Augustus_ The Life of Rome's First Emperor - Anthony Everitt [170]
Augustus was irritated by the first issue, alarmed by the second, outraged only by the third. He was accustomed to obedience within the family circle, and, assuming Julia’s promiscuity to be public knowledge, he could hardly bear the ridicule and disgrace it would bring on him; it was this that powered his vengeful reaction. Throughout his life, Augustus was a master of self-control, but every now and again we can detect an overflow of deep and powerful feeling. He dearly loved his closest relatives—his wife, Livia; his sister Octavia; his grandsons Gaius and Lucius; and, it would seem, Julia. Perhaps his rage expressed an unspoken, unadmitted bitterness at the truth that he had bought his high place in the world by subduing the claims of affection to the imperatives of power.
No hint has come down to posterity about how Gaius and Lucius reacted to their mother’s disgrace. Brought up in their grandfather’s house, they may not have seen all that much of her. But if they were hurt or upset, they knew better than to cross a paterfamilias who expected everyone around him to fall in with his wishes, loyally and with no questions asked.
When Tiberius, far away on Rhodes, learned what had happened and that Augustus had used his name in the bill of divorce, he was privately delighted, but felt obliged to send a stream of letters urging a reconciliation between father and daughter. The motive for his kindliness was probably to avoid giving needless offense to Gaius and Lucius and their supporters, and to demonstrate to any doubters that his wife’s fall from grace had nothing to do with him. Livia also seems to have acted generously toward Julia: an inscription suggests that she seconded a couple of slaves to her service.
The chosen place of exile was as comfortable as could be expected. It was the palace on the island of Pandateria. Oddly, it is reported that Augustus had one of Julia’s country houses pulled down, because it had been built on too lavish a scale: perhaps the fault lay in the villa being on mainland Italy and visible to all, rather than hidden discreetly away.
Julia was forbidden to drink wine or enjoy any other luxury. Her aging mother, Scribonia, nobly volunteered to come and stay with her, but Julia was forbidden any male company, whether free or slave, except by Augustus’ special permission, and then only after he had been given full particulars of the applicant’s age, height, complexion, and any distinguishing marks on his body. The guards must have been male, but will not have strayed beyond the service block into the villa itself.
The public felt sorry for Julia, and pressure built for her pardon. “Fire will sooner mix with water than that she shall be allowed to return,” said the unforgiving princeps. In response, agitators, showing a nice sense of humor, threw lit torches into the river. When a people’s assembly called for her reprieve, he stormed: “If you ever bring up this matter again, may the gods afflict you with similar daughters or wives!”
After five years, Augustus relented to the extent that his daughter was moved to Rhegium, a Greek city on the toe of Italy where he had settled some veterans; they would be able to keep an eye on her. She was not allowed outside the city walls.
XXIII
THE UNHAPPY RETURN
2 B.C.–A.D. 9
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He received a letter from his stepson asking leave to return to Italy, now that he was a private citizen, and visit his family whom he greatly missed. Tiberius claimed that the real reason for his departure had been to avoid the suspicion of rivalry with Gaius and Lucius; now that they were grown up and generally acknowledged as Augustus’ political heirs, his reason for staying away from Rome was no longer valid.
The plea was rejected, with a brutality that reveals pain. The princeps had not forgiven Tiberius for turning his back on him, and what he saw as his stepson’s duty. He wrote: “You should abandon all hope of visiting your family, whom you were so eager to desert.”
Augustus now faced a tricky problem in the east, where in 2 B.C. the already complicated