Julio-Claudian Family Tree

I've been putting together a "Julio-Claudian Family Tree" diagram to serve as a visual aid for people while I tell them about my coins. I thought some of you might find it interesting, suggest improvements, or point out any errors or omissions that I might have made.

I tried to include a comprehensive list of associated people with bust coins from Julius Caesar through Nero, that is why Lepidus and Claudius Macer are dangling off to the sides. The names in color are people for which coins were minted, with Gold indicating a leader (Dictator, Emperor), Green indicating non-leaders that I intend to have in my collection, and Red indicating coins that I do not expect to have in my collection.

If I've missed anyone that had a Roman coin issued during this time period, or if I'm missing any relationships that should be included then please let me know. Also, I'm aware that the tree is incomplete (children, siblings, etc missing), as it was designed specifically around those with coins and those that are important to the stories.

Enjoy the spaghetti bowl! It was a lot more difficult than I was expecting to fit and organize everything into a reasonable space!

 

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Fascinating! But: "Hunched each other"? Must be a slang term from the South that I've never heard!

 

That's quite an undertaking. I feel overwhelmed just looking at it--can't imagine trying to put it all together.

The only suggestion I can offer is that you might try putting successive spouses in chronological order so that, for example, Scribonia is higher up than Livia.

Also, didn't Tiberius divorce Vispania and marry Julia?

 

It initially said "Married", but there were a handful of couplings in there that didn't involve marriage, so I figured it'd make sense to call it something else. "Had sex" seemed a bit bland, and it seemed like a good opportunity to go for some humor, so I picked the fairly innocent "Hunched".

I actually grew up in Indiana, so if it's something that people haven't heard of then maybe it was a "midwestern thing". It may have also been a temporal thing as well, as it was popular during my childhood and teenage years (80's-90's), but I don't hear it much anymore. In any case, I figured people would figure out what it meant

I initially tried to put them in chronological order from left to right, but ended up having to sacrifice that type of indicator to ensure that subsequent pairings between offspring would align. I didn't think about using vertical positioning indicators though. That's a good idea, I'll give it a shot!

Correct. I was going to try to force it in there, but I wasn't sure how to do it because that part of the tree is already super spaghetti bowled. They also didn't have any offspring, so it didn't seem that important. But, now that you bring it up, it does seem entertaining enough to try and include on it's own merits. I mean, how many people are forced to divorce the wife that they love in order to marry the wife's stepmom, who also happens to be a stepsister, that they hate?!

I think it can work if I switch Julia and Attica around. But unfortunately, there's no way to have Vipsania vertically above Julia, so the vertical indicator of chronology would have to be sacrificed. Incest and intergenerational hunching makes for really difficult family trees!

 

Taken together, these two statements are problematic. If you try to include Julia now, your diagram would cover several pages.

 

Ya, when you get exiled because Augustus and Tiberius think that you are too promiscuous........You must have been REALLY promiscuous!!!

 

I don't think there is a "right" way to assemble this spaghetti bowl of a dynasty - it must have been confusing even for the ancient Romans!

If you want to go even further down the rabbit hole on these...

Tiberius Claudius Nero was Tiberius' grandfather


Lucius Julius Caesar was the grandfather of Mark Antony, and I think a second cousin twice removed to Julius Caesar?


Marcius Philippus was Augustus' stepfather


Asinius Gallus was Vipsania's second husband, and claimed paternity over Drusus (minor) for a time. They had prominent children who mostly fell victim to the intrigues of the Imperial family


Quinctilius Varus married another daughter of Agrippa, but little is known about their marriage which seems to have ended in divorce possibly with a child or two


Fabius Maximus married Augustus' step sister (daughter of Marcius Philippus)


Drusus had twin boys, Tiberius and Germanicus. Germanicus died in infancy, but Tiberius survived into the early reign of Caligula.


After the death of Drusus, Tiberius adopted Germanicus' older brothers, Nero and Drusus


Julia the Elder doesn't appear on many coins, but she can be found

Marcus Antonius Polemo II was a client king and great-grandson of Mark Antony who was smack in the middle of everything - in addition to being the cousin of most of the dynasty, he also was briefly a member of the Herodian dynasty of Judea, and then married into the Emesan royal priest family, *possibly* making him the ancestor of Julia Domna and Julia Maesa

 

Hi Finn235,
I posted a similar setup awhile back. I had to leave out certain offspring and relationships to make things fit. I am collecting copper and brass coinage (when I can afford them) of portraits. Att. is a photo of my display which hangs on the wall. The coins can be removed and handled. The date 69CE should read 68CE (old age mistake). I like your setup - well done!
Thomas

 

WOW!! I honestly thought that I had compiled a complete list of people with coins over this time period. I figured that I might have omitted a person, or maybe two, but would never have thought there was a chance that I had managed to overlook 12!!

I was actually under the impression that I had put together a comprehensive list of people with coins from Caesar through Theodosius I. If I'm missing 12 in the Julio-Claudian Dynasty alone, then who knows how many I am missing in total

I figured I'd make a visual aid for my coins, but it didn't occur to me to make the coins themselves the visual aid. Fantastic!

 

A topic near to my heart! Don't predict your future acquisitions too negatively! You never know who you will find. Perhaps the major challenge is finding Aelius Sejanus, Praetorian prefect whose name appears on one provincial coin, who was allegedly paramour of Livilla, sister of Claudius and Germanicus and mother of the twins by Drusus Caesar. So does Postumus Agrippa, somewhat debated. Caligula's brothers, Nero and Drusus, appear as equestrian statues on an imperial issue that can be pricey, but can be readily found in recognizable form. Claudia Antonia, daughter of Claudius, appears with her siblings on a provincial coin, not easy but not impossible. Even Fulvia appeared on a quinarius, somewhat debated, which is hard to find in nice condition but which comes up consistently in lower grade. And there are more if you go back further into the Republic. I am still one person/coin I mentioned short of that roster, drives me crazy when I miss it.

 

I spent more than half a century in Indiana and although I can sling Hoosierisms with the best of them, I don't recall ever having heard "hunch" used as a verb. Granted, it's a wildly popular topic - especially in Indiana - and not so surprising, I suppose, that I might have missed one expression among dozens. Wonderful what one can learn here!

 

I grew up in Newburgh, which is a suburb of Evansville, which is immediately across the Ohio River from Kentucky. There's a possibility that I had some extra-Indiana influences!

 

@Finn235 and @PMah , thanks a lot for the input. I've been going through the information that you've provided, and I think that I've made some progress in getting things sorted out.

One thing that I probably didn't make clear, the "List of people with coins" that I'm putting together for myself is limited to those that actually had their likeness portrayed on a bust coin. Of those that have been mentioned, so far as I can tell, they break down like this:

No bust coins: Tiberius Claudius Nero, Lucius Julius Caesar, Marcius Philippus, Fabius Maximus, Marcus Antonius, Aelius Sejanus

Miniaturized busts: Tiberius and Germanicus (Ones that died young), Nero and Drusus (Adopted by Tiberius)

Bust coins that you guys have mentioned: Asinius Gallus, Quinctilius Varus, Julia the Elder, Polemo II, Agrippa Postumus

Additional busts I found while researching above: Vespasian Junior (adopted by Domitian), Poppaea (wife of Nero)

Have I missed or miscategorized anything here? Thanks again for the input!

 

It might be easier to break it down by issuing authority

Pre-Imperial
* As mentioned previously, the Julii, the Caesares, and the Claudii were all patrician gens, so it should be no surprise that various Republican moneyers are related to one or more emperors.

Julius Caesar


Pompey, legally Caesar's son in law as he married Julia - This common-ish issue from Soloi-Pompeiopolis has variously been attributed to being a lifetime issue from the 60s BC, or possibly as late as the Flavian era - regardless, it does show Pompey the Great


Pompey's sons Gnaeus and Sextus (no coins, but also I don't think either put their own likeness on coinage)

Marcus Antonius had pretty prolific coinage, mine also has Octavia, his 4th wife and Octavian's sister


And his earlier 3rd wife, Fulvia


His brother Lucius also issued coins which are fairly rare, so none to show for now.

And Cleopatra VII I feel needs to be included, as she "hunched" with both Caesar and Antony, and had children by both


Her son by Julius, Caesarion has coins that can be attributed to his reign with Cleopatra, but IIRC there are no coins in his likeness, and maybe only a statue or two.

Her two sons by Antony probably died without issue in their teens, but Cleopatra Selene II went on to marry king Juba II, and their children and grandchildren went on to play important roles in the mid-1st century politics of Roman annexation and expansion.

As previously mentioned, another prominent member of Antony's line was Polemo II, who was a grandson of Antonia, Antony's daughter from his second marriage (not to be confused with Antonia, the mother of Claudius)

 

Octavian's family -

The big man himself


His wife Livia and daughter Julia the Elder


Julia married Agrippa


Their sons Gaius


Lucius (finding him by himself is an extremely tough feat, by the way!)


And Agrippa Postumus (no coins, but they are out there)

Augustus also kept his closest advisors closer by marrying them to his inner circle

Asinius Gallus was married to Vipsania when Tiberius was forced to divorce her


Fabius Maximus was married to Augustus' sister in law (and this coin is believed to portray Maximus himself)


Varus was married to Agrippa's daughter Vipsania Marcella


E to add: Of the moneyers, a fun tidbit is that M Salvius Otho is believed to be the future emperor's grandfather

 

Tiberius' family


First up is mommy dearest - probably more than half of Livia's coinage can be dated to Tiberius' reign


His first pair of caesars were his son Drusus


And Germanicus


Drusus' issue included his twin boys Germanicus and Tiberius


And his Pietas - which could be Livia, his mother Vipsania, or his wife Livilla - or just plain old Pietas


After the death of Germanicus in 19 and Drusus in 23, Tiberius first turned to Germanicus' sons Nero and Drusus (error in my post - I meant to say Germanicus' sons and Caligula's older brothers!)


When they were exiled and put to death by the machinations of Sejanus, Tiberius then adopted Caligula


And his surviving grandson, Tiberius Gemellus (although the attribution of this coin may have been debunked since I purchased it )

 

My collection starts as Nerva so I don't have any Julio-Claudian's to offer. I appreciate your attempt at the family tree. It's quite funny how impossible it is to make a tidy diagram for such a messed up bunch.

 

Caligula



Some of his issues feature his sister's, most famously the "three sisters sestertius" which is well above my price bracket unless I get a massive raise or bonus!

His wife Caesonia may be "Salus" on this Iberian coin


On an extremely rare provincial from Judaea, Caesonia is presented by name, along with their daughter Julia Drusilla (no example and I'm unlikely to ever acquire one!)

Caligula also chose to honor his grandfather Agrippa


His older brothers (very rough example with only one visible)


And his father Germanicus and mother Agrippina I

(They also exist in Imperial coins separately)

 

Claudius' family



Like Caligula, he issued prolifically for deceased family members like

His mother Antonia


His father Nero Claudius Drusus (who did not appear on coinage until this point)


His brother Germanicus


Then there's his infamous 3rd wife Messalina


His son Britannicus


Britannicus with his sisters Antonia and Octavia (Antonia only appears on this hideous provincial from Cyzicus)


Purportedly at some point Tiberius Claudius Drusus, a son from an earlier marriage
https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/to...pc_i_2425_extremely_rare/1399988/Default.aspx

Then after he had Messalina executed, his niece/wife Agrippina II (barf)


And his adoptive son Nero

 

Finally Nero


His cousin/first wife Octavia


His beloved second wife Poppaea whom he also killed


There is also a scarce-ish coin of Diva Poppaea with their stillborn child Claudia (missing that one)

And the rare issues of his third wife, Statillia Messalina (was hoping to snag one of the two that just closed @Leu, but got blown out of the water)