Julia Livilla — Youngest Child of Germanicus and Agrippina Senior

374, Lot: 377. Estimate $1000. Sold for $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LESBOS, Mytilene. Julia Livilla. AD 18-41/2. Æ (18mm, 6.23 g, 1h). Struck under Gaius (Caligula), AD 37-41. Draped bust left / Caligula standing left, with toga drawn up over head (capite velato), holding patera. RPC I 2348; Vagi 576. Fine, brown patina. Very rare issue in the name of Livilla, and the only type where her portrait appears alone.

The youngest child of Germanicus and Agrippina Senior, Julia Livilla was born on the island of Lesbos during her parents’ tour of the eastern provinces. She is best known, like her sisters Agrippina Junior and Drusilla, for the alleged incestuous relationship she had with her brother, Caligula. Suetonius, the earliest historian to make this scandalous accusation, claims that the incest even took place during banquets (Gai xxiv), “when much company was present,” and that the emperor “placed each of them [his sisters] in turns below him, while his wife reclined above him.” It is telling that the tales of incest go unmentioned by historians such as Seneca and Philo, who actually lived during the reign of Caligula, and there is serious scholarly doubt if there is any truth to these claims. Nonetheless, the tales were often repeated by later chroniclers, and the incestuous relationship between Caligula and his sisters is fixed in popular imagination as one of great scandals of the Roman emperors.