Julia Drusilla - Biography

Biography

Drusilla was born in Abitarvium, modern day Koblenz, Germany. After the death of her father, Germanicus, she and her siblings were brought back to Rome by their mother, and raised with the help of their paternal grandmother, Antonia Minor. In AD 33, Drusilla was married to Lucius Cassius Longinus, a friend of the Emperor Tiberius. However, after Caligula became emperor in 37, he ordered their divorce and remarried his sister to his friend, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. During Caligula's illness in 37, he changed his will to name Drusilla his heir, making her the first woman to be named heir in an imperial will. This was likely an attempt to continue the Julio-Claudian line through any children she might have, leaving her husband to rule in the meantime. However, her brother recovered and in 38, Drusilla died, at the age of about twenty-two. Her brother went on to deify her, consecrating her with the title "Panthea" (all-goddess), and mourning her at her public funeral as though a widower.

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