Julia Livilla was the youngest great-granddaughter of Emperor
Augustus, great-niece and adoptive granddaughter of the Emperor
Tiberius, sister of the Emperor
Caligula, niece of the Emperor
Claudius, and through her eldest sister
Agrippina the Younger, maternal aunt of the Emperor
Nero. In most ancient literary sources, on inscriptions and on coins, she is simply called "Julia". It is possible that she dropped the use of her
cognomen after the
damnatio memoriae of her paternal aunt
Livilla (sister of
Germanicus and
Claudius) after whom she was named. However, on her sepulchral inscription, she is explicitly named "Livilla, daughter of Germanicus", which suggests that in her time she was called either "Julia" or "Livilla". She was born on
Lesbos, one of the many
Greek islands during her parents' grand tour of the eastern Mediterranean, leading Germanicus to his command base in the imperial province of
Syria for the
maius imperium given to him by
Tiberius over the territory east of the
Adriatic Sea. As a young child, she was with her mother and brother
Caligula when they returned to
Rome after Germanicus' untimely death in
Antioch in 19 AD. Julia Livilla grew up in the household of her great-grandmother
Livia and later under the care of her paternal grandmother
Antonia Minor. She was first betrothed to a distant cousin,
Publius Quinctilius Varus the Younger, son of the ill-fated governor of Germania,
Publius Quinctilius Varus, and of
Claudia Pulchra, grandniece of
Augustus, but after Quinctillius was charged of
maiestas in 27, the marriage did not occur. In 33, she married
Marcus Vinicius. Vinicius' family came from a small town outside of Rome. He descended from a family of the
equites class and his father and grandfather had served as
consuls. Her husband was mild in character and was an elaborate
orator. Vinicius was appointed by Tiberius as a commissioner in early 37. He was also consul in 30 and proconsul of
Asia in 38/39. According to an inscription, Julia Livilla may have accompanied her husband in Asia during his proconsulship. During the first years of Caligula's reign, Livilla, along with her elder sisters
Agrippina the Younger and
Julia Drusilla, received considerable honours and striking privileges, such as the rights of the
Vestal Virgins (like the freedom to view public games from the upper seats in the stadium), the inclusion of her name in the oath of loyalty to the emperor and her depiction on coins. Although seeming to experience an eventful and privileged court life, she was under full control of her brother, and, according to Suetonius, she, along with Agrippina, was prostituted by her brother to his
catamites. Ancient writers even report gossip of incestuous relationships between Caligula and his sisters, including Livilla. In 39, Livilla was involved in an unsuccessful conspiracy (led perhaps by Agrippina) to overthrow
Caligula and to replace him with his brother-in-law
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (Drusilla's widower, but also alleged lover of Agrippina and Livilla). Livilla and her sister
Agrippina the Younger were banished to the
Pontine Islands (they were most likely separated in their exile and each one sent to a different island). After the deaths of
Caligula, his fourth wife
Milonia Caesonia, and their daughter
Julia Drusilla, she returned from exile on the orders of the new emperor, Livilla's paternal uncle
Claudius. Later in 41, she fell out of favour with
Messalina (Claudius's third wife) and was charged by her paternal uncle Claudius for having adultery with
Seneca the Younger. Both were exiled. She was most likely sent to
Ventotene. Political considerations may have played a role in Julia Livilla's fate, more than just moral or domestic preoccupations as inferred in the ancient sources. In late 41 or early 42, her uncle ordered her execution, apparently by
starvation, without a defense and on unsupported charges. She was executed around the same time as her cousin
Julia Livia, the daughter of her aunt Livilla. Her remains were later brought back to Rome, probably when Agrippina became Empress; they were laid to rest in the
Mausoleum of Augustus. ==Cultural depictions==