVGVSTI•FILIA[1]) was the daughter and only biological child of Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Augustus subsequently adopted several male members of his close family as sons. Julia resulted from Augustus' second marriage with Scribonia, her birth occurring on the same day as Scribonia's divorce from Augustus, who wished to marry Livia Drusilla.

 

She was the daughter of the Emperor Augustus, stepsister and second wife of the Emperor Tiberius, maternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and the Empress Agrippina the Younger, mother-in-law of the Emperor Claudius, and maternal great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero.

 

At the time of Julia's birth, Augustus had not yet received the title "Augustus" and was known as Octavian until 27 BC, when Julia was 12. Octavian divorced Julia's mother the day of her birth and took Julia from her soon thereafter.[2] Octavian, in accordance with Roman custom, claimed complete parental control over her. Once she became old enough, she was sent to live with her stepmother Livia and began her education as an aristocratic Roman girl. Her education appears to have been strict and somewhat old-fashioned. Thus, in addition to her studies, Suetonius informs us, she was taught spinning and weaving.[3] Macrobius mentions "her love of literature and considerable culture, a thing easy to come by in that household".[4]

 

Julia's social life was severely controlled, and she was allowed to talk only to people whom her father had vetted.[5] However, Octavian had a great affection for his daughter and made sure she had the best teachers available. Macrobius preserves a remark of Augustus: "There are two wayward daughters that I have to put up with: the Roman commonwealth and Julia."[6]

 

In 37 BC, during Julia's early childhood, Octavian's friends Gaius Maecenas and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa concluded an agreement with Octavian's great rival Mark Antony. It was sealed with an engagement: Antony's ten-year-old son Marcus Antonius Antyllus was to marry Julia, then two years old.

 

The engagement never led to a marriage because civil war broke out. In 31 BC, at the Battle of Actium, Octavian and Agrippa defeated Antony and his mistress, Cleopatra VII of Egypt. In Alexandria, they both committed suicide, and Octavian became sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

 

[edit] First marriageAs was the case with most aristocratic Roman women of the period, Julia's life was focused on her successive marriages and family alliances. Like many Roman girls, she was first married off in her early teens. In 25 BC, at the age of fourteen, Julia married her cousin Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who was some three years older than she. There were rumors that Marcellus had been chosen as Augustus' successor, but Julia's father was not present: he was fighting a war in Spain and had fallen ill. Agrippa presided over the ceremony. Marcellus died in September 23 BC, when Julia was sixteen. The union produced no children.

 

[edit] Marriage to Agrippa

Julia from "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum "In 21 BC, having now reached the age of 18, Julia married Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a man from a modest family who had risen to become Augustus' most trusted general and friend. This step is said to have been taken partly on the advice of Maecenas, who in counseling him remarked: "You have made him so great that he must either become your son-in-law or be slain".[7] Since Agrippa was nearly 25 years her elder, it was a typical arranged marriage, with Julia functioning as a pawn in her father's dynastic plans. There is from this period the report of an infidelity with one Sempronius Gracchus, with whom Julia allegedly had a lasting liaison (Tacitus describes him as "a persistent paramour"[8]). This was the first of a series of alleged adulteries. According to Suetonius, Julia's marital status did not prevent her from conceiving a passion for Augustus' stepson, and thus her stepbrother, Tiberius, so it was widely rumoured.[9]

 

The newly-weds lived in a villa in Rome that has since been excavated near the modern Farnesina in Trastevere. Agrippa and Julia's marriage resulted in five children: Gaius Caesar, Vipsania Julia (also known as Julia the Younger), Lucius Caesar, Vipsania Agrippina or Agrippina the Elder (mother of Emperor Caligula), and Agrippa Postumus (a posthumous son). From June 20 BC to the spring of 18 BC, Agrippa was governor of Gaul, and it is likely that Julia followed him to the country on the other side of the Alps. Shortly after their arrival, their first child Gaius was born, and in 19 BC, Julia gave birth to Vipsania Julia. After their return to Italy, a third child followed: a son named Lucius.

 

Nicolaus and Josephus mentions that during Julia's marriage to Agrippa, she was travelling to meet Agrippa where he was campaigning, was caught up in a flash flood in Ilium (Troy), and almost drowned.[10][11] Agrippa was furious, and in his anger he fined the locals 100,000 drachmae. The fine was a heavy blow but no one would face Agrippa for an appeal. It was only once Herod, king of Judaea, went to Agrippa to receive pardon that he withdrew the fine. In the spring of 16 BC, Agrippa and Julia started a tour through the eastern provinces, where they visited Herod. In October 14 BC, the couple travelled to Athens, where Julia gave birth to her fourth child, Agrippina. Augustus, who took care of their education personally, adopted the boys Lucius and Gaius Caesar after their father's death in 12 BC. Augustus adopted both the newborn Lucius and the three-year-old Gaius in 17 BC.[12][13]

 

After the winter, the family returned to Italy. Julia quickly became pregnant again, but her husband died suddenly in March 12 BC in Campania at the age of 51. He was buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus. Julia named the posthumous son Marcus in his honor. He was to be known as Agrippa Postumus. Immediately after the boy was born, and while Julia was still in mourning, Augustus had her betrothed[14] and then remarried to Tiberius, her stepbrother.

 

[edit] Marriage to TiberiusAfter the death of Agrippa, Augustus sought to promote his stepson Tiberius, believing that this would best serve his own dynastic interests. Tiberius married Julia (11 BC), but to do so he had to divorce Vipsania Agrippina (daughter of a previous marriage of Agrippa), the woman he dearly loved. The marriage was thus blighted almost from the start, and the son that Julia bore him died in infancy.[15] Suetonius alleges that Tiberius had a low opinion of Julia's character,[16] while Tacitus claims that she disdained Tiberius as an unequal match and even sent her father a letter, written by Sempronius Gracchus, denouncing him.[17] By 6 BC, when Tiberius departed for Rhodes, if not earlier, the couple had separated.

 

[edit] ScandalBecause Augustus was her legitimate father, having married her mother with conubium, Augustus had Patria Potestas over her. Patria Potestas lasted until either the Pater Familias, Augustus, died, or emancipated his child. Marriage had no effect on Patria Potestas, unless it was Manus Marriage which was rare at this point in time.

 

As the daughter of Augustus, mother of two of his heirs, Lucius and Gaius, and wife of another, Tiberius, it must have seemed to Julia that her future was assured. Yet in 2 BC she was arrested for adultery and treason; Augustus sent her a letter in Tiberius' name declaring the marriage null and void. He also asserted in public that she had been plotting against his own life.[18] Though at the time Augustus had been passing legislation to promote family values, he likely knew of her intrigues with other men but hesitated for some time to accuse her. Several of Julia's supposed lovers were exiled, most notably Sempronius Gracchus, while Iullus Antonius (son of Mark Antony and Fulvia) was forced to commit suicide. Others have suggested that Julia's alleged paramours were members of her city clique, who wished to remove Tiberius from favour and replace him with Antonius. This would explain the letter, written by Gracchus, asking Augustus to allow Julia to divorce Tiberius.[19]

 

It is hard to reconstruct what actually happened, but historians agree that she had taken part in nightly drinking parties on the Roman Forum and that Antonius was her lover as he is the only lover mentioned by more than two contemporary historians. Several men were also reported to have enjoyed her favors, but this may have been mere gossip.

 

[edit] ExileReluctant to execute her, Augustus decided on Julia's exile, in harsh conditions. She was confined on an island called Pandateria (modern Ventotene), with no men in sight, forbidden even to drink wine.[20] The island itself measures less than 1.75 square kilometres (0.68 sq mi). She was allowed no visitor unless her father had given permission and had been informed of the stature, complexion, and even of any marks or scars upon his body.[21] Scribonia, Julia's biological mother, accompanied her into exile.[22][23] Upon any mention of her and Julia, he would say: aith ophelon agamos t'emeni agonos t'apolesthai meaning "Would I were wifeless, or had childless died!" [from the Iliad].[24] He rarely called her by any other name than that of his three imposthumes, or cancers. The exile of his daughter left Augustus both regretful and rancorous for the rest of his life.

 

Five years later, Julia was allowed to return to the mainland, though Augustus never forgave her and ordered her to remain in Rhegium (Reggio di Calabria). He explicitly gave instructions that she should not be buried in his Mausoleum of Augustus. When Tiberius became emperor, he cut off Julia's allowance, ordered that she be confined to the one room in her house, and that she should be deprived of all human company.

 

[edit] DeathJulia died from malnutrition some time after Augustus' death in 14, but before 15.[25] With her father dead and no sons to take the throne, Julia was left completely at the mercy of the new emperor, Tiberius, who was free to exact his vengeance. The circumstances of her death are obscure. One theory is that Tiberius, who loathed her for dishonouring their marriage, had her starved to death. Another theory is that upon learning her last surviving son Agrippa Postumus had been murdered, she succumbed to despair. Simultaneously, her alleged paramour Sempronius Gracchus, who had endured 14 years of exile on Cercina (Kerkenna) off the African coast, was executed at Tiberius' instigation,[17] or on the independent initiative of Nonius Asprenas, proconsul of Africa. Augustus in his will had forbidden Julia to be buried in his own Mausoleum of Augustus.

 

[edit] After her deathSuetonius claims that Caligula, the son of Julia's daughter Agrippina and Tiberius's nephew Germanicus, loathed the idea of being grandson of Agrippa, who came from comparatively humble origins. Hence, Caligula invented the idea that his mother Agrippina was the product of an incestuous union between Julia and Augustus.[26]

 

[edit] PersonalityAmong ancient writers Julia is almost universally remembered for her flagrant and promiscuous conduct. Thus Marcus Velleius Paterculus (2.100) describes her as "tainted by luxury or lust", listing among her lovers Iullus Antonius, Quintius Crispinus, Appius Claudius, Sempronius Gracchus, and Cornelius Scipio. Seneca the Younger refers to "adulterers admitted in droves";[27] Pliny the Elder calls her an “exemplum licentiae” (NH 21.9). Dio Cassius mentions "revels and drinking parties by night in the Forum and even upon the Rostra" (Roman History 55.10). Seneca (De Beneficiis 6.32) tells us that the Rostra was the place where "her father had proposed a law against adultery", and yet now she had chosen the place for her "debaucheries". Seneca specifically mentions prostitution: "laying aside the role of adulteress, she there [in the Forum] sold her favours, and sought the right to every indulgence with even an unknown paramour." Modern historians discredit these representations as exaggerating Julia's behaviour.[28]

 

Macrobius[29] provides invaluable details of her personality. Julia was well known for her gentle quick wit and sharp tongue. She was deeply loved by her father who admired her wit. Once, when asked her secret for having affairs while bearing children resembling her husband, she stated that she took on new passengers only when the boat was already full.[30] Julia was equally celebrated for her beauty, intelligence and her shameless profligacy but mentions that "she abused the indulgence of fortune no less than that of her father."[31] Despite Julia's reputation, the people who knew her described her as a good-hearted and kind woman who was very popular with the Roman people not least because of "her kindness and gentleness and utter freedom from vindictiveness."[32]