Why did Augustus exile his own daughter?

Exile is never a pleasant experience, and meting it out on a family member is positively brutal. So what could drive Augustus to exile his own daughter? Tune in and find out -- the answer might surprise you.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm depleted chocolate boarding. And in
our last episode we talked a little bit about five

(00:20):
Roman shipwrecks off of Venta Tenne. It's kind of a
big recent archaeological find. Pretty interesting stuff there. Yeah, it
looks kind of idyllic. Actually, it does look pretty idyllic, um.
But you know there's gonna be some issues as well uncover.
On this podcast, we talked about the island a little
bit itself, and it's right off the coast of Naples,

(00:42):
and it's where the first Roman emperor, Augustus built this
grand villa complete with spas, and he built this complex
system of cisterns to collect rainwater because there were no
natural springs on the island. And probably most importantly, he
built this harbor that transformed this remote volcanic rock into

(01:03):
a safe haven, a place where merchant ships could come
while they were trading throughout the Mediterranean. So it sounds good,
so far, um, But that peaceful remoteness also made Venta
Tene the perfect place to send someone that you'd never
want to see again. Yeah, it's the ideal prison yep.
Not too inconvenient for jailers, but also very isolating for

(01:24):
the detainees. Yeah. And there was actually eventually a prison
built on the nearby Santo Stefano Um Mussolini would lock
up his political prisoners there. But we're talking about long
before Mussolini's time. We're gonna be keeping in that age
of Augustus when Venta Tenne and the other Ponting islands
that are in the Tranean Sea right off the coast

(01:47):
of Italy there were used to exile the Roman elite
and get them out of Rome, get them away from
the place where they could cause trouble. And we're going
to take a look at Augustus's most famous detainey, his
own daughter and only child, Julia. Yeah. So first, in
case you're a little rusty on your Roman history, you're

(02:09):
gonna give you a very brief background on Augustus, who
was known as Octavius and then Octavian until twenty seven
b c. In case you've ever gotten confused over these
name changes. And he was the grand nephew and the
postumus adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar, and it's
after Caesar's murder that things started to get kind of

(02:30):
complicated and um. For a time he ruled as part
of a triumvirate which famously broke apart in war and
defeated Mark Anthony. Katie and I did an earlier episode
on Cleopatra's Children where we talked about the Battle of
Actium a little bit um. And eventually the future Augustus
emerges as the sole ruler of what's outwardly still a republic.

(02:55):
It's still a Roman republic, but it eventually transforms into
the Roman Empire, with of course Augustus at its head. Yep.
So Augustus is in charge, but then he wants to
change his image a little bit. He wanted to set
himself apart from the chaos of the wars and the
moral depravity that he saw in the republic, and so
part of his agenda for the empire was to restore

(03:16):
family values. Yeah, get back to some sort of golden
age as he saw it. Yep. So he passed some
laws encouraging marriage because he he believed that the population
had declined due to too many men visiting prostitutes instead
of in lieu of marriage and at the Roman Games.
One of the things that he did to encourage people

(03:37):
to get married at the Roman Games he um, he
gave some of the best seats at the games two
married men, which I think is a pretty good a
good perk of getting married. Um. He also rewarded fathers
of three or more children with promotions, and mothers of
three or more got a little bit more say in
property issues. Um. Meanwhile, people who didn't get married unless

(03:58):
they were vestal virgins or something uh started to lose
some of their rights, and he reformed all sorts of
laws that had to do with marriage too. On adultery
and engagements. Girls now had to be at least ten
years old before they got engaged. And Um. Of course,
to do all this, he wanted to lead by example.
You don't want uh hypocritical leader spousing family values. He's

(04:23):
not living that way. So he went as far as
to mass market his own women folk. He cast statues
of his wife Libya and his sister Octavia and essentially
distributed them throughout the empire, which was kind of an
unusual thing to do at the time for people to
get such a personal look into the emperor's own household.

(04:45):
But it was I don't know, just to set the example.
These are my virtuous women relatives, and uh follow their
example in mine. He also did some things like wearing
simple woolen tunics that he claimed that Octavia and Olivia
had woven. Yeah, and later that his daughter had woven,
or that his granddaughters had woven. Right. So the message

(05:06):
was I'm a regular guy, and that was what he
was trying to portray to the public. Yeah, that his
his women were good, virtuous weavers doing their job. And
Lvia she's kind of a master of this. Um, I
don't know, this pr branding here, that's exactly into it.

(05:28):
And she she played along. She definitely doesn't. I mean,
despite her reputation, she's she's good at this outward front.
She spurned wearing jewels in public and said that her
children were her true jewels. Um. But you know, is
it too surprising that augustus own personal life was kind
of a mess. I mean, I don't so she's to yeah,

(05:53):
give you the like the briefest rundown of what Augustus
was really involved in. Yep, divorced his wife, his second wife, Scrabonia,
just days after she gave birth in thirty nine BC
to his only child, Julia, and he already had his
third wife lined up, and that was the teenage Olivia.

(06:13):
And the only problem there is that Olivia was already
married to a man named Tiberius Claudius Narrow, and they
actually already had one son together. And when Augustus first
falls in love with her, she's six months pregnant with
their second child. Not a problem for Augustus, no, not

(06:35):
at all. He just forces Tiberius to divorce his wife
and marries her himself after she's had her baby, Drusus. Yeah.
And so when the elder Tiberius dies, Augustus adopts Lvia's
two sons and raises them up in his household with
his daughter and his nephew, Octavia's son, Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

(06:57):
So it sounds a lot like a Roman soap opera,
doesn't it. It's good things are getting pretty strange already
at this point, all right. So that tricky family history,
though unsurprisingly, brings us to a pretty tricky issue of succession.
And we have three emperors in waiting, these three boys
who are growing up in Augustus's household. There are are,

(07:20):
of course Livia's sons Tiberius and Drusus, and then Octavia's
son Marcellus, and Augustus conveniently has this one daughter with
which to seal the deal um. And she's already been
engaged before, so she's already been kind of used as
this political pawn from her infancy when she was engaged

(07:41):
to mark Antony's son Marcus Antonius and till Us, and
that engagement was obviously broken off. That wouldn't have worked out.
But by the boy's teens, Augustus takes Marcellus and Tiberius
off on campaign to show them the ins and outs
of being a general, and when he comes back, he
marries his daughter to Marcellus. Yeah, so it seems like,

(08:05):
even though Marcellus isn't the official air um, seems like
that's where he's headed. And he's really popular with the people.
The historians love him, and he's being fast tracked for
very high promotions at a young age, so it definitely
seems like he will be Augustus's air Yeah, everything was

(08:27):
looking rosie at that point. But then he dies. Yeah,
he dies in twenty three BC. He's still a teenager.
And Julia is now a widow and available. Oh yeah,
line up, guys. Um, So she doesn't marry one of
her step brothers, which maybe you would think since they
were possibly the two prime airs at this point. Um,

(08:50):
she marries Marcus Vesponius Agrippa, who is already married and
a lot older. He's the trusted deputy of Augustus. And
Um he divorces his wife to marry the young Julia. Um.
If you recognize his name, if you've ever been to
the Pantheon, it's carved right there on the front. So

(09:10):
he's a pretty it's a pretty well known guy at
that point. And then still of course today obviously. And
they have five children together, many of them are born
while she accompanies him along on campaign. Yeah. They seem
like a pretty good They get along with each other.
They seem like a pretty good match, even though there
are some rumors of her infidelities starting by this point. Yeah,

(09:32):
the rumors have already begun, but they're There are five
kids that they had, gayest Caesar Julia the younger, Lucius
Caesar Agrippina who was eventually Agripina the elder, and the
last one was Agrippa Posthumus who was born after Agrippa's
death and twelve BC. Yeah, and so Agrippa's death is
obviously a big deal for Julia because okay, she has

(09:58):
five kids, she's been twice, she's not even thirty yet. Um,
it seems like maybe there'd be a little downtime now.
Oh no, no, So as soon as this son is born,
and while she's still in mourning, Augustus marries her off again,
and this time he marries her to her stepbrother Tiberius.

(10:20):
And you know, we have to wonder why this marriage
is made so hastily, and part of it has to
do with Augustus's wife, Livia, who has long been pressuring
her husband to favor her own sons, and since the
younger son has recently died, this leaves Tiberius. She has
pinned her hopes on him following Augustus. Yep. And for Tiberius,

(10:46):
a match to the emperor's daughter would help sort of
seal the deal, what helps him and his claim to
the empire, especially since Augustus is starting to favor his
eldest grandson's Gaius and Lucius over over Tiberius. But Tiberius
is already married. That seems to happen a lot more
of this soap opera drama here. Marriage seems almost pointless

(11:08):
in this case, I don't know, um So, Tiberius is
already married, and unfortunately he's married to a woman that
he actually loves, weirdly the step daughter of Julia through Agrippa,
if you can work that out in your head somehow,
and Augustus forces them to divorce. So at this point
a really unhappy alliance begins between the morning Julia and

(11:32):
the love sick Tiberius, who is forbidden to ever see
his ex wife, who me loves again after Augustus hears
of him following her around in the streets weeping, which
has got to be the saddest thing ever. I mean,
pretty sad picture even I don't know. I think we
usually think of Tiberius because of his later reputation, but

(11:52):
this part is sad. Um So, this very unhappy alliance
produces one son, but he dies young in six BC,
and not long after this, there's a breakdown. It seems
Tiberius goes into voluntary eggsile, even though he's just reached
what was at this point the height of his power.

(12:13):
He was granted the powers of a tribune, so we
have to wonder why did he leave now, Yeah, there
are a few reasons for it. Most likely for one thing,
Augustus has allowed Julia's son Gaius to be elected console
by he's like a little kid too, Yeah, so kind
of insulting. Um. So he's elected console by the people's Assembly,

(12:34):
though he insists the appointment be delayed until the boy
comes of age. But still it's sort of symbolic, I guess, yeah,
And it looks like Augustus is obviously favoring his grandson
over his step son, right, so that doesn't look good.
And then Julia is off making tiberius life pretty miserable
at this point, so it seems um. She had come

(12:57):
into the marriage with a reputation for pretty scandalous behavior,
and it seems like she's only expanded on it since then.
And by Augustus's own law, if Tiberius suspected his wife
of adultery, he's required to denounce her. But that poses
a little bit of a problem because she's the emperor's

(13:18):
only child and he kind of doubts on her, and too,
I don't know, to expose her in the public as
an adulteress. As an adulteress might not make Augustus very happy,
and it could possibly end up with Tiberius being in
trouble instead of Julia. So he's in a tight spot here, yep.
So he leaves for Roads, where his personality kind of

(13:40):
changes over the ten years that he's away before Augustus
allows him to return. It's the start of his transformation
to the Tiberius that you guys discussed back in the
Caligula episode which you mentioned. Yeah, I mean, I think
he was kind of just a um withdrawn guy before this.
But something, something kind of happens while he's gone. Um, So,

(14:02):
all right, Tiberius is gone, Julia is still hanging out
in Rome. When does Augustus finally get wise to what's
going on and to what his daughter's up to? Well,
despite Julia's not living up to this brand Augustus family
values brand, the perfect family family brand. He's somewhat indulgent father,

(14:23):
he'd tell his friends, and I think this is really funny.
He tell his friends that he had too somewhat wayward
daughters whom he had to put up with, and that
was one was the Roman Republic and the other was Julia,
so one year before Julia's son Gaias would have come
to age. In one BC, her scandal finally breaks. Yeah,
it all comes out in the wash, and it's hard

(14:44):
to know what is true and what's the exaggeration of
the Roman historians, who are obviously inclined to exaggerate things. Um.
But Julia was accused of affairs with at least five men,
including most famous lee Julius Antonius, who is another one
of mark Antony's sons, and strangely he's the full brother

(15:07):
of the man who Julia is engaged to in her infancy. Um.
Because everybody in this podcast is connected and married to
each other at some point. But there worth rumors than
just these affairs. There rumors that men would lie not
to take their turn with her on the speaker's platform
in the forum, which is the same place where Augustus

(15:30):
had actually delivered these laws making adultry of crime. So
I mean, it seems especially terrible, more than a little
spot on your record. Definitely, several of these men who
are reportedly involved are executed, forced to commit suicide, or banished,
and by law, Julia herself should actually be executed too.

(15:53):
But Augustus doting father that he is really doesn't have
the heart to do this. Yeah, but he doesn't go
easy on her either. He exiles her to Pantatara, which
is later vent Atene in two b C. And uh,
she lives a pretty austere life from then on. She
has no luxuries, no wine, no male visitors, and she

(16:15):
lives there with her mother. Um. The people are not
happy about Julia's being exiled, though. You might think that
if they were buying into Augustus's whole new golden age,
they might look down on Julia with all these wild rumors.
But she's really popular and I like her. Yeah, she's
supposed to be witty and fun, and according to Macrobius,

(16:38):
they want her back. But Augustus calls her the disease
in my flesh and certainly has no intention of pitying her.
So there's some other theories about Julia also, that maybe
she wasn't just an adulteress. Yeah, maybe that was kind
of a cover up. Actually, yep. Some historians actually suggest

(16:59):
that Julia in trouble more for some of the political
things she was doing behind the scenes than her adultery. Uh.
The men involved in the scandal, for example, we're all
really high of the highest nobility, blue bloods yep. And
the timing was one year before her son's majority, so
it's suspicious. Yeah, it seems like the timing and the

(17:21):
people involved are I don't know, it's surprising. And it's
possible that Julius Antonius may have had some kind of
designs on obtaining power, and maybe this was just in
the form of regent. He may have been hoping that
Julia and Tiberius would divorce and that, since the sons

(17:41):
weren't quite a majority yet, Julius Antonius would rule as
some sort of regent. The only problem with that is
that it seems unlikely that Julia would have betrayed her sons,
but or her father or her father, especially if if
her sons are so clearly lined up to be her
father's heir. Yeah, it just doesn't seem to make sense.

(18:02):
But another theory is that she may have just considered
Julius Antonius kind of her protector, since Tiberius was off
in Rhodes and she was by herself essentially with Olivia
in the picture. Yeah, and Olivia is an important player
in this because Olivia so clearly wants her own son
to follow Augustus and had a lot of influence over Augustus,

(18:27):
so I can see, on the one hand, why Julia
would be a little concerned about her own son's futures.
Um So Regardless, while Julia is off in isolation on
her remote island, everything changes back in Rome and her
son Lucius dies into BC, and then Gaius is killed
in four a D. And supposedly there's a little suspicion

(18:52):
around these deaths. Um The same year, Tiberius is allowed
to return to Rome up finally after this law long
ten years initially self imposed exile, but hasn't been that
way for a while. Yeah, he's allowed to return, He's
reinstated to all his positions, and Augustus adopts him as
his son. That's a long time coming, definitely, and it

(19:14):
seems like Augustus, who has had so many possible errors
over his lifetime, has finally exhausted all his options and
he has to settle at last on this middle aged
stepson that Olivia has been pressuring him to act on
for so long. But there's one last shake up, as

(19:37):
Augustus adopts Postumus as a son the same year that
he adopts Tiberius, and only two years later, though Postumus
is exiled from Rome and this is possibly the designs
of Olivia. She's probably behind us. Get all of those
grandsons out of the picture. And by the time Julia's
two elder sons are dead. After five years of being

(19:59):
on this isolated island, her father finally allows her to leave,
but he doesn't allow her to go back to Rome. Instead,
she goes to Reggia di Calabria, which, if you are
picturing Italy in your head, it's the very tip of
the boot. And um. It's not long after that that
Augustus dies in eight fourteen, and Julia doesn't last much

(20:22):
longer than her father. Nope, she dies shortly after that,
starved by Tiberius, who is still her husband but technically
but emperor at that time. Yeah, and Tiberius also cleans
up any remaining family messes and has Postumus murdered, or
it's likely he hasn't murdered. That's a little sketchy too,

(20:44):
who exactly ordered that hit? But Tiberius's marain is it's
pretty careful. I mean, if if you're looking at just
the government side of it, he strengthened the navy, he
increased the treasury, but he descended into addness, which he's
so famous for, especially after the death of his son
and his move to Capri, which was mentioned in episode

(21:09):
on Caligula. Pretty disturbing stuff going on there. And it's
weird though, but Tiberius is faced with the exact same
dilemma as his stepfather, how to choose an air. Yes,
he eventually had to settle, as August diston on the
least offensive option that he had available. And uh, that

(21:30):
is gay as Caesar, who is nicknamed Caligula ak a
little boots and grandson of Julia. So he this is
a move that he makes right before the movement Tiberius
makes right before he is smothered to death. Yeah, so
that's our dramatic end to this immediate line of family. Um,
but I don't know. I mean, I think it's interesting

(21:53):
that somebody with these very pro family policies and the
with this terribly disastrous personal life only kid banished, No,
you know, grandson's or dying somehow. Yeah, It's it's a
messy scene in general. So if you have any more,

(22:15):
I don't know, dramatic soap Opera Roman stories you want
to share with us, you can email us at History
podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're also on
Twitter at Myston History and we're on Facebook, so lots
of ways to find us. And if you're interested in
learning a little bit more about another one of Julia's descendants,

(22:36):
we have an article called DeNiro Really play the Fiddle
While Rome burned? Another burning history question um and you
can find that by searching for it on our home
page at www dot how stuff works dot com. For
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