Jerry Springer: Imperial Rome edition Quiz

Answer: Claudius

Claudius married Agrippina the Younger, the daughter of his brother Germanicus. She was his fourth wife, and was rumoured to have murdered him in order to ensure the succession of her son, the future Nero Caesar. Claudius was a little uneasy about marrying someone so closely related, and decided to make it legal for freeborn men to marry a niece. Unsurprisingly, not many people went for it. Claudius was also famously fond of dice, and was deified after his death.

Answer: Commodus

Commodus was an Antonine emperor, as was Lucius Verus. Commodus entertained the idea that he was Hercules reborn, and liked to fight wild beasts in the arena to prove his valour and skill. He was widely thought to be responsible to for the death of his sister Lucilla. Commodus is on the shortlist for the title of most unbalanced Emperor.

Answer: Caligula

Caligula was perhaps the most famously unbalanced Emperor Rome ever had to endure. Although no definite proof exists to show that Caligula made Incitatus a consul, there is a persistent belief that he did. The story certainly seems to fit in with Caligula's record of extremely erratic behaviour. Making his favourite horse Incitatus a consul was one of his more harmless acts, along with providing him with a gold stable. Caligula was famous for his debauchery and his bloodthirstiness, and Rome suffered greatly under his rule.

He also believed himself to be a god, and was eventually murdered by Cassius Chaerea, an officer of the Praetorian Guard.

Answer: Tiberius

Tiberius is thought to have truly loved his first wife, Vipsania, even after he was forced to divorce her and marry Julia, daughter of the emperor Augustus, for political reasons. Tiberius' mother Livia was married to Augustus, so the two couples made a strange, but not incestuous, family unit.

Although some say that he was forced into marrying Julia, it is also quite likely that he could see the political sense in the match. Julia was Augustus' only child, and marriage to her drew him closer to the succession.

Answer: Julius Caesar

Although not technically an emperor, Julius Caesar's political will spelled the doom of the Roman republic. He was famous for his skills as a general, and just as renowned for his amorous exploits. His troops regaled him in song as their 'bald whoremonger', and his affair with Cleopatra is one of the most famous hook-ups in history.

Answer: Drusilla

Drusilla, Agrippina and Lesbia (Julia Livilla) were all sisters of Caligula. Due to the fact that Caligula did many unspeakable and bloodthirsty things, it is difficult to ascertain the full extent of Caligula's relationship with his sisters, as it is hard to tell fact from rumour. It is certain that Drusilla was his favourite sister, and that after her death he made her a goddess. Although it is likely that Drusilla died of fever, other accounts claim that when she became pregnant by Caligula, he disembowelled her in an attempt to get to the 'divine' child.

Livia was the wife of Augustus, and the matriarch of the Julio-Claudian house.

Answer: Nero

Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, sister of Caligula. His mother went on the marry her uncle, the Emperor Claudius, and her son was adopted into the imperial family, with the name Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus.

When he was Emperor, Nero brought great shame to himself by performing in public as an actor, singer and musician, as these pursuits were not considered fitting ways for a ruler to pass his time. Nero set about trying to kill his mother when he realised her power over him was too great for his own comfort. It is recorded that he attempted to poison her three times, constructed a device to make her bedroom ceiling collapse, and attempted to drown her by giving her a boat designed to sink. Upon the failure of the final plot, Nero gave up subterfuge and sent soldiers to arrest and execute her.

Aelius Sejanus was a favourite of Tiberius, and for a time was the most influential Roman citizen. He plotted to seize imperial power, and was executed when the plot was discovered by Tiberius.

Answer: Valeria Messalina

Valeria Messalina was Claudius' third wife, and is generally portrayed as an ambitious, depraved and somewhat silly woman. Her sexual exploits were legendary, but Claudius seemed blissfully ignorant of her activities. When she began to plot against him, one of Claudius' advisors, Narcissus, informed him of her many misdeeds. Her co-conspirators were executed. Messalina was given the option of suicide, as this was considered to be a nobler death. Despite extensive encouragement from her mother, she could not bring herself to take her own life, and she was executed.

Plautia Urgulania and Aelia Paetina were the first and second wives of the Emperor Claudius.

Answer: Elagabalus

Elagabalus went by many names. He was born Varius Avitus Bassus, and assumed the grand title of Varius Avitus Bassianus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus when he became Emperor. He is also referred to as Heliogabalus. His grandmother, Julia Maesa, whose sister had been married to the Emperor Septimius Severus, plotted to place Elagabalus on the imperial throne. Once she had succeeded, she realised that he was such a bad Emperor that she withdrew her support and promoted the cause of his cousin, Alexander Severus. Elagabalus adopted him in order to retain Maesa's support, and was murdered shortly after. Thankfully, Alexander Severus was generally a good Emperor, and Julia Maesa was deified after her death.

Elagabalus was not so fortunate, and went down in history as yet another of the greatly unbalanced Emperors. He attempted to implement the worship of El-Gabal, his own deity, at Rome, much to the displeasure of patricians and plebians alike. He also married a Vestal Virgin, Aquilia Severa, in the hope that they would have 'divine' children.

Answer: Julia the Elder

Julia was the daughter of Augustus and Scribonia, and had been previously married to Marcellus and Marcus Agrippa. After Agrippa's death, she reportedly fell in love with Tiberius, the son of Augustus' wife Livia. She asked her father to make Tiberius divorce his wife and marry her. Apparently it took the threat of suicide to make Augustus act, and the couple were married. Other accounts say that Julia was not even remotely interested in Tiberius, and rebelled after Augustus forced her into a third arranged marriage.

In political and dynastic terms, the match was a brilliant one, as it reinforced the ties between the Julian and Claudian houses. However, Tiberius still loved his ex-wife, and barely tolerated Julia, who grew increasingly unhappy. Tiberius did not want to divorce her for fear of insulting Augustus, so he did the next best thing and left the country. Rumours of Julia's adultery circulated in his absence. Whether they were true or not, they were damaging, and when Augustus eventually heard he considered executing her. Tiberius divorced her, and she was exiled to the island of Pandateria (modern Ventotene), and suffered harsh conditions. She was later relocated to Italy.

For a clearer explanation of the extremely complicated Julio-Claudian family tree, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio-Claudian_family_tree.