The Succession

• The emporers that followed Augustus (Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero) are referred to as the Julio-Claudians.
• Augustus' greatest challenge seems to have been securing the succession.
• The reasons Augustus struggled to secure the succession were; he had no natural son and therefore needed to secure one through adoption, he had recurring ill health, his long life meant that he kept outliving candidates, and to secure the prestige of the family line.
• The most difficult aspect was the construction of the principate meant that a position of ruler could not be inherited.
• There were several ways he attempted to solve the problem of succession:

  • by associating family members with tribunitian potestas for a certain term
  • also associating family members with power of imperium
  • by fast promotion in the cursus honorum by reducing age limits
  • by using marriage to try and promote heirs within the family (through Julia) and making alliances with those who could act in their interest
• Marcellus:

  • nephew
  • Augustus made him marry Julia
  • served with Tiberius in Cantabrian wars
  • allowed to be consul for 10 years
  • 23BC - fell ill, didn't recover and died the same year
• Agrippa:

  • best friend and son in law
  • architect of Rome's building programme
  • granted Tribunician power in 18 and 13 BC
  • proconsulare imperium in Augustus provinces
  • died 12BC, Augustus mourned for a month and held a lavish funeral
• Tiberius:

  • step son
  • distinguished himself as praetor and on campaigns in Germania
  • consul in 13BC
  • forced to marry Julia
  • exiled himself to Rhodes, Augustus refused his return
  • allowed to return in 4AD
• Gaius and Lucius Caesar:

  • grandsons
  • princeps iuventutis, leaders of youth
  • both made consul designate at 15
  • Gaius active in politics, undertook expedition to Arabia
  • Armenian leader, trapped and murdered Gaius in Asia Minor
  • Lucius died after a short illness
• Agrippa Posthumus:

  • grandson
  • participated in a series of games for 'equestrian youth'
  • not adopted alongside Gaius and Lucius
  • Augustus considered him to have a 'beastly nature'
  • banished from Rome in 6AD
  • only interested in fishing and depravity