With the demise of Nero – the last Julio-Claudian emperor – you would be forgiven for thinking that the extinguishing of that dynasty marked the end of the bloodline of its founder, the emperor Augustus. After all, if there was still anyone with Augustan blood, why were they not in a position to succeed to the throne? Well, as we shall see, not only did the Augustan bloodline survive for at least a century after the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, some of its carriers did reach lofty positions in the Roman Empire.
The survival of the Augustan bloodline relied on the children of Julia the Elder, the only child of Augustus. Of her six children, 5 survived to adulthood, but none of her sons – Gaius, Lucius, Agrippa Postumus – had children of their own. That left the future of the bloodline in the hands of her daughters, Julia the Younger and Agrippina the Elder. The latter also had six children, some which had offspring of their own, but through plotting (both by and against them) and ill-timed deaths, this branch of the Augustan line, which included Caligula and Nero and the empress Agrippina the Younger, did not survive the fall of the dynasty.
This then leaves the descendants of Augustus’ first granddaughter, Julia the Younger, as the carriers of the Augustan bloodline beyond AD68. Julia herself was exiled to Tremirus, a small island off the coast of Italy, on the order of Augustus, traditionally on an accusation of adultery, but possibly due to some connection, perceived or actual, to a plot instigated by her husband Lucius Aemilius Paullus. She was pregnant at the time of her exile and when she gave birth, possibly to a son, Augustus rejected it and ordered the infant to be exposed. Fortunately for his bloodline, by the time of her exile, Julia had already given birth to a daughter, Aemilia Lepida (There has been some suggestion that the husband of Drusilla, sister of Caligula, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, was a son of Julia and Lucius, although there is no record of Marcus having any offspring).
Through her marriage to Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, consul in AD19, Aemilia had (at least) 5 children. Due to their direct descent from Augustus, this branch of the Julio-Claudian family was frequently persecuted by those in power, particularly Agrippina the Younger and Nero.
The eldest son of Aemilia and Torquatus, Marcus Junius Silanus, consul in AD46, was considered a threat to the accession of Nero and so was poisoned on the order of Agrippina. For similar reasons, Silanus’ son, Lucius, was exiled to Bari early in Nero’s reign on false charges of conspiracy and incest. He was given the option of committing suicide, but he chose to fight and was killed in a brawl with his guards.
The eldest daughter of Aemilia and Torquatus, Junia Calvina, married Lucius Vitellius, brother of the future emperor Vitellius. Again, due to her lineage, Junia was accused of incest with her youngest brother, Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus. While he was forced to commit suicide on 1 January AD49, Junia was exiled under Claudius, only to be allowed to return to Rome by Nero. She was possibly still alive in AD79 and was described by Seneca as the “most celebrated of all women” (Seneca, Apocolocyntosis 8)
The second son of Aemilia and Torquatus, Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus, consul in AD53, was alleged to have boasted of his direct descent from Augustus, a boast that got back to the ears of Nero, who likely have forced him to commit suicide had Decimus not done so in AD64 (Nero would claim that he was going to show Decimus clemency… Tacitus, Ann. XV.35.3). A decade earlier, he had married Julia Africana, possibly the daughter of Julius Africanus, a prominent orator during the reign of Nero. Decimus and Julia had a daughter, Junia Silana Torquata in AD55, but little to nothing is known about this girl who carried the Augustan bloodline. We could attempt to read something into that silence - had she still been alive upon the downfall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, she might have made for a useful tool of dynastic legitimacy, but that has no real substance to it. Indeed, that the girl’s aunt, Junia Calvina, was also still alive but not used for dyanstic purposes post-68 suggests that the four men to ascend the imperial throne in 68-69 did not find such a connection to the Augustan bloodline a dynastic imperative.
While it is possible that the Augustan bloodline continued on through the line of Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus, it definitely did continue through the second daughter of Aemilia Lepida and Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, Junia Lepida. She too was targeted by Nero with accusations of using black magic and having an incestuous relationship with her nephew, Lucius. Her husband, Gaius Cassius Longinus (suffect consul in AD30), was accused of a role in the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero and was exiled to Sardinia. While Cassius was rehabilitated under Vespasian, nothing more is heard of Junia Lepida after c.65, suggesting that she died either at that time or in the years before Vespasian’s recall of her husband in AD69.
Before falling foul of Nero, Junia Lepida and Longinus had had two children, both of whom were the progenitors of extended lines containing the Augustan bloodline. The son of Junia Lepida and Gaius Cassius Longinus, known only a Cassius Lepidus, had a daughter with an unnamed wife in around AD80. The marriage of this Cassia Lepida (re-)introduced royal blood into the Augustan bloodline, as her husband, while also a Roman senator, was Gaius Julius Alexander Berenicianus, a Herodian prince of Cilicia. Their daughter, Julia Cassia Alexandra, herself now of Augustan blood and a Herodian princess, married Gaius Avidius Heliodorus, who served as Egyptian prefect under both Hadrian and Antoninus Pius.
The couple are recorded as having children, although only their son Gaius Avidius Cassius is named. He is most famous for his rebellion under Marcus Aurelius, which reputedly only began when he received word that Marcus was either dead or dying and/or on the urging of the empress Faustina the Younger out of fear of another usurpation beyond her control/choosing. However, the usurpation proved unpopular, particularly as Marcus Aurelius recovered, with the general mood perhaps summed up by the rhetorician Herodes Atticus who sent Cassius a single word letter – it read “εμανες” – emanes: “You are mad.” And within three months, whilst planning an invasion of Egypt, Cassius was murdered by a centurion. His three known children (he may have had more by his wife Volusia Vettia Maeciana) all suffered for their father’s sins.
His first son, Avidius Heliodorus, was banished; his second, Avidius Maecianus was killed in the aftermath of the revolt’s failure and his daughter, Avidia Alexandra, was forced to live under the protection of an uncle; she did marry, but not children are recorded. That said, there is some suggestion that the Augustan-Herodian line of Berenicianus survived the fallout from Avidius Cassius’ failed usurpation, with perhaps the third century usurper Iopatian a possible descendent.
Jumping all the way back to the other child of Junia Lepida and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Their daughter, Cassia Longina, born in AD33, married the prominent Neronian general, Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. They may have had two daughters. One unnamed, but likely to be a Domitia, may have married Annius Vinicianus and possibly bore him a child, although if that is the case, Vinicianus’ execution for plotting against Nero in AD66 (plotting was a family business as his father had been involved in murdering Caligula and had plotted against Claudius, while his brother had been implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy) saw “children of those who were condemned banished or put to death by poison or starvation” (Suetonius, Nero 36.2).
The second daughter, Domitia Longina, was married twice, most famously to the future emperor Domitian. And when Domitia and Domitian had two children, Flavius Caesar and Flavia, here was the Augustan bloodline about to be restored to imperial power. Fate intervened and the children both died while still young.
The lineage of Augustus instead continued in this branch through the children from Domitia Longina’s first marriage to Lucius Aelius Lamia Plautius Aelianus (suffect consul in 80), who was ‘persuaded’ to divorce Domitia by Domitian (and possibly later executed on imperial order too). It is uncertain exactly how many children the marriage between Lamia and Domitia had. There is some suggestion of two daughters, who are not named but could have been Aelia Plautia. It is also suggested that the consul of 116, Lucius Fundanius Plautius Aelianus, was a son of Domitia and Lamia, but this is uncertain. He may instead have been a grandson, with his mother being one of the daughters of Domitia and Lamia.
Whichever is the case, the Augustan bloodline still passed down through Fundanius to his own children with his wife Rupilia Annia. Their daughter, presumably named Fundania, married Marcus Annius Libo, consul in 128 and paternal uncle of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. They had two children – a son, also Marcus Annius Libo, and a daughter Annia Fundania Faustina. The son, consul in 161, was reputedly poisoned by the emperor Lucius Verus after a quarrel, but it was likely just a sudden illness during his service as legate in Syria. Before his untimely demise, Libo had had a son, Marcus Annius Flavius Libo, who served as consul in 204, but has no recorded offspring. The daughter of Fundania and Libo (consul in 128) married Titus Pomponius Proculus Vitrasius Pollio (suffect consul in 151 and full consul in 176). Both of their children, Titus Fundanius Vitrasius Pollio and Vitrasia Faustina, were executed on the order of Commodus, seemingly without issue.
The son of Fundanius Lamia and Rupilia Annia, Lucius Plautius Lamia Silvanus, is recorded as marrying Aurelia Fadilla, a daughter of the emperor Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder (Historia Augusta, Antoninus Pius 1.7). The lineage of this branch is doubtful due to relying on the Historia Augusta, but it is claimed that a certain Fulvus Antoninus was a descendant of Antoninus Pius through Silvanus. Fulvus then reputedly had a daughter, Fabia Orestilla, who became the wife of the emperor
Gordian I and therefore the mother of Gordian II. This would also place her as grandmother of Gordian III through her daughter, Antonia Gordiana. This reads like an attempt to give the Gordian dynasty an imperial heritage by connecting it to Antoninus Pius and (perhaps accidentally) to the Augustan bloodline.
This proposed branch of the Augustan bloodline would seem to end with the extinguishing of the Gordian dynasty, through the seemingly childless death of both Gordian II and Gordian III, even with the latter’s marriage to Tranquillina. It could be that Antonia Gordiana might have survived beyond the deaths of her imperial brother and son, but there is no record of her after this point.
So while there are traditions suggesting that the Gordian dynasty and the usurper Iopatian carried the Augustan bloodline, there is a lack of credible evidence to take many of the branches of the bloodline beyond the late second century AD. It would seem that only the consulship of 204 of Marcus Annius Flavius Libo that records an unbroken lineal descendent of Augustus in the third century. This does not mean that the Augustan line died out as there are plenty of dangling threads caused by a deficiencies in the source material – Flavius Libo may well have had children, more of Avidius Cassius’ children might have survived and there is a potential line of descent from line of Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus to name but a few. So it would appear that this attempted tree of the Augustan bloodline is not and is never likely to be complete.
If you are interested in seeing what this extended Augustan bloodline might look like, you can download the .pdf below...
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