See also

Family of Lucius LONGINUS Cassius and Julia DRUSILLA

Husband: Lucius LONGINUS Cassius (c. 15- )
Wife: Julia DRUSILLA (16-38)
Marriage 0033

Husband: Lucius LONGINUS Cassius

Name: Lucius LONGINUS Cassius
Sex: Male
Father: -
Mother: -
Birth 0015 (est)

Wife: Julia DRUSILLA

Name: Julia DRUSILLA
Sex: Female
Father: Germanicus (15-19)
Mother: Aggrippina (14-33)
Birth 16 Sep 0016 Abitarvium (modern day Koblenz, Germany)
Death 10 Jun 0038 (age 21) Rome, Italy

Note on Wife: Julia DRUSILLA

Julia Drusilla (Classical Latin: IVLIA•DRVSILLA[1]) (16 September AD 16 – 10 June AD 38) was the second daughter and fifth living child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, and the sister of the Roman Emperor Caligula. Drusilla also had two sisters (Julia Livilla and the Empress Agrippina the Younger) and two other brothers (Nero and Drusus. She was a great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, great-niece and adoptive granddaughter of the Emperor Tiberius, sister of the Emperor Caligula, niece and sister-in-law of the Emperor Claudius, and maternal aunt of the Emperor Nero.

Drusilla was born in Abitarvium, modern day Koblenz, Germany. After the death of her father, Germanicus, she and her siblings were brought back to Rome by their mother, and raised with the help of their paternal grandmother, Antonia Minor. In AD 33, Drusilla was married to Lucius Cassius Longinus, a friend of the Emperor Tiberius.[2] However, after Caligula became emperor in 37, he ordered their divorce and remarried his sister to his friend, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.[3] During Caligula's illness in 37, he changed his will to name Drusilla his heir,[4] making her the first woman to be named heir in an imperial will. This was likely an attempt to continue the Julio-Claudian line through any children she might have, leaving her husband to rule in the meantime.[5] However, her brother recovered and in 38, Drusilla died, at the age of about twenty-two.[6][7] Her brother went on to deify her, consecrating her with the title "Panthea" (all-goddess), and mourning her at her public funeral as though a widower.[8][9]

 

[edit] ReputationDrusilla was reportedly her brother's favorite. There are also rumors that she was also his lover. If true, that role likely gained her influence over Caligula. Though the activities between the brother and sister might have been seen as incest by their contemporaries, it is not known whether the two actually had any sexual relations. Drusilla herself earned a rather poor reputation because of the close bond she shared with Caligula and was even likened to a prostitute by later scholars, in an attempt to discredit Caligula.[10]

 

Some historians suggest that Caligula was motivated by more than mere lust or love in pursuing relations with his sisters. He might instead have deliberately decided to pattern himself after the Hellenistic monarchs of the Ptolemaic Dynasty where marriages between jointly ruling brothers and sisters had become tradition rather than sex scandals. This has also been used to explain why his despotism was apparently more evident to his contemporaries than those of Augustus and Tiberius.

 

The source of many of the rumors surrounding Caligula and Drusilla may be derived from the formal Roman dining habits.[10] It was customary in patrician households for the host and hostess of a dinner (or in other words, the husband and the wife in charge of the household) to hold the positions of honor at a banquet in their residence. In the case of a young bachelor being the head of the household (Caligula), the female position of honor was to be held by his sisters (Agrippina the Younger, Drusilla, and Julia Livilla), taking turns sitting in the place of honor. Caligula apparently broke with this tradition in that rather than having his sisters take turns at the place of honor, the place was reserved exclusively for Drusilla. In a manner of speaking, Caligula was publicly proclaiming that Drusilla was his wife, the female head of the household, even though he was married to Lollia Paulina.[citation needed]

 

[edit] Death and AftermathShe died on 10 June AD 38, probably of fever which was rampant in Rome at the time. Caligula was said never to have left her side, and after she had died, he would not let anyone take her body away.

 

Caligula was badly affected by her loss. He buried his sister with the honors of an Augusta, acted as a grieving widower, and had the Roman Senate declare her a Goddess as "Diva Drusilla", deifying her as a representation of the Roman goddess Venus or Greek goddess Aphrodite. Drusilla was consecrated as Panthea, most likely on the anniversary of the birthday of Augustus.[10]

 

A year later, Caligula named his only known daughter Julia Drusilla after his late favorite sister. Meanwhile, her widowed husband Marcus Amelius Lepidus reportedly became a lover to her sisters Livilla and Agrippina the Younger in an apparent attempt to gain their support in succeeding Caligula. The political conspiracy was discovered by Caligula while in Germania Superior during the fall. Lepidus was swiftly executed, while Livilla and Agrippina were exiled to the Pontine Islands.