THE WOMEN OF THE CÆSARS

THIRD PAPER: THE DAUGHTERS OF AGRIPPA

BY GUGLIELMO FERRERO

TIR

TIBERIUS had now broken with admiring the descendants of the great fam

Augustus, he had lost the support of ilies, was even more deeply impressed by public opinion, he was hated by the ma- the beauty, the virtue, the sweetness, the jority of the senate. At Rhodes he soon modesty, and the reserve of Antonia. found himself, therefore, in the awkward After the death of Drusus, she did not position of one who through a false move wish to marry again, even though the lex has played into the hands of his enemies de maritandis ordinibus made it a duty. and sees no way of recovering his position. “Young and beautiful,” wrote Valerius It had been easy to leave Rome; to reënter Maximus, "she withdrew to a life of reit was difficult, and in all probability his tirement in the company of Livia, and the fortune would have been forever compro- same bed which had seen the death of the mised, and he would never have become youthful husband saw his faithful spouse emperor, had it not been for the fact that

grow old in an austere widowhood." Auin the midst of this general defection two gustus and the people were so touched by women remained faithful. They were his this supreme proof of fidelity to the memmother, Livia, and his sister-in-law, An- ory of the ever-cherished husband that by tonia, the widow of that brother Drusus the common consent of public opinion she who, dying in his youth, had carried to his was relieved of the necessity of remarrygrave the hopes of Rome.

ing; and Augustus himself, who had alAntonia was the daughter of the empe- ways carefully watched over the obserror's sister Octavia and of Mark Antony, vance of the marital law in his own famthe famous triumvir whose name remains ily, did not dare insist. Whether living at forever linked in story with that of Cleo- her villa of Bauli, where she spent the larger patra. This daughter of Antony was cer- part of her year, or at Rome, the beautiful tainly the noblest and the gentlest of all widow gave her attention to the bringing the women who appear in the lugubrious up of her three children, Germanicus, Liand tragic history of the family of the villa, and Claudius. Ever since the death Cæsars. Serious, modest, and even-tem- of Octavia, she had worshiped Livia as a pered, she was likewise endowed with mother and lived in the closest intimacy beauty and virtue, and she brought into with her, and, withdrawn from public life, the family and into its struggles a spirit she attempted now to bring a spirit of of concord, serenity of mind, and sweet peace into the torn and tragic family. reasonableness, though they could not al- Antonia was very friendly with Tibeways prevail against the violent passions rius, who, on his side, felt the deepest symand clashing interests of those about her. pathy and respect for his beautiful and As long as Drusus lived, Drusus and An- virtuous sister-in-law. It cannot be tonia had been for the Romans the model doubted, therefore, that in this crisis Anof the devoted pair of lovers, and their tonia, who was bound to Livia by many tender affection had become proverbial ; ties, must have taken sides for Livia's son yet the Roman multitude, always given to Tiberius. But Antonia was too gentle 1 In the June paper on Tiberius's mother, Livia, and his step-sister, Julia (the daughter of Augustus by a former wife), Professor Ferrero described the intrigues of these two women, the first for the advancement of Tiberius

tions were

and mild to lead a faction in the struggle of a terrible scandal in the very person

of which during these years began between Julia. The lex Julia de adulteriis, framed the friends and the enemies of Tiberius, and by Augustus in the year 18, authorized that rôle was assumed by Livia, who pos- any citizen to denounce an unfaithful wife sessed more strength and more authority. before the judges, if the husband or father

The situation grew worse and worse. should refuse to make the accusation. This Public opinion steadily became more hos- law, which was binding upon all Roman tile to Tiberius and more favorable to citizens, was therefore applicable even to Julia and her elder son, and it was not long the daughter of Augustus, the widow of before they wished to give to her younger Agrippa, the mother of Caius and Lucius son, Lucius, the same honors which had Cæsar, those two youths in whom were already been be

centered the hopes stowed upon his

of the republic. brother Caius. Pri

She had violated vate interest soon

the lex Julia and allied itself with

she had escaped the hatred and ran

the penalties which cor against Tibe

had been visited on rius; and scarcely

many other ladies had he departed

of the aristocracy when the senate in

only because no one creased the appro

had dared to call priation for public

down this scandal supplies and public

upon the first famgames. All those

ily of the empire. who profited by

The party of Tithese appropria

berius,

protected

and guided natu

by rally interested in

Livia, at last hazpreventing the re

arded this step. turn of Tiberius,

It is impossible who was notorious

to say what part for his opposition

Livia played in this to all useless ex

terrible tragedy. It penditures. Any

is certain that measure, however

either she or some dishonest,

other influential therefore consid

personage succeed

ed in gaining posvided only it helped

session of the proofs MARK ANTONY to ruin Tiberius;

of Julia's guilt and and his enemies had recourse to every art

brought them to Augustus, threatening to and calumny, among other things actually iay them before the pretor and to institute accusing him of conspiracies against Au- proceedings if he did not discharge his gustus. Even for a woman as able and duty. Augustus found himself constrained energetic as Livia it was an arduous task to apply to himself his own terrible law. to struggle against the inclinations of Au- He himself had decreed that if the husgustus, against public opinion, against the band, as was then the case of Tiberius, majority of the senate, against private in- could not accuse a faithless woman, the terest, and against Julia and her friends. father must do so. It was his law, and Indeed, four years passed during which the he had to bow to it in order to avoid scansituation of Tiberius and his party grew dals and worse consequences. He exiled steadily worse, while the party of Julia Julia to the little island of Pandataria,

and at the age of thirty-seven, the brilliant, Finally the party of Tiberius resolved pleasing, and voluptuous young woman to attempt a startlingly bold move. They who had dazzled Rome for many years decided to cripple the opposition by means

was compelled to disappear from the me

was

ered proper, pro

increased in power.

tropolis forever and retire to an existence Caius and Lucius Cæsar, Julia's two on a barren island. She was cut off by youthful sons, of whom Augustus was very the implacable hatred of a hostile party fond, were the principal instruments with and by the inexorable cruelty of a law which the enemies of Tiberius fought framed by her own father!

against the influence of Livia over AugusThe exile of Julia marks the moment tus. Every effort was made to sow hatred when the fortunes of Tiberius and Livia, and distrust between the two youths and which had been steadily losing ground for Tiberius, to the end that it might become four years, began to revive, though not so impossible to have them collaborate with rapidly as Livia and Tiberius had proba- him in the government of the empire, and bly expected. Julia preserved, even in that the presence of Julia's sons should of her misfortune, many faithful friends and necessity exclude that of her husband. A a great popularity.

further ally was For a long time

soon found in the popular demonstra

person of another tions were held in

child of Julia and her favor at Rome,

Agrippa, the daughand many busied

ter who has come themselves tena

down into history ciously to obtain

under the name of her pardon from

the Younger Julia. Augustus, all of

Augustus had conwhich goes to prove

ceived as great a that the horriblein

love for her as for famies which were

the two sons, and spread about her

there was no doubt were the inventions

that she would aid of enemies. Julia

with every means had broken the lex

in her power the Julia,-so much is

party averse to Ticertain,- but even

berius; for her if she had been

mother's instincts guilty of an unfor

of liberty, luxury, tunate act, she was

and pleasure were not a monster, as

also inherent in her enemies wished

her. Married to L. to have it believed. From a photograph. Copyright by Anderson

Æmilius Paulus, She was a beautiBUST OF TIBERIUS IN THE MUSEO

the

son of one ful woman, as there NAZIONALE, NAPLES

of the greatest Rohad been before, as

man families, she there are now, and as there will be here- had early assumed in Rome a position after, touched with human vices and with which made her, like her mother, the human virtues.

antithesis of Livia. She, too, gathered As a matter of fact, her party, after it about her, as the elder Julia had done, a had recovered from the terrible shock of court of elegant youths, men of letters, the scandal, quickly reorganized. Firm in and poets, Ovid was of the number,-its intention of having Julia pardoned, it and with this group she hoped to be able took up the struggle again, and tried as to hold the balance of power in the gove far as it could to hinder Tiberius from ernment against that coterie of aged senareturning to Rome and again taking part tors who paid court to Livia. She, too, in political life, knowing well that if the took advantage of the good-will of her husband once set foot in Rome, all hope grandfather, just as her mother had done, of Julia's return would be lost. Only one and in the shadow of his protection she of them could reënter Rome.

displayed an extravagance which the laws either Tiberius or Julia; and more furi- did not permit, but which, on this account, ously than ever the struggle between the was all the more admired by the enemies two parties was waged about Augustus. of the old Roman puritanism. As though

It was

openly to defy the sumptuary law of Au- mere permission that Tiberius might regustus, she built herself a magnificent turn to Rome, under the conditions, howvilla; and, if we dare believe tradition, it ever, that he retire to private life, that he was not long before she, too, had violated give himself up to the education of his the very law which had proved disastrous son, and that he in no wise mingle in pubto her mother.

lic affairs. The condition of the empire Thus, even after the departure of Julia, was growing worse on every side; the fi

STATUE, SUPPOSED TO BE OF ANTONIA, DAUGHTER OF MARK
ANTONY AND OCTAVIA, AND MOTHER OF GERMANICUS,

IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE

her three children, Caius, Lucius, and nances were disordered, the army was disJulia the Younger, constituted in Rome organized, and the frontiers were threatan alliance which was sufficiently power- ened, for revolt .was raising its head in ful to contest every inch of ground with Gaul, in Pannonia, and especially in Gerthe party of Livia; for they had public many. Every day the situation seemed to opinion in their favor, they enjoyed the demand the hand of Tiberius, who, now support of the senate, and they played in the prime of life, was recognized as one upon the weakness of Augustus. In the of the leading administrators and the first year 2 A.D., after four years of exhaustive general of the empire. But, for all Livia's efforts spent in struggle and intrigue, all insistence, Augustus refused to call Tibethat Livia had been able to obtain was the rius back into the government. The Julii

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