Macrobius: Anecdotes about Julia, daughter of Augustus

Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius was a Roman grammarian and neoplatonic philosopher during the reign of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)

The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)

In his second book, chapter five, Macrobius relates a number of anecdotes concerning the Roman Emperor Augustus and his daughter Julia:

I. She (Julia Aug.f.) came one day into her father’s presence wearing a somewhat immodest dress. Augustus was shocked but said nothing. On the next day, to his delight, she wore a different kind of dress and greeted him with studied demureness. Although the day before he had repressed his feelings, he was now unable to contain his pleasure and said:” This dress is much more becoming in the daughter of Augustus.” But Julia had an excuse ready and replied:” Yes, for today I am dressed to meet my father’s eyes, yesterday it was for my husband’s.”

II.At a display of gladiators the contrast between Livia’s suite and Julia’s had caught the eye, for the former was attended by a number of grown-up men of distinction but the latter was seated surrounded by young people of the fast set. Her father sent Julia a letter of advice, bidding her mark the difference between the behaviour of the two chief ladies of Rome, to which she wrote this neat reply:” These friends of mine will be old men too, when I am old.”

III.Her hair began to go grey at an early age, and she used secretly to pull the grey hairs out. One day her maids were surprised by the unexpected arrival of her father, who pretended not to see the grey hairs on her women’s dresses and talked for some time on other matters. Then, turning the conversation to the subject of age, he asked her whether she would prefer eventually to be grey or bald. She replied that for her part she would rather be grey. “Why, then,” said her father, thus rebuking her deceit, “ are these women of yours in such a hurry to make you bald?”

IV.To a seriousminded friend who was seeking to persuade her that she would be better advised to order her life to conform to her father’s simple tastes she replied:” He forgets that he is Caesar, but I remember that I am Caesar’s daughter.”

V.To certain persons who knew of her infidelities and were expressing surprise at her children’s likeness to her husband Agrippa, since she was so free with her favours, she said:” Passengers are never allowed on board until the hold is full.”

Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights, XIII. 14,1

The augurs of the Roman people who wrote books On the Auspices have defined the meaning of pomerium in the following terms:
“The pomerium is the space within the rural district designated by the augurs along the whole circuit of the city without the walls, marked off by fixed bounds and forming the limit of the city auspices.”
(That is to say, the pomerium separated the ager Romanus, or country district, from the city. The auspices could be taken only within the pomerium. When a furrow was drawn and the earth turned inward to mark the line of the city walls, the furrow represented the pomerium).
Now, the most ancient pomerium, which was established by Romulus, was bounded by the foot of the Palatine hill. But that pomerium, as the republic grew, was extended several times and included many lofty hills. Moreover, whoever had increased the domain of the Roman people by land taken from an enemy had the right to enlarge the pomerium.

Aulus Gellius’ Noctium Atticarum,XIII. 14,1

Cornelia, wife of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus the Censor, here described as speaking from her grave. (abridged).

Cease, Paullus 1, importuning my tomb with tears; the gate of darkness is not opened to any prayers. What help was there in my marriage to Paullus, in the triumphs of my ancestors, in such illustrious offspring that are witnesses to my fame!    
The Fates 2 were no less cruel to Cornelia 3, and I am but a handfull of dust…
If ancestral trophies have ever brought fame and glory to anyone, our statues bespeak ancestors at Numantia 4, a second line gives equal share to the Libones 5 on my mother’s side, and my house is upheld on both sides by their own achievements.
Later, when my girl’s attire gave way to marriage, another kind of ribbon caught up and bound my hair. I was joined to your bed, Paullus, destined to leave it thus: read it on this stone, she was wedded to one alone.
I call to witness the ashes of my ancestors, revered by you, O Rome…
Cornelia never tarnished such spoils of war…
Nay, even in that great house hers was a role to be emulated. My life was never altered, it is wholly without reproach.
I have lived with distinction between the torch of marriage and the torch of death. Nature gave me laws derived from blood, not to be virtuous through pressure of fear or criticism… Nor have I shamed you, my sweet mother Scribonia. 6.
What would you have wished changed in me except my fate? I am praised by my mother’s tears and the laments of the city, and my ashes are covered also by the grief of Caesar 7.
He is saddened because I lived as a worthy half-sister to his daughter 8, and we saw tears come from a god.
And yet, I deserved the dress of honour that is the mark of a fertile woman, nor was I snatched away from a sterile house. You, Lepidus 9, and you, Paullus 10, are my solace after death. My eyes were closed in your bosom.

We have also seen my brother 11 in the curule chair twice, and I, his sister, was snatched away in the happy time when he was consul. And, you, my daughter 12, born to be the token of your father’s censorship, be sure you imitate me and have but one husband.

And, my children, support the house with a line.
I am ready for the boat of death to sail, now that I have so many who will prolong my deeds. This is the highest reward of a woman, her triumph, that common talk praises her in death after a life well lived. And now to you, Paullus, I comment our children, our mutual pledges, this concern of mine still breathes, burned even into my ashes. Father, play the part of a mother’s role; the host of all my children must be the burden of your shoulders. When you kiss them as they weep, add the kisses of their mother. The whole house has begun to be your burden now. And if you are going to weep, do it far away from their eyes. When they come, cheat their kisses with dry cheeks…

Propertius. Elegies. Book IV, no.XI. (Abridged)

Notes:
1.Lucius Aemilius Paullus Lepidus, consul in 34 B.C. and censor in 22 B.C.
Paullus, married again with Marcella the Younger, who was a widow since 12 B.C., and the daughter of C. Claudius Marcellus, consul 50 B.C., and of Octavia the Younger, sister of Augustus.

2. The Fates: The Three Goddesses, The Parcae, The Three Sisters.
The three Fates were born of Erebus and Night. Clothed in white, they spin,
measure out, and sever the thread of each human life. Clotho spins the thread.
Lachesis measures it. Atropos wields the shears.

3. Cornelia, born about 50-46 B.C., died in 16 B.C., her father was P.Cornelius
Scipio, consulsuffectus in 35 B.C. Cornelia was the second wife of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus, the censor.

4.The victory of P.Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (An ancestor of Cornelia) over
Numantia in Spain in 133 B.C.

5. Libones: The ancestors of Cornelia, a branch of the Scribonii, the senatorial family.

6. Scribonia, the mother of Cornelia, who later married to Augustus and bore him his only child, Julia. When Julia was banished in A.D.2, Scribonia voluntarily stayed with her until Julia’s death in A.D.16.

7.Augustus: Julius Caesar’s grand-nephew C.Octavius, whom he adopted as his son.

8. Julia, daughter of Augustus and Scribonia, half-sister of Cornelia.

9.M.Aemilius Lepidus, consul 6. Born 30/29 B.C., died A.D.33.(Tac.ann.VI.27,4)

10. L.Aemilius Lepidus, consul 1. Born about 28 B.C., died A.D.13/14.

11.Publius Cornelius Scipio, brother of Cornelia, consul in 16 B.C.

12. Aemilia Lepida, born in 22 B.C. Nothing else is known about her.

Fulvia, wife of Marcus Antonius

Fulvia, the daughter of M.Fulvius Bambalio and Sempronia Tuditani filia, played a significant and deliberate political motivated role in events particularly during the consulship (44 B.C.) of her husband Marcus Antonius and his brother Lucius Antonius’ struggle against C. Octavianus in the Perusine War (41-40 B.C.)

Fulvia, described by Octavianus’ mendacious and gross propaganda as domineering, jealous, impatient and war-mongering, appears to have been one of those high-spirited very influential and powerful Roman matrons like Servilia, the mother of M.Brutus and Caesar’s mistress.

(Quoting Syme’s rehabilitation: “Octavianus exaggerated the role of Fulvia at the time and later, putting her person and her acts in a hateful light; and there was nobody afterwards, from piety or even from perversity, to redeem her memory.”)

These formidable Roman ladies commanded political influence in their own right.
But however formidable a lady, Fulvia’s ability to act in political affairs was – due to the male-dominated political society - limited to influencing the men around her, more specifically her husbands. All three had active political careers, appear to have been rather close friends, and all three had supported Julius Caesar.

Fulvia married thrice, the first time c. 62-60 to P.Clodius Pulcher, tribune of the plebs in 58 B.C. whom she bore two children:
1.P.Clodius P.f.Ap.n.Ap.pron.Pulcher, quaestor, praetor,
augur, and
2.Clodia, who married C.Octavianus in 42, their marriage
never seems to have been consumated and ended in a
divorce in 41.

Clodius got killed near Bovillae in January 52 B.C. during
a skirmish with adherents of his political enemy Milo.

Her second husband, whom she married at least late in 52, was C.Scribonius Curio, trib.plebis 50 B.C. In an attempt to conquer Africa for Caesar he got killed by the forces of king Juba during the battle in the valley of Bagradas near Carthage in 49, and once again she became a widow. Their son C.Scribonius Curio was executed by order of Octavianus after the battle of Actium (31 B.C.)

Marriage number three was in 46 B.C. to Marcus Antonius,
 III vir.r.p.c.
Out of this marriage were born the ill fated Antonius Antyllus and Iullus Antonius.
Antyllus, born in February/March 44 B.C. was strangled by order of Octavianus at Alexandria in 30 B.C.

Iullus, born in 42, married Marcella maior, daughter of C.Claudius Marcellus, consul in 50 B.C. and of Octavia minor, younger sister of Octavianus, the future Augustus.

Iullus was charged of having an adulterous affair with Julia, Augustus’ daughter, and executed in A.D.2. The real reason was more likely because of a conspiracy against Augustus’ rule.

Fulvia died in the 2e half of 40 B.C. at Cisyon in Macedonia, where she had fled to after the fall of Perusia in the spring of 40 B.C.

Nowhere in the ancient sources is a hint given of her age at anytime. However, contrary to the husband no variation attends upon the marriage age of the bride under the Republic or the Empire, fourteen or fifteen can be taken for normal in the upper order. While instances occur of twelve or thirteen, anything over sixteen will be regarded as exceptional.
Her first marriage was in c.62-60 which would make her date
of birth c.75 B.C., thus she would have been about 35
when she died.

She seems to have been the last of the Fulvii and the Sempronii Tuditani, both families of very old plebeian nobility who, as so many other noble families, were dying out by the end of the Republic.

Sappho: Ode to a loved one.

LEST as the immortal gods is he,
The youth who fondly sits by thee,
And hears and sees thee, all the while,
Softly speaks and sweetly smile.

'Twas this deprived my soul of rest,
And raised such tumults in my breast;
For, while I gazed, in transport tossed,
My breath was gone, my voice was lost;

My bosom glowed; the subtle flame
Ran quick through all my vital frame;
O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung;
My ears with hollow murmurs rung;

In dewy damps my limbs were chilled;
My blood with gentle horrors thrilled:
My feeble pulse forgot to play;
I fainted, sunk, and died away.


Sappho, from Lesbos, Greece. b.615- d.around 550 B.C.
English translation by Ambrose Philips,1893

Macrobius: Anecdotes about the Emperor Augustus

Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius was a Roman grammarian and neoplatonic philosopher during the reign of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)

The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)

In his second book, chapter four, Macrobius relates a number of anecdotes concerning the Roman Emperor Augustus:

I.Augustus replied to a prefect of cavalry who had been relieved of his command but nevertheless claimed a pension, saying that he made the request not for the sake of the money but that it might be thought that he had resigned his commission and had been adjudged worthy of the gift by the emperor, Augustus retorted:
” Tell everybody that you have had it. I shall not deny that I gave it.”

II.To an ugly hunchback named Galba, who was pleading in court before him and kept on saying:” If you have any fault to find, correct me,” he said:” I can offer you advice, but I certainly can’t correct you.”

III. A certain Vettius had ploughed up a memorial to his father, whereupon Augustus remarked:” This is indeed cultivating your father’s memory.”

IV. As a young man he neatly made fun of one Vatinius who had become crippled by gout but nevertheless wished it to be thought that he had got rid of the complaint. The man was boasting that he could walk a mile, “ I can well believe it,” said Augustus, “ the days are getting somewhat longer.”

V. An unkind quip made by a man from one of the provinces is well known. In appearance he closely resembled the emperor, and on his coming to Rome the likeness attracted general attention. Augustus sent for him and on seeing him said:
” Tell me, young man, was your mother ever in Rome?” “No”, replied the other and, not content to leave it at that, added:” But my father was- often.”

VI. During the triumvirate Augustus wrote some lampoons on Pollio, but Pollio only observed:” For my part I am saying nothing in reply; for it is asking for trouble to write against a man who can write you off.”

VII.As censor, too, Augustus showed a remarkable tolerance, which won him high praise. A Roman knight was being reprimanded by him on the ground that he had squandered his property but was able to show publicly that he had in fact increased it. The next charge brought against him was failure to comply with the marriage laws. To this he replied that he had a wife and three children and then added: ” I suggest, Sire, that in future, when you have occasion to inquire into the affairs of respectable persons, the inquiry be entrusted to respectable persons.”

P.Lentulus P.f.Spinther

P.Cornelius P.f.P.n.Lentulus Spinther, born about 73-72 B.C. was the son of P.Cornelius Spinther, consul 57 B.C.

In 57 he received the toga virilis, was coopted into the college of augures, and adopted into the gens of the Manlii Torquati but never used that name.

Probably in about 53 B.C. he married Caecilia Metella, daughter of Q.Caecilius Metellus Celer, consul 60 B.C. and of the notorious Clodia, daughter of Ap.Claudius Pulcher, consul 79 B.C.

No doubt he accompanied his father to Greece in 49, but he was back in Italy in the summer of 45 where he divorced his wife on account of her adulterous affair with P.Dolabella. An affair which to Cicero’s fury - whose daughter had been married to Dolabella until 46 - had started in at least 47 B.C.

Approving Caesar’s murder, in which he falsely claimed to have taken part, he went to the East in 43 as quaestor to C.Trebonius, the proconsul of Asia 44-43 B.C., and after his chief’s murder at Smyrna (Izmir) in January 43 by P.Cornelius Dolabella, proconsul of Syria, he took over the administration of the province as pro quaestor pro praetore. During the years 43 and 42 he served under Cassius against Rhodes and was in command of Myra in Lycia under Brutus.

He seems to have been put to death after the battle of Philippi by Marcus Antonius and Octavianus in Oct./Nov. 42 B.C., probably because of his claiming a part in the murder of Caesar.

(Cicero’s letters: XI.13; XII.52,2; Appian B.C.II.119; Plut.Caes.67; for Metella XI.23, for her parents, ad Att.V.412-13, for her divorce, Horace, Sat.II.3.239)

His own reports of his activities in the Aegean area survive in letters to Cicero and to the Senate (ad Fam.XII.14, 15)