Rome: Lucilla's Life In Rome

The law at the time perceived their marriage as incestuous, as she was the daughter of Claudius’ brother, Germanicus. Despite this, by the assistance of Vitellius (a friend of Agrippina’s in the Senate) appealing their union as ‘commonplace’ in other countries (even Roman) that the marriage was enacted in principle and practice. Tacitus says that their marriage in AD49 “marked a real turning point” as Agrippina acquired power beyond her wildest dreams.

Around 71 B.C.,a few years before Augustus was born, Gaius Octavius started pursuing a job within the senate, but because of his latin instead of roman descent the pursuit of the job was very difficult for him. He continued pursuing the job in senate till around 70 B.C. when he won a quaestorship, a lower place in the government that entails supervising tax collection and doing special tasks for consuls in Rome, and joined the senate. Based on his latin descent winning a questorship was no small feat so it was no surprise when he was offered a spouse from one of Rome’s great trician clans. The only problem with this was he was already married to Ancharia who is not very well recorded in history so people have no firm evidence for why Gaius Octavius suddenly married Atia, a member of the Julian family making Julius Caesar his great-uncle. Together Atia and Gaius had two children, Octavius the younger and Gaius Octavian, named after his father, along with the one from Ancharia the second of the two being who we know as Augustus.

In the arising chaos of Caesar’s death, Mark Antony, Octavion, and others fought a series of five civil wars, which would end in the formation of the Roman Empire. The Roman middle and lower classes, with whom Caesar was popular, became angry that a small group of aristocrats had killed Caesar, especially after Antony gave a dramatic applause that appealed to the common people, a reflection of public opinion following Caesar's murder. About 43 B.C, the second triumvirate was formed between Octavion, Mark Antony, and Lepidus. Sometime after 43 B.C, Afterward, Mark Antony married Caesar's lover, Cleopatra, intending to use the fabulously wealthy Egypt as a base to dominate Rome. A third civil war broke out between Octavion and Antony. This final civil war resulted in the final ascendancy of Octavian, who became the first Roman emperor, under the name Caesar Augustus, a name that raised him to status of an idol.

Gaius Octavius Thurinus is a adopted son of Julius Caesar, He is the first true emperor of the Roman Empire, he was believed to be one of the most important emperor of Roma. In 43 EBC, Octavian gathered his army to kill the senate who planned the assassinate targeting Julius Caesar, his adoptive father. Then, he defeat Mark Antony and Cleopatra who was his allies but later betrayed him. Thus , he ended the war continued for decades and brought the great peace to Rome, In 29 EBC Octavian declared the pax romana, also know as the Roman peace. In 27 BCE, he was bestowed the title of Augustus by the Roman senate which was actually reestablished by Augustus himself. In order to remind the Romans the emperor’s power, Augustus ordered sculptor to sculpt the idealized form of him and send those sculptures to every provinces (Module 5 Session 6). The Augustus of Prima Porta is a great example of them.

He was later adopted by His uncle, Antoninus Pius. He was also Hadrian’s successor, but Hadrian’s original successor was L. Ceionius Commodus, but he died before he could succeed him. His uncle was married to his aunt, who was know as Annia Galeria Faustina. Because Marcus was adopted by his uncle, this allowed him

Nero was a highly influential Roman leader whose actions where both positive for the Roman Empire and also abused his power by doing negative actions in Rome. Nero was born to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, the great granddaughter of Augustus in 37 A.D, with the full name of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. He was the last remaining direct male descendant of Augustus. Nero received a good education and was taught by Seneca. He studied Greek, philosophy and rhetoric. After Nero’s father, Gnaeus died in 48 A.D, his mother married her uncle, Claudius who at the time was the emperor. She manipulated Claudius to make Nero his successor instead of his son Britannicus, as well as give Nero his daughter, Octavia's hand in marriage in 50 A.D. In 54 A.D Claudius died, and Agrippina was suspected to have poisoned him. Nero took the throne soon after. Nero claimed that Britannicus had an epileptic seizure which caused his death, but historians believe that Nero poisoned him to get rid of competition.

Marcus Aurelius was born into a rich family and it was known he would become an Emperor in his later life. Marcus Aurelius was “born... April 26,121, in Rome…” and grew up in Rome (“Marcus”). Aurelius was “raised by his grandfather, who was a...relative of the emperor Hadrian…” and

Tiberius is associated with Augustus for 22 years. Augustus had Tiberius carefully educated. Augustus later forced Tiberius to dissolve his happy marriage to Vipsania Agrippina and marry Augustus' daughter Julia. This was arranged to better the chance of

Livia Drusilla was born on January 30th 58 BCE in Rome. She was the daughter of Roman noble Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus. Like most women in ancient Rome, she was married at an early age. She married her cousin, Tiberius Claudius Nero, who was of patrician status, at age 16 in 42 BCE. This was around the same time her first son, Tiberius, was born. Her husband fought alongside her father and Julius Caesar’s assassins against Octavian. Even when her father committed suicide at the Battle of Philippi, her husband keep fighting against Octavian. In 40 BCE, her family had to leave to avoid the triumvirate of Octavian; they later moved to Greece.

Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, better known as Trajan, was a Roman emperor from 98 AD until his death on August 9, 117 AD. He was born on September 18, 53 AD in Italica Spain, where he lived with his mother, Marcia and his father, also named Marcus Ulpius Trajanus. Trajan was the first emperor to be born outside of Italy, in Italica. He was a successful soldier and general; he was very passionate about war. Nerva the emperor before him adopted him as his “son” because he had no children. Nerva died a natural death and after Trajan became emperor.

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, Trajan for short, was a highly successful Roman general and Emperor in the early part of the first millennium. He started his career as a successful general, expanding the Roman Empire. He was later the first Roman Emperor not to be Italian and successfully extended the Roman Empire to its greatest extent as well as initiated many public building projects, some of which survived into the present day. Trajan was born into a non-practician family on the 18th of September at Italica near Seville, Spain in 53 CE and he died on the 9th of August in Selinus in Cilicia in 117 CE. His Dad was a senator and a general.

Since Brutus’ mother was now Caesar’s lover, he was released from captivity and became a member of the senior priesthood of the pontifices. From 47 to 45, he governed Cisalpine Gaul (now northern Italy) for Caesar (biographybase.com). Caesar appointed him as praetor of the city along with Gaius Cassius Longinus and named, in advance, them as consuls of 41. After Cato died in 46, Brutus married Porcia, Cato’s daughter.

	After nineteen years of ruling Rome, Marcus Aurelius died on March 17, 180 in Vindobona, which is currently Vienna. He died of a plague while in the middle of yet another war to defend the territory of Rome. Aurelius was succeeded by his son, Commodus, who was the polar opposite of his father. Commodus was a corrupt and evil ruler. Apparently, his father was never aware of this fact, for Commodus fooled him into believing they were of the same mind when it came to ruling. Commodus was the first of the bad emperors to Aurelius’ last of the good emperors. This lack of an able ruler cemented the descent of the Roman empire.

In around 85 BC, Julius Caesar’s father had died. About a few years later, while Caesar was 18 years old, he married the daughter of a member of the Popular faction in

- Lucilla is the daughter of Marcus Aurelius and the brother of Commodus whom lusts for her. She has been recently widowed and was left with a son, Lucius Verus.