Julia The Younger - Life

Life

About 5 BC or 6 BC, Augustus arranged her to marry Lucius Aemilius Paullus. Paullus had a family relation to her as her first half-cousin, as both had Scribonia as grandmother: Julia's mother was a daughter of Scribonia by Augustus; Paullus' mother, Cornelia Scipio, was a daughter of Scribonia resulting from her earlier marriage to Publius Cornelius Scipio Salvito.

Paullus and Julia had a daughter, Aemilia Lepida and (possibly) a son, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (although the latter may also have been the son to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 6). According to Suetonius, she built a large pretentious country house. Augustus disliked large overdone houses and had it demolished.

In 8, according to ancient historians, Julia was exiled for having an affair with Decimus Junius Silanus, a Roman Senator. She was sent to Trimerus, a small Italian island, where she gave birth to a child. Augustus rejected the infant and ordered it to be exposed, or left on a mountainside to die. Silanus went into voluntary exile, but returned under Tiberius' reign.

Sometime between 1 and 14, her husband Paullus was executed as a conspirator in a revolt. Modern historians theorize that Julia's exile was not actually for adultery but for involvement in Paullus' revolt. Livia Drusilla plotted against her stepdaughter's family and ruined them, according to some. This led to open compassion for the fallen family. In 29 AD, Julia died on the same island where she had been sent in exile twenty years earlier. Due to the adultery that Julia committed, Augustus stated in his will that she would never be buried in Rome. She was survived by daughter, (possibly) a son, and by several grandchildren.

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