Vipsania Agrippina and Livilla I, the Women of the Family of Tiberius

CHAPTER FOUR VIPSANIA AGRIPPINA AND LIVILLA I, THE WOMEN OF THE FAMILY OF TIBERIUS Historical lrifonnation When Tiberius came to power in 14 A.D., he was an unmarried man without close female relatives of his own blood. There were, however, four women of his family who played key roles in his plans for succession and whose images consequently had a place in the public art of his principate. One of these, Antonia, was the mother of his adopted heir Germanicus, and therefore figured in some public sculptural groups of his time, as we have seen in the previous chap ter. The other three were his former wife Vipsania Agrippina, and his daughters-in-law Livilla I and Agrippina I. Tiberius attempted to suggest his dynastic plans subtly and discreetly to the Senate and public, as his treatment of his own mother has indicated: he was will ing to make use of her image on the coins of A.D. 22, for example, but not to institutionalize her role with official titles and privileges. None of the younger women of his family, therefore, appeared on coins at all during his principate, and we consequently lack the most useful form of evidence for their identifications in other media. 1 Antonia and Agrippina I have been identified with certainty in exist ing sculpture only because those women received the honor of repre sentation on coins at a later date, after the death of Tiberius. There is, however, some circumstantial evidence for the recognition of sculp tural portrait types of the other two. Vipsania Agrippina, although Tiberius had been forced to divorce her before his assumption of the principate, was the mother of his only surviving son. (See Appendix, chart no. 5). [Claudia] LiviaJulia, better known by her family nickname of Livilla, was the niece and daughter-in-law of Tiberius, wife of Drusus II and mother of the 1 The coins of AD. 22 with reverses of PIETAS and IUSTITIA are almost cer tainly not portraits, despite efforts to identify them with various women of the impe rial family. See Chapter 2, n. 119. 178 CHAPTER FOUR emperor's twin grandsons (see Appendix, chart no. 6), while Agrip pina I was the wife of his adopted son Germanicus and mother of three more potential male heirs to the principate (see Appendix, chart no. 7). Gaius "Caligula" Caesar, the youngest son of Agrippina I and Germanicus did in fact eventually succeed Tiberius, and this histor ical turn of events guaranteed the survival of Agrippina I's images in many replicas, which sculptors continued to copy long after her death, and which appeared on coins of her son's principate. In fact, the great majority of her extant images date after her death, and for that reason will be more appropriately discussed in the follow ing chapter. The one universally accepted portrait type of this woman, however, was first created to honor her as the living daughter-in law of Tiberius, since at least one example comes from the group at Leptis Magna, which must date to 23 A.D. or soon afterward (figure 86). The inscriptions from that same group prove further more that Vipsania Agrippina and Livilla I, the mother and wife of Drusus II, were also honored with public portraits.2 Vipsania Agrippina was the daughter of Agrippa by his first mar riage, and thus a member of a family to which Augustus wished to bind his own as closely as possible. Agrippa was a brilliant general, the true architect of Augustus's military victories at Actium and Naulochos, and for that reason was at one time the clear intended successor of the first princeps, a man of experience and proven ability whom Augustus trusted to assume the reins of power in the event of his own death. Augustus therefore married his daughter Julia to Agrippa, probably with the intention that if Agrippa was to be his immediate heir, then his own grandsons would eventually come to power, and he arranged the marriage of his stepson Tiberius to Agrippa's daughter. At this period, Tiberius was relatively far from the line of intended succession, although Augustus was aware that his stepsons might one day become his successors. Nonetheless, there was little compelling reason to represent Tiberius and his wife in Augustan public groups. The marriage of Tiberius and Vipsania Agrippina was a very happy and successful one, yet it ended in divorce, not due to the wish of either party but because after Agrippa's death, Augustus forced Tiberius to divorce Vipsania Agrippina so as to marry Julia. 2 Rose, 1997, 182-184 no. 125; Aurigemma, 1940, 10; Levi della Vida, 1935, 15-27. .

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