The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars (64 page)

94
On Drusus’s banquet, see Cassius Dio,
Roman History
55.2.4; and Flory (1998), 491.

95
Consolatio ad Liviam
, 133–7. My own translation. Suetonius,
Claudius
1 reports that Augustus was suspected of having a hand in Drusus’s death, on the grounds of his stepson’s reputation for favouring republicanism, although Suetonius himself dismisses these allegations. For more on this sequence of events, see Barrett (2002), 42–4.

96
See Flory (1993), 299.

97
Seneca,
Consolatio ad Helviam
; cf. Lefkowitz and Fant (1992), no. 261.

98
See Flory (1993), 297–300.

99
See Kleiner (1996), for a reassessment of women’s roles in this regard; also Purcell (1986), 88–9 on Livia’s contribution.

100
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
55.8.4 on Vipsania Polla’s racetrack.

101
On the festival of Bona Dea, see Beard, North and Price (1998), Vol. 1: 296–7 and Takács (2008), 101; cf. Juvenal,
Satires
6.314–41. See Takács (2008), 23 on provenance of temple of Fortuna Muliebris.

102
Kleiner (1996), 32–3.

103
Strabo 5.3.8. Barrett (2002), 200–1 for more detail on the portico.

104
The portico has long since vanished, but a surviving fragment of a marble plan of Rome dating from the era of the Severan dynasty has preserved for us the existence, location and general floor plan of the building. It was built in the shape of a rectangle 115 m by 75 m (377 feet by 246 feet) around a courtyard garden. Ovid,
Ars Amatoria
1.71–2, tells us there was an art gallery there, and Pliny the Younger mentions meeting friends there:
Epistulae
1.5.9.

105
Kleiner (1996), 33–4 on Eumachia’s portico, and other women who commissioned their own buildings.

106
Severy (2003), 131f on the cult of
Concordia
, and 134 for the idea of Mother’s Day and the festival of the
Matralia
.

107
See Suetonius,
Tiberius
10; Tacitus,
Annals
1.53; Velleius Paterculus 2.99; Cassius Dio,
Roman History
55.9.5–8.

108
See previous note, and Fantham (2006), 83 on Tiberius’s possible motives.

109
Macrobius,
Saturnalia
2.5.3; 2.5.6; 2.5.8.

110
See Ovid,
Fasti
2.127f on this event. On Julius Caesar’s consecration, see Beard, North and Price (1998), Vol. 1, 208.

111
Velleius Paterculus, 2.100; Seneca,
de Beneficiis
6.32; Pliny the Elder,
Natural History
21.8–9; Tacitus,
Annals
3.24; Suetonius,
Augustus
64–5; Cassius Dio,
Roman History
55.10.12–16. See also Syme (1984) on ‘the crisis of 2 BC’.

112
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
55.10.14.

113
See Ferrill (1980) for an overview of scholarship on the reasons for Julia’s downfall.

114
Seneca,
De Brevitate Vitae
4.5: translation from Richlin (1992), 68.

115
Edwards (1993), 42–7 and Fischler (1994), 118–19 on adultery and political invective.

116
Varner (2004), 46.

117
Linderski (1988), 190. See Suetonius,
Augustus
65 and 101; Cassius Dio,
Roman History
56.32.4.

118
Wood (1999), 30.

119
Wood (1999), 30 and 74; C. B. Rose (1997), 21 and Varner (2006), 86–8 on possible treatment of Julia’s portraits after her exile.

120
Wood (1999), 69–70, and Fantham (2006), 137.

121
On subsequent judgements of Julia, see Fantham (2006), chapter 10.

122
Suetonius,
Tiberius
11 and 15; Barrett (2002), 52.

123
See Olson (2008), 15, on the
toga virilis
.

124
C. B. Rose (1997), 18.

125
Barrett (2002), 53 for a summary.

126
Potter (2007), 55. An obvious exception of course was Britain, conquered by Claudius in AD 43.

127
Suetonius,
Augustus
97–9; Velleius Paterculus 2.123.

128
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
56.42–6

129
Tacitus,
Annals
1.5–6: Cassius Dio,
Roman History
56.30.

130
These questions rear their heads again in chapters four and six with regard to Agrippina Minor and Plotina: see Barrett (1996), 24–5 on the Agrippina comparison.

131
My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan
(1989), 216, cited by Caroli (1995), 279.

3
Family Feud: The People’s Princess and the Women of Tiberius’s Reign

1
Les femmes illustres, or Twenty heroick harangues of the most illustrious women from history
. London: Dormand Newman (1693), trans. James Innes.

2
This description of Agrippina’s homeward journey is based on and excerpted from Tacitus,
Annals
3.1.

3
On Scribonia’s age and longevity, see Fantham (2006), 17–18 and 158, n. 30. We know that she was still alive in 16, two years after Julia’s death, as Seneca (
Epistulae Morales
70, 12) refers to her giving counsel to her relative Scribonius Libo, when he was implicated in a conspiracy against Tiberius.

4
Germanicus’s birth date was 24 May, in either 15 or 16 BC. I have opted for the later date here.

5
On the journey between Brundisium and Rome along the Appian Way, see Casson (1974), 194f.

6
For description of Tiberius, see Suetonius,
Tiberius
21.

7
Suetonius,
Augustus
101.

8
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
56.10 and 56.32. He mistakenly refers to the sum of 100,000 sesterces, rather than the 100,000 asses specified by the
Lex Voconia
. See Barrett (2002), 175 on this, and on the
Lex Papia Poppaea
of 9, which curbed the inheritance rights of women with less than three children, with a handful of special exceptions, including Livia herself: see Cassius Dio,
Roman History
55.2.5–6. On the value of different forms of Roman currency:
Oxford Classical Dictionary
, 3rd edn, s.v. ‘Roman coinage’.

9
Crawford (1976), 39; Barrett (2002), 174–5 and 183.

10
Tacitus,
Annals
1.8; Suetonius,
Augustus
101; Cassius Dio,
Roman History
56.46.1. Cf. Barrett (2002), 151; C. B. Rose (1997), 22.

11
See Flory (1987), 113 and
passim
, on the history and meaning of the name
Augusta
, and for an overview of who was granted the title during the Julio-Claudian era.

12
Flory (1987), 114 on the prevalence of this belief in the nineteenth century; also Barrett (2002), 154.

13
Tacitus,
Annals
1.14; Suetonius,
Tiberius
50. Cf. Flory (1987), 121.

14
Wood (1999), 90.

15
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
57.12.2; Tacitus,
Annals
2.42; Josephus,
Antiquities
17.1.1; C. B. Rose (1997), 23 on Tiberius’s response to the ambassador from Gytheum, in Sparta.

16
Barrett (2002), 164–5.

17
See Treggiari (1975) on these individuals.

18
Ovid,
Epistulae ex Ponto
3.1, my own translation.

19
Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre
: see Griffin (1997), 252.

20
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
57.12.2.

21
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
57.12.5: cf. Purcell (1986), 90.

22
Suetonius,
Augustus
50. Cf. Cassius Dio,
Roman History
61.33.12 on Agrippina Minor accompanying Claudius to supervise fire-fighting efforts in a display of her overbearing desire to share in his power. This indicates that this was very much
one of the duties of concerned emperors and their families, yet also that it could be seen as evidence of a woman becoming too visible.

23
I follow the line taken by Susan Wood, who in turn subscribes to the theory of Rolf Winkes on the dating of Livia’s portraits: see Wood (1999), 91–5; cf. Winkes (2000) and Bartman (1998).

24
Virgil,
Aeneid
1.279.

25
See Fejfer (2008), 345 on male and female portraits.

26
Purcell (1986), 91–2, and nn. 76–7.

27
See Caroli (1995), chapter two, on first ladies of the nineteenth century.

28
Kokkinos (2002),11.

29
Consolatio ad Liviam
299–328.

30
Kokkinos (2002), 15–16. On
univirae
and opinions about the remarriage of divorcees, see Gardner (1986), 51.

31
Kokkinos (2002), 16 and 148: cf. Valerius Maximus 3.3.

32
On Antonia’s staff, see Kokkinos (2002), 57–65 and Treggiari (1973).

33
Crawford (1976), 43; see also Kokkinos (2002), 71–2.

34
Kokkinos (2002), 75–7.

35
On women’s management of business and own affairs, see Gardner (1986), 21–2, and 234–5. On the raising of children under Livia’s and Antonia’s aegis, see, for example, Suetonius,
Otho
1.

36
Kokkinos (2002), 25.

37
Josephus,
Antiquities
18.143; cf. 18.165.

38
See Suetonius,
Claudius
2–4.

39
Suetonius,
Claudius
2.

40
Suetonius,
Claudius
4.

41
Suetonius,
Claudius
3.

42
Suetonius,
Claudius
41.

43
Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre
: see Griffin (1997), 253.

44
Wood (1999), 160 and 175.

45
Erhart (1978), 194.

46
Antonia’s Wilton House portrait: see Erhart (1978); Wood (1999), 158–62; Kokkinos (2002), 122–5; Kleiner and Matheson (1996), 60.

47
On the statue group at Lepcis Magna: Kokkinos (2002), 109–10; Wood (1999), 110–11; Barrett (2002), 208; C. B. Rose (1997), 29. Drusus Minor was flanked by his own mother Vipsania, and his wife Livilla.

48
C. B. Rose (1997), 30.

49
On Agrippina Maior’s date of birth, see Chapter 2.

50
Suetonius,
Augustus
86. The
Senatus Consultum de Gn. Pisone Patre
also comments on Augustus’s esteem for his granddaughter Agrippina: see Griffin (1997), 253.

51
Hicks (2005a), 68; Rendall (1996). Tacitus,
Annals
1.33.

52
See Tacitus,
Annals
2.43.6, on Agrippina’s celebrated fertility.

53
Suetonius,
Caligula
8–9.

54
Tacitus,
Annals
1.41. See O’Gorman (2000), 71–2 on similarities between this and Velleius Paterculus 2.75.3 when Livia flees with her infant son Tiberius in her arms. Cf. Suetonius,
Augustus
48 and Cassius Dio,
Roman History
57.5.2 for alternative versions of the story.