Julia the Elder

Also known as: Julia / Julia (Augustus's daughter) / Julia (daughter) · Family: Julio-Claudian · Role: daughter of Augustus · First appears: Augustus 19

In Augustus 19, Julia was confined on an island with Agrippa Postumus when Lucius Audasius and Asinius Epicadus, her enemies, planned to carry them away to the armies. She was the daughter of Augustus and Scribonia; Augustus first married her to Marcellus, then, after his death, to Marcus Agrippa. She was also reportedly contracted first to Augustus’s son and afterward to Cotiso, before Augustus selected Tiberius as her next match. With Marcus Agrippa, she was the parent of Caius Caesar, Lucius, Agrippa Postumus, Julia the Younger, and Agrippina the Elder.

In Augustus 65, Augustus banished Julia and Julia the Younger for what the account calls “lewdness and debauchery.” After five years, he moved Julia from the island to the continent but did not recall her, and ordered that neither Julia should be buried in his tomb. Her freed-woman and confidant Phoebe was also her patronage connection and friend; after Phoebe hanged herself, Augustus said, “I had rather be the father of Phoebe than of Julia.”

Tiberius married Julia, and their son was born at Aquileia but died in infancy. Their rupture became violent, and afterward Tiberius would no longer sleep with her. Julia was later condemned for adultery and sent a divorce bill in Tiberius’s name by Augustus’s authority; Tiberius nevertheless wrote frequently to Augustus on her behalf and allowed her to keep his presents. Much later, Caligula said that his mother was the product of an incestuous relationship maintained by Augustus with his daughter Julia.