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Around the start of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

, the family trees of the gens Julia and the gens Claudia became intertwined into the Julio-Claudian family tree as a result of marriages and adoptions.

Descendancy of the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty

The Julio-Claudian dynasty was the first

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

of Roman emperors. All emperors of that dynasty descended from

Julii Caesares The Julii Caesares were the most illustrious family of the patrician ''gens Julia''. The family first appears in history during the Second Punic War, when Sextus Julius Caesar was praetor in Sicily. His son, Sextus Julius Caesar, obtained t ...

and/or from Claudii. Marriages between descendants of Sextus Julius Caesar and Claudii had occurred from the late stages of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

, but the intertwined Julio-Claudian family tree resulted mostly from adoptions and marriages in Imperial Rome's first decades. Note that descendancy of the Julii Caesares before the generation of Julius Caesar's grandfather is in part conjectural, but as presented by scholars.Smith 1870, Vol. 1 p. 536 ff. , - , style="text-align: left;",

Simplified

By generation

In the Julio-Claudian dynasty of Roman emperors, the lineage of the

was separated from those of the Claudii up to

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

' generation. The next generation had both Claudii with a

Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

as ancestor, as Claudii adopted into the Julii Caesares family. After Tiberius, the remaining three emperors of the dynasty had, outside adoptions, ancestors in both the Julian and the Claudian families.

Generation of Julius Caesar's grandfather

Gaius Julius Caesar II and Lucius Julius Caesar II may have had Sextus Julius Caesar, the military tribune of 181 BC, as a common ancestor.

Generation of Julius Caesar's father

This generation of Julii Caesares has two

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

s: Sextus Julius Caesar in 91 BC, and Lucius Julius Caesar the next year. This generation has also two female descendants very close to the centers of power by their marriages: Julia, the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar II was married to seven-times consul Gaius Marius, while Julia, the daughter of Lucius Julius Caesar II was married to the two-times consul and

Roman dictator A Roman dictator was an extraordinary magistrate in the Roman Republic endowed with full authority to resolve some specific problem to which he had been assigned. He received the full powers of the state, subordinating the other magistrates, con ...

Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had successfully challenged Marius' power. For ensuing generations,

Gaius Julius Caesar (proconsul of Asia) Gaius Julius Caesar (c. 140 BC – 85 BC) was a Roman senator, a supporter of his brother-in-law, Gaius Marius, and the father of Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Biography Caesar was married to Aurelia, a member of the Aurelii and Rutilii famil ...

, married to a consul's daughter, and Lucius Julius Caesar proved to be quintessential ancestors of those who held Imperial power in the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Julius Caesar's generation

Following Sulla's example

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

's and

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

's first marriages were with women of their own generation, later marrying women of a younger generation. After being betrothed to Cossutia, Julius Caesar's first wife was Cornelia, the mother of

. The younger of Caesar's two sisters married Marcus Atius Balbus: they were ancestors of all the Julio-Claudian emperors, apart from Tiberius. This is also the generation of

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

's parents. Mark Antony's mother

was the daughter of Lucius Julius Caesar: she was an ancestor of the last three emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Generation of Julius Caesar's daughter

By this time marriages with a political agenda among the powerful families were in full swing, however not yet between Julii Caesares and Claudii.

married Julius Caesar's daughter Julia. Julius Caesar's second wife Pompeia, possibly a great-granddaughter of Lucius Julius Caesar II, was a granddaughter of Sulla. His third wife Calpurnia is said to be younger than his daughter. His son Caesarion resulted from his relation with Cleopatra. Atia, the daughter of Julius Caesar's sister, married Gaius Octavius: they became the parents of the first emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, then still called Octavianus. Their daughter

Octavia the Younger Octavia the Younger ( la, Octavia Minor; c. 66 BC – 11 BC) was the elder sister of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus (known also as Octavian), the half-sister of Octavia the Elder, and the fourth wife of Mark Antony. She was also the great-gra ...

became an ancestor to the last three emperors of that dynasty. In this generation

had children by, among others, Antonia Hybrida Minor, and

Fulvia Fulvia (; c. 83 BC – 40 BC) was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Fulvia's birth into an important political dynasty facilitated her relationships and, later on, marriages to Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gai ...

Generation of the Octavias

The Claudii were a powerful gens with consuls and other high ranking politicians in several of its families across several generations. In this generation the first marriages between Claudii and descendants of the

took place. This however didn't mean yet that the dynastic family trees of both gentes got merged into a single one: that didn't happen until the adoption of Claudii by (adopted) Julii Caesares in the generations to come.

's first husband was a Claudius from the Marcelli family. Claudia, descending from Claudii, became the first wife of

Octavian Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

, who by then was adopted in the Julii Caesares family by the testament of his uncle

. After her first husband's death, Octavia married

, who besides the offspring of his first three marriages had had children by Cleopatra. Augustus daughter

Julia the Elder Julia the Elder (30 October 39 BC – AD 14), known to her contemporaries as Julia Caesaris filia or Julia Augusti filia (Classical Latin: IVLIA•CAESARIS•FILIA or IVLIA•AVGVSTI•FILIA), was the daughter and only biological child of August ...

's first marriage was to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa; their daughter Julia the Younger married Lucius Aemilius Paullus; their youngest child was Junia Lepida married to

Gaius Cassius Longinus (consul AD 30) Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman jurist and politician from the first century AD. A grandnephew of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, he was also a nephew or great-grandson of Gaius Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar's assassins. Longinus was suffect cons ...

. Junia and Gaius granddaughter Domitia Longina married twice: 1) Lucius Aelius Lamia Plautius Aelianus and 2) Emperor

Domitian Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Fl ...

of the

Flavian dynasty The Flavian dynasty ruled the Roman Empire between AD 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian (69–79), and his two sons Titus (79–81) and Domitian (81–96). The Flavians rose to power during the civil war of 69, known ...

. Issue from Domitia Longina first marriage was Lucius Fundanius Lamia Aelianus''Historia Augusta'', Antoninus Pius 1.7; translated by Anthony Birley, ''Lives of the Later Caesars'' (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976), p. 96 and Plautia, their children married into the Antonine dynasty.

Antonia Maior's generation

Octavianus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

, becoming Augustus the first Roman emperor, married Scribonia who gave him a daughter (

). His last marriage was with Livia, a Claudia who had been married to a Claudius. Their son Tiberius, by birth a Claudius, was later adopted by Augustus, thus, like his stepfather Augustus, becoming one of the

by adoption.

Antonia Minor's generation

Antonia Minor's husband

Nero Claudius Drusus Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (38–9 BC), also called Drusus the Elder, was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a patrician Claudian on his birth father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family. He was the ...

, a.k.a. Drusus the Elder, was a Claudian like his brother emperor Tiberius: they were the sons of Tiberius Claudius Nero, the praetor of 42 BC.

Agrippina the Elder's generation

Without son,

had adopted his grandsons (by his only daughter Julia) Gaius,

Lucius Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from '' Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames ('' praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from ...

and

Postumus Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman commander of Batavian origin, who ruled as Emperor of the splinter state of the Roman Empire known to modern historians as the Gallic Empire. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its allegiance to Ga ...

, and his stepson Tiberius, in order to ensure an heir and successor. Around the time of his death only Tiberius remained and he became the next emperor. Tiberius, a Claudius by birth had become one of the

by adoption: from this moment this first dynasty of Roman emperors was both Julian and Claudian. The further emperors of this dynasty had both Julian and Claudian ancestors.

Agrippina the Younger's generation

Caligula was the last emperor adopted into the family of the

. He was a Claudius by descendance, although he had Julii Caesares among his ancestors, from both his mother's and his father's side. Most marriages remained childless and many potential successors in the dynasty were eliminated after rampant accusations. Claudius, the fourth emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, was a brother to Caligula's father Germanicus. He belonged to the gens Claudia with, from his mother's side, Julian ancestors.

Poppaea Sabina's generation

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...

, the last emperor of the dynasty, was by birth a Domitius with as well Julian ancestors (from both his mother's as his father's side), as Claudian (from his mother's side). He became a Claudian himself, by adoption by his stepfather emperor Claudius, a brother to his grandfather from his mother's side, or, from his father's side, a son of his grandmother's sister.

Citations

General and cited sources

* Miriam Griffin
''A Companion to Julius Caesar'', p. 13 ff.
John Wiley & Sons, 2009. . (Julius Caesar's descendancy.) * Antony Kamm
''Julius Caesar: A Life'', pp. 156 (Genealogical chart of the family of Julius Caesar) and 157 (Simplified genealogical chart of the emperors from Augustus to Nero).
Routledge, 2006. . * J. W. Meijer (translator).
Tacitus: Jaarboeken
' ('' Ab excessu divi Augusti Annales''). Ambo, 1990. – pp. 511 (Julia the Elder's family tree), 532 (Tiberius' family tree), 576–577 (from Gaius Julius Caesar the Elder to Nero) *

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

''Histoire de Jules César'' Volume 1, p. 253
Paris: H. Plon 1865. (Julius Caesar's family tree.) * William Smith
''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology''.
1870

(Julii Caesares up to the generation before the adoptions started.) * John S. Wurts. ''Magna Charta''. Brookfield Publishing Company, 1945
Vol. 4 p. 627
(Ordinals for the Julii Caesares with the same praenomen.)

External links

(and subsequent pages) at

at {{Family trees, state=collapsed - Ancient Roman family trees