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Page 14
[Illustration: The great Paris Cameo. This is the largest ancient
cameo known, and is said to have been sent from Constantinople by
Baldwin II. to Louis IX. It represents the living members of the
imperial family protected by the deified Augustus. In the center
Tiberius is shown seated, as Jupiter, with his mother, Livia, at his
left, as Ceres. In front of them stand Germanicus and his mother
Antonia.]
It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if from this time on there
should have been fostered between Julia and Livia a half-suppressed
rivalry. The fact is, in itself, very probable and several indications
of it have remained in tradition and in history. We know also that two
parties were already beginning to gather about the two women. One of
these might be called the party of the Claudii and of the old
conservative nobility, the other the party of the Julii and of that
youthful nobility which was following the modern trend. As long as
Agrippa lived, Augustus, by holding the balance between the two
factions, succeeded in maintaining a certain equilibrium. With the
death of Agrippa, which occurred in 12 B.C., the situation was changed.
Julia was now for the second time a widow, and by the provisions of the
_Lex de maritandis ordinibus_ should remarry. Augustus in the
traditional manner sought a husband for her, and, seeking him only with
the idea of furthering a political purpose, he found for her Tiberius,
the elder son of Livia. Tiberius was the stepbrother of Julia and was
married to a lady whom he tenderly loved; but these were considerations
which could hardly give pause to a Roman senator. In the marriage of
Tiberius and Julia, Augustus saw a way of snuffing out the incipient
discord between the Julii and the Claudii, between Julia and Livia,
between the parties of the new and of the old nobility. He therefore
ordered Tiberius to repudiate the young, beautiful, and noble Agrippina
in order to marry Julia. For Tiberius the sacrifice was hard; we are
told that one day after the divorce, having met Agrippina at some
house, he began to weep so bitterly that Augustus ordered that the
former husband and wife should never meet again. But Tiberius, on the
other hand, had been educated by his mother in the ancient ideas, and
therefore knew that a Roman nobleman must sacrifice his feelings to the
public interest. As for Julia, she celebrated her third wedding
joyfully; for Tiberius, after the deaths of Agrippa and of his own
brother Drusus, was the rising man, the hope and the second personage
of the empire, so that she was not forced to step down from the lofty
position which the marriage with Agrippa had given her. Tiberius,
furthermore, was a very handsome man and for this reason also he seems
not to have been displeasing to Julia, who in the matter of husbands
considered not only glory and power.
The marriage of Julia and Tiberius began under happy auspices. Julia
seemed to love Tiberius and Tiberius did what he could to be a good
husband. Julia soon felt that she was once more to become a mother and
the hope of this other child seemed to cement the union between husband
and wife. But the rosy promises of the beginning were soon
disappointed. Tiberius was the son of Livia, a true Claudius, the
worthy heir of two ancient lines, an uncompromising traditionalist,
therefore a rigid and disdainful aristocrat, and a soldier severe with
others as with himself. He wished the aristocracy to set the people an
example of all the virtues which had made Rome so great in peace and
war: religious piety, simplicity of customs, frugality, family purity,
and rigid observance of all the laws. The luxury and prodigality which
were becoming more and more wide-spread among the young nobility had no
fiercer enemy than he. He held that a man of great lineage who spent
his substance on jewels, on dress, and on revels was a traitor to his
country, and no one demanded with greater insistence than he that the
great laws of the year 18 B.C., the sumptuary law, the laws on marriage
and adultery, should be enforced with the severest rigor. Julia, on
the other hand, loved extravagance, festivals, joyous companies of
elegant youths, an easy, brilliant life full of amusement.
[Illustration: Octavia, the sister of Augustus.]
For greater misfortune, the son who was born of their union died
shortly after and discord found its way between Julia and Tiberius.
Sempronius Gracchus, who knew how to profit by this, reappeared and
again made advances to Julia. She again lent her ear to his bland
words and the domestic disagreement rapidly became embittered.
Tiberius,--this is certain,--soon learned that Julia had resumed her
relations with Sempronius Gracchus, and a new, intolerable torment was
added to his already distressed life. According to the _Lex de
adulteriis_, he as husband should have made known the crime of his wife
to the pretor and have had her punished. He had been one of those who
had always most vehemently denounced the nobility for their weakness in
the enforcement of this law. Now that his own wife had fallen under
the provisions of the terrible statute, to which so many other women
had been forced to submit, the moment had come to give the weak that
example of unconquerable firmness which he had so often demanded of
others. But Julia was the daughter of Augustus. Could he call down,
without the consent of Augustus, so terrible a scandal upon the first
house of the empire, render its daughter infamous, and drive her into
exile? Augustus, though he desired his daughter to be more prudent and
serious, yet loved and protected her; above all, he disliked dangerous
scandal, and Julia dared to do whatever she wished, knowing herself
invulnerable under his protection and his love.
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