Family Ties in the Julio-Claudian Dynasty Quiz

Answer: Mark Antony

Antony married several times, most notably Octavia, the sister of Augustus. His abandonment of Octavia for Cleopatra was one of the factors that destroyed the alliance between the two men. Before it happened however, Antony and Octavia's marriage produced their daughter Antonia the Younger, the mother of Claudius and Germanicus.

Answer: Antonia the Younger

Antonia's daughter, Livilla, was the lover of Lucius Sejanus, Praetorian Prefect and close ally of Tiberius Caesar. When Tiberius turned on Sejanus in 31AD, killing the Prefect and many of his supporters, Livilla was one of those who died, accused of poisoning her husband, Drusus the son of Tiberius, to clear the way for Sejanus to seize power. One version handed down by Roman historians claimed that Tiberius handed Livilla over to her mother, Antonia, who promptly locked her in her room and starved her to death.

Answer: Tiberius and Drusus the Elder

Tiberius and Drusus the Elder were the sons of Livia Augusta and her first husband, Tiberius Nero. They were related to Augustus only by adoption.

Claudius and Germanicus were the sons of Drusus the Elder, and thus Augustus' grandsons only by adoption. However, their mother was Antonia the Younger, the daughter of Octavia the Younger, Augustus' sister. They were thus his great-nephews.

Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar were the sons of the Julia the Elder, Augustus' daughter; Drusus Caesar and Nero Caesar were her grandsons, and Augustus' great-grandsons.

Answer: Antonia the Younger

Antonia, renowned for her traditional Roman virtue, survived into the reign of her grandson Caligula, whom she attempted vainly to guide as he sank into madness. Finally, disgusted by the depravity into which Rome had fallen, she decided to kill herself.

Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus, was exiled for adultery and died while imprisoned on a remote island. Drusilla, the sister (and supposedly the lover) of Caligula is thought to have died of a fever. Agrippina the Younger was the sister of both Caligula and Drusilla, and was also the mother of Nero. Once he had become emperor (largely through her efforts), he began to see her as a rival and eventually had her assassinated.

Answer: Messalina

Urgulanilla bore Claudius a son who died soon after, and a daughter, born after their divorce, who was suspected of being another man's. Medullina apparently died on the day of her wedding to Claudius. Agrippina, his niece, bore him no children, but did provide him with Nero, a delightful stepson.

Claudius was devoted to Messalina, who bore his two children, but alas, she had been one of Caligula's circle and the monster's influence had clearly rubbed off on her. She was executed for adultery and treason in 48AD.

Answer: Marcus Agrippa

Augustus first married his daughter to his favorite nephew Marcellus. After Marcellus' death, he remarried her to his old friend Agrippa. After Agrippa died in turn, she was married a third time, most unhappily, to Tiberius, still in love with his previous wife Vipsania, whom he had been forced to put aside.

Answer: Tiberius and Claudius

Tiberius was the brother of Drusus the Elder, father of Claudius and Germanicus. Germanicus himself was the father of Caligula and the grandfather of Nero. Augustus was not a blood relation of Tiberius at all - he adopted him as his son after marrying Tiberius' mother Livia.

Answer: Lucius Caesar

Four unhappy members of the same family. Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus was exiled to a small island for adultery in 2BC. Two of her children by Marcus Agrippa were also exiled to small, unpleasant islands; Julia the Younger for adultery and Postumus for reasons unknown, although his fate has been blamed on Livia's machinations.

Another son by Agrippa, Lucius Caesar, did not have the chance to be sent to an island - he died of illness in 2AD.

Answer: Tiberius

Yet another Drusus! This one was Tiberius' only son, from his first marriage to Vipsania. Castor was the patron god of the Praetorian Guard - Drusus was given the nickname after fighting with a member of that august body. Drusus married his cousin, Livilla, who was allegedly responsible for his death, poisoning him to make the way clear for her lover Sejanus to succeed Tiberius.

Answer: His maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother

Caligula's mother was Agrippina the Elder. Her mother was a Julian, Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus, but her father was Marcus Agrippa, of an undistinguished family.

Caligula's father was Germanicus. His father was Drusus the Elder, a Claudian. His mother was Antonia the Younger. Antonia, despite being the niece of Augustus, was not a Julian. Augustus was only a Julian by adoption and his sister Octavia, Antonia's mother, was not a member of the family.