Roman Emperor Principate: Encyclopedia II - Roman Emperor Principate - Julio-Claudian Dynasty

Roman Emperor Principate - Julio-Claudian Dynasty

The Julio-Claudian dynasty was composed of the Iulii Caesares and the Claudii Nerones, two distinguished patrician families in the waning days of the old Republic. The Iulii Caesares rose to absolute power in the Roman state in the person of the paterfamilias, Julius Caesar himself; upon his murder in 44 BC, the majority of his estate passed to his posthumously adopted son, Octavian, the grandson of Caesar's sister Julia. Octavian emerged from a series of civil wars as the sole master of the Roman world, and in January 27 BC was appointed princeps senatus and given the cognomen "Augustus" (L., "Majestic" or "Venerable"); henceforth he styled himself "Imperator Caesar Augustus". He continued to be elected consul ordinarius each year until 23 BC.

Historians customarily mark the "First Settlement" of 27 as inaugurating Caesar Augustus's reign as Emperor. This is generally misleading, as his constitutional position that year was little different from his constitutional position as early as July 32 BC (when he provoked war with Cleopatra VII of Egypt as a means of ridding himself of his rival Mark Antony), except that he now held the principate of the senate (an office with chiefly parliamentary and ceremonial functions) and bore an honorific surname. A far more important development was the "Second Settlement" of 23 BC, when Caesar Augustus accepted tribunicia potestas for life and imperium maius proconsulare. Two further developments concluded the establishment of the Imperial dignity: Caesar Augustus accepted imperium consulare on an ad personam basis in 19 BC and was elected pontifex maximus in 13 BC. Thus the Imperial dignity was fully established as the extraordinary concentration of ordinary powers and immunities.

Roman Emperor Principate - Julio-Claudian Emperors

• Caesar Augustus ("Imp. Caesar Augustus"; b. C. Octavius), d. 14
  • M. Vipsanius Agrippa, 18 BC – 12 BC
  • Ti. Claudius Nero, 6 BC – 1 BC, 4 – 14 (as "Ti. Iulius Caesar")
• Tiberius I ("Ti. Caesar Augustus"; b. Ti. Claudius Nero), 14 – 37
  • Note: Tiberius had been co-Emperor with Caesar Augustus from 6 BC to 1 BC, and (as "Ti. Iulius Caesar") again from AD 4 until his own accession to the purple
• Gaius "Caligula" ("C. Caesar Augustus Germ."; b. C. Iulius Caesar Germ.), 37 – 41
• Claudius I ("Ti. Claudius Caesar Augustus Germ."; b. Ti. Claudius Drusus), 41 – 54
• Nero ("Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germ."; b. L. Domitius Ahenobarbus), 54 – 68

Roman Emperor Principate - Dynastic Relationships

Caesar Augustus's third wife Livia Drusilla (subsequently "Julia Augusta") had previously borne two children by her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero: Tiberius and Drusus. Tiberius's second wife was Julia Caesaris, Marcus Agrippa's widow (his first wife had been Vipsania, Agrippa's daughter by his first marriage); Caesar Augustus adopted Tiberius on June 26, 4, whereupon Tiberius himself adopted his brother Drusus's son by Mark Antony's daughter, Germanicus Julius Caesar. Germanicus married Vipsania Agrippina, Agrippa's daughter by Julia and Tiberius's stepdaughter, and had by her one surviving son, Gaius "Caligula" ("Little Boots"), and a daughter, Julia Agrippina, whose second husband was Germanicus's brother by blood, Claudius (she was his fourth wife); Agrippina had already borne a son, Lucius, whom Claudius adopted under the name Nero in 40; Nero married Claudius's daughter Octavia in 53.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Julio-Claudian Dynasty", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki