Julia Drusilla

Julia Drusilla
Drusilla, Munich Glyptothek (Inv. 316)
Spouse	Lucius Cassius Longinus Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
House	Julio-Claudian Dynasty
Father	Germanicus
Mother	Agrippina the Elder
Born	16 September AD 16 Abitarvium, Germany
Died	10 June AD 38 (aged 21) Rome

Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Chronology
Augustus		27 BC – 14 AD
Tiberius		14 AD – 37 AD
Caligula		37 AD – 41 AD
Claudius		41 AD – 54 AD
Nero		54 AD – 68 AD
Family
Gens Julia Gens Claudia Julio-Claudian family tree Category:Julio-Claudian Dynasty
Succession
Preceded by Roman Republic		Followed by Year of the Four Emperors

See also Julia Drusilla (daughter of Caligula), and for other women of this name see Drusilla.

Julia Drusilla (Classical Latin: IVLIA•DRVSILLA^[1]) (16 September AD 16 – 10 June AD 38) was the second daughter and fifth living child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, and the sister of the Roman Emperor Caligula. Drusilla also had two sisters (Julia Livilla and the Empress Agrippina the Younger) and two other brothers (Nero and Drusus). She was a great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, great-niece and adoptive granddaughter of the Emperor Tiberius, sister of the Emperor Caligula, niece and sister-in-law of the Emperor Claudius, and maternal aunt of the Emperor Nero.

Biography

Drusilla was born in Abitarvium, modern day Koblenz, Germany. After the death of her father, Germanicus, she and her siblings were brought back to Rome by their mother, and raised with the help of their paternal grandmother, Antonia Minor. In AD 33, Drusilla was married to Lucius Cassius Longinus, a friend of the Emperor Tiberius.^[2] However, after Caligula became emperor in 37, he ordered their divorce and remarried his sister to his friend, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.^[3] During Caligula's illness in 37, he changed his will to name Drusilla his heir,^[4] making her the first woman to be named heir in an imperial will. This was likely an attempt to continue the Julio-Claudian line through any children she might have, leaving her husband to rule in the meantime.^[5] However, her brother recovered and in 38, Drusilla died, at the age of about twenty-two.^[6][7] Her brother went on to deify her, consecrating her with the title "Panthea" (all-goddess), and mourning her at her public funeral as though a widower.^[8][9]

Reputation

Drusilla was reportedly her brother's favorite. There are also rumors that she was also his lover. If true, that role likely gained her influence over Caligula. Though the activities between the brother and sister might have been seen as incest by their contemporaries, it is not known whether the two actually had any sexual relations. Drusilla herself earned a rather poor reputation because of the close bond she shared with Caligula and was even likened to a prostitute by later scholars, in an attempt to discredit Caligula.^[10]

Some historians suggest that Caligula was motivated by more than mere lust or love in pursuing relations with his sisters. He might instead have deliberately decided to pattern himself after the Hellenistic monarchs of the Ptolemaic Dynasty where marriages between jointly ruling brothers and sisters had become tradition rather than sex scandals. This has also been used to explain why his despotism was apparently more evident to his contemporaries than those of Augustus and Tiberius.

The source of many of the rumors surrounding Caligula and Drusilla may be derived from the formal Roman dining habits.^[10] It was customary in patrician households for the host and hostess of a dinner (or in other words, the husband and the wife in charge of the household) to hold the positions of honor at a banquet in their residence. In the case of a young bachelor being the head of the household (Caligula), the female position of honor was to be held by his sisters (Agrippina the Younger, Drusilla, and Julia Livilla), taking turns sitting in the place of honor. Caligula apparently broke with this tradition in that rather than having his sisters take turns at the place of honor, the place was reserved exclusively for Drusilla. In a manner of speaking, Caligula was publicly proclaiming that Drusilla was his wife, the female head of the household, even though he was married to Lollia Paulina.^{[citation needed]}

Death and Aftermath

She died on 10 June AD 38, probably of fever which was rampant in Rome at the time. Caligula was said never to have left her side, and after she had died, he would not let anyone take her body away.

Caligula was badly affected by her loss. He buried his sister with the honors of an Augusta, acted as a grieving widower, and had the Roman Senate declare her a Goddess as "Diva Drusilla", deifying her as a representation of the Roman goddess Venus or Greek goddess Aphrodite. Drusilla was consecrated as Panthea, most likely on the anniversary of the birthday of Augustus.^[10]

A year later, Caligula named his only known daughter Julia Drusilla after his late favorite sister. Meanwhile, her widowed husband Marcus Amelius Lepidus reportedly became a lover to her sisters Livilla and Agrippina the Younger in an apparent attempt to gain their support in succeeding Caligula. The political conspiracy was discovered by Caligula while in Germania Superior during the fall. Lepidus was swiftly executed, while Livilla and Agrippina were exiled to the Pontine Islands.

Cultural references

• In Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius the narrator says that he believes that Drusilla was killed by Caligula, although he admits that he does not have firm evidence of this.

• This was embellished considerably in the 1976 BBC television adaptation, where she was played by Beth Morris. A pregnant Drusilla was subjected to an amateurish Caesarian section (in imitation of the birth of Athena) by an insane Caligula, who then swallows the child as Zeus did, though scenes alluding to the death were cut from it before showing in the United States. They were restored for the VHS and DVD releases.

• Teresa Ann Savoy played Drusilla in the 1979 motion picture Caligula, which showed the more plausible version of Drusilla dying from the fever, though it did follow up with a highly unlikely scene of Caligula licking her corpse in mourning and then having sex with it one last time (although the latter half of the sequence got deleted from all the released versions of the film). A fictional remake video of Caligula is online, where Drusilla is played by Milla Jovovich.^{[citation needed]}

Ancestry

Notes

1. ^ E. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen - e.a. (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III (PIR), Berlin, 1933 - I 664
2. ^ Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, Life of Caligula, 21.
3. ^ Cassius Dio, 59.11.1
4. ^ Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, Life of Caligula, 24.
5. ^ Susan Wood, Diva Drusilla Panthea and the Sisters of Caligula, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 99, No. 3 (July, 1995), pp.459
6. ^ Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, Life of Caligula, 24.2
7. ^ Cassius Dio, 59.11.1
8. ^ Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, Life of Caligula, 24
9. ^ Cassius Dio, 59.11.1-5
10. ^ ^{a b c} Susan Wood, Diva Drusilla Panthea and the Sisters of Caligula, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 99, No. 3 (Jul., 1995), pp. 457-482

External links

• A list of members of the gens Aemilia who were her relations by marriage

Persondata
Name	Julia Drusilla
Alternative names
Short description	Sister of the Emperor Caligula
Date of birth	16 September 16
Place of birth	Liberec, Czech Republic
Date of death	10 June 38
Place of death	Rome, Italy