Julio-Claudian Dynasty

The Julio-Claudians were the first Roman imperial dynasty: Augustus (27 BCE–14 CE), Tiberius (14–37), Caligula (37–41), Claudius (41–54) and Nero (54–68). The name joins the Julian and Claudian families, linked by marriage and adoption. Julius Caesar prepared the way for Augustus but is not included in this sequence of emperors.

Augustus adopted Tiberius, Livia’s son by Tiberius Claudius Nero. Tiberius’s brother, Nero Claudius Drusus, fathered Germanicus and Claudius. Caligula was Germanicus’s son; Nero was the son of Germanicus’s daughter Agrippina the Younger and Claudius’s adopted heir. Succession depended on more than kinship: armies, praetorians, the Senate and political agreements also mattered.

Tiberius

After Augustus died in 14, Tiberius assumed imperial powers. Mutinies in the Pannonian and Rhine legions demonstrated the new ruler’s dependence on the army; Germanicus refused to support attempts to set him against Tiberius.

Under Tiberius, elections of magistrates moved from the popular assemblies to the Senate, without instantly abolishing every assembly. Augustus had already retained imperial authority for life, and Tiberius did not invent the urban prefecture. Under the praetorian prefect Sejanus, the guard was concentrated in a single camp at Rome, increasing its political importance.

Relations between Tiberius and the senatorial elite were strained by treason proceedings, executions and confiscations. Laws concerning the majesty of the Roman people predated him; their use in political accusations became especially important during his reign. The historian Cremutius Cordus died after accusations concerning his work; Sejanus was executed in 31.

Tiberius spent his later years on Capri. Germanicus died in Syria in 19, and suspicions of poisoning entered ancient tradition, but Tiberius’s involvement has not been proved. Germanicus’s widow Agrippina the Elder and two elder sons fell victim to political persecution. His youngest son, Gaius Caligula, survived and became the next emperor.

Caligula and Claudius

After the death of Tiberius, the Senate declared Caligula Emperor (37-41), who glorified his reign with all sorts of ridiculous tricks and executions. The emperor proclaimed himself a god and demanded the worship of his statues, but his follies caused a conspiracy against him and he was killed.

After Caligula’s assassination, the praetorians proclaimed his uncle Claudius, Germanicus’s brother, emperor. The Senate recognised his authority. Claudius, previously occupied with historical and other scholarly work, expanded imperial administration; the conquest of Britain began during his reign.

Messalina was his third wife and Agrippina the Younger his fourth. After Messalina’s death, Claudius married his niece Agrippina and adopted her son Nero. Nero gained precedence over Claudius’s biological son Britannicus and succeeded him in 54. Ancient sources describe Agrippina poisoning Claudius, but the details remain disputed.

Nero

Seneca and the praetorian prefect Burrus were influential early in Nero’s reign. Relations with the elite later deteriorated. Britannicus, Nero’s adoptive brother, died in 55 in circumstances ancient sources associate with poisoning. Agrippina was killed in 59 and Octavia in 62; after the discovery of the Pisonian conspiracy in 65, Seneca was ordered to take his own life. Burrus died in 62: natural death and poisoning are competing ancient accounts.

The fire of Rome occurred in 64. Nero’s responsibility for starting it has not been proved; Tacitus also describes relief measures. According to Tacitus, Nero blamed Christians, who suffered cruel executions. Reconstruction and imperial building projects required substantial resources.

Nero first of all considered himself a great artist and even performed on the stage as a public singer, then undertaking an artistic journey first in Italy, then in Greece, and the board was transferred to the released Gellius. Nero took part personally in the chariot races as well. All this caused a series of conspiracies and military uprisings. When the Praetorians also deserted Nero, the Senate declared him deposed, and the emperor ordered one of his freedmen to kill himself, with great regret, as it was said later, that a remarkable artist was being killed in him.

Related topics

• Roman Empire
• Emperors of Rome
• Gaius Julius Caesar
• Octavian Augustus
• Roman Republic
• Year of the Four Emperors

Literature and sources

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Roman Empire