DOMVS IVLIO–CLAVDIATHE IMPERIAL FAMILY ARCHIVE
ROME’S FIRST IMPERIAL DYNASTY   ·   27 BCE – 68 CE

The Julio-Claudian
dynasty

Five men held the title of emperor. This archive follows the entire family behind them — forty-eight people, one connected record — wives, mothers, rivals, and heirs whose marriages, adoptions, and betrayals shaped Rome for a century, from 27 BCE to 68 CE.

Explore the family tree ↓Meet the dynasty
Marble portrait of Augustus, wearing an oak-leaf crown
Augustus · Marble portrait, Louvre
PRINCEPS IAugustus27 BCE – 14 CEPRINCEPS IITiberius14 – 37 CEPRINCEPS IIICaligula37 – 41 CEPRINCEPS IVClaudius41 – 54 CEPRINCEPS VNero54 – 68 CE
I   ·   THE LINES OF POWER

A family. An empire.

Succession was never simply a matter of blood. Explore the descent and political adoptions that connected Rome’s first emperors.

Selected Julio-Claudian family relationshipsSolid lines show parent to child descent. Dashed lines show adoption: Caesar to Augustus, Augustus to Tiberius, Tiberius to Germanicus, and Claudius to Nero. The accompanying family profiles provide further relationships.Julius CaesarTestamentary adoptive fatherAugustusI · EmperorLivia DrusillaWife of AugustusJulia the ElderDaughter of AugustusTiberiusII · EmperorDrusus the ElderSon of LiviaAgrippina the ElderDaughter of JuliaGermanicusSon of DrususClaudiusIV · EmperorCaligulaIII · EmperorAgrippina the YoungerDaughter of GermanicusNeroV · Emperor
Biological descentAdoption

Selected lines of descent, not a complete genealogy. Both Caligula and Agrippina the Younger were children of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. Marriage lines and some relatives are omitted. Open a named profile for additional relationships.

THE COMPLETE REGISTER · 45 PEOPLE

Follow the family.

Choose a person, then follow a relative into another branch. Biological descent, marriage, and adoption remain distinct.

First emperor

Augustus

Read profile ↗

Showing the family of Augustus.

Biological parents

Gaius Octavius
Atia

Biological children

Julia the Elder

Adoptive family: adoptive parent

Julius Caesar

Adoptive family: adopted member

Tiberius
Gaius Caesar
Lucius Caesar
Agrippa Postumus
Livia Drusilla

Spouses

Livia Drusilla

Siblings and half-siblings

Octavia Minor

Selected relatives from the full register. Spouses are not shown as biological relatives unless there is a separate recorded relationship. Adoption into a family does not necessarily designate an imperial successor.

II   ·   THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE POWER

The imperial household

Emperors, influential women, and heirs whose lives reveal the ambitions and vulnerabilities of the ruling family.

45 profiles
IFirst emperor

Augustus

63 BCE – 14 CE

Born Gaius Octavius, the adopted heir of Julius Caesar transformed a fractured republic into the Principate. His political settlement laid the foundations of Rome’s first imperial dynasty.

Read profile   ↗Imperial matriarch

Livia Drusilla

30 January 59 BCE – 29 CE

Wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius and Drusus, Livia stood at the meeting point of the Julian and Claudian families. Her influence outlasted the dynasty’s founder.

Read profile   ↗IISecond emperor

Tiberius

42 BCE – 37 CE

An experienced commander on Rome’s northern frontiers, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as the second princeps. His long reign combined disciplined administration with deepening political suspicion.

Read profile   ↗Prospective successor

Marcus Claudius Marcellus

42 BCE – 23 BCE

The son of Octavia and nephew of Augustus, Marcellus embodied the first hopes of dynastic continuity. His early death exposed the fragility of succession in the new regime.

Read profile   ↗Dynastic daughter

Julia the Elder

30 October 39 BCE – 14 CE

Augustus’s only biological child occupied a central place in his succession plans. Her three marriages connected competing heirs; her exile revealed the personal costs of imperial family policy.

Read profile   ↗IIIThird emperor

Caligula

12 – 41 CE

Born into a celebrated but embattled family, Gaius grew up in army camps and imperial exile before an outpouring of public goodwill carried him to power at twenty-four. His brief, increasingly erratic reign ended in assassination.

Read profile   ↗IVFourth emperor

Claudius

10 BCE – 54 CE

Overlooked for public life because of a physical disability, Claudius was the family’s accidental survivor — the one relative no one thought worth killing. When the praetorians needed an emperor in a hurry, they found him hiding behind a palace curtain.

Read profile   ↗VFifth emperor

Nero

37 – 68 CE

The last Julio-Claudian was never meant to rule at all — he inherited the throne only because his mother out-manoeuvred a dynasty’s worth of rivals on his behalf. He would end it in a fire, a stage, and a suicide.

Read profile   ↗Dictator and adoptive father

Julius Caesar

12 or 13 July 100 BCE – 15 March 44 BCE

The dictator’s testamentary adoption of his great-nephew Octavian supplied the name, inheritance, and political legitimacy from which Augustus built his position.

Read profile   ↗Father of Augustus

Gaius Octavius

c. 100 BCE – 59 BCE

Gaius Octavius was the biological father of Augustus and Octavia Minor. His marriage to Atia connected their family to the relatives of Julius Caesar.

Read profile   ↗Mother of Augustus

Atia

c. 85 BCE – c. 43 BCE

Atia, a niece of Julius Caesar, was the mother of Augustus and Octavia Minor. She connected the future imperial household to Caesar by biological kinship.

Read profile   ↗Father of Tiberius and Drusus

Tiberius Claudius Nero

c. 85 BCE – 33 BCE

Livia’s first husband was the father of Tiberius and Drusus the Elder. He must be distinguished from both the emperor Tiberius and the much later emperor Nero.

Read profile   ↗General and dynastic father

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

64 or 63 BCE – 12 BCE

Augustus’s close associate and military commander married Julia the Elder. Their five children stood at the centre of Augustus’s plans for the future of his household.

Read profile   ↗Triumvir and dynastic ancestor

Marcus Antonius

83 BCE – 1 August 30 BCE

Marcus Antonius, known in English as Mark Antony, was Augustus’s colleague and later opponent. Through his marriage to Octavia Minor, he became the ancestor of several Julio-Claudian emperors.

Read profile   ↗Sister of Augustus

Octavia Minor

69 BCE – 11 BCE

Octavia was the sister of Augustus, mother of Marcellus, and wife of Marcus Antonius. Her daughters Antonia Major and Antonia Minor carried her family connections into later generations.

Read profile   ↗Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt

Cleopatra VII

69 – 30 BCE

Cleopatra VII ruled Ptolemaic Egypt and allied herself first with Julius Caesar and later with Marcus Antonius. Her children connect the last generation of the Ptolemies to the civil wars from which Augustus emerged.

Read profile   ↗Son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar

Caesarion

47 – 30 BCE

Ptolemy XV Caesar, commonly called Caesarion, was Cleopatra VII’s eldest son and her co-ruler in Egypt. Cleopatra presented Julius Caesar as his father, although Caesar never formally acknowledged or adopted him.

Read profile   ↗Son of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra

Alexander Helios

40 BCE – after 29 BCE

Alexander Helios was the twin son of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra VII. At the Donations of Alexandria he received royal titles over territories that remained largely aspirational; after Actium he was taken to Rome.

Read profile   ↗Daughter of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra

Cleopatra Selene II

40 BCE – c. 5 BCE

Cleopatra Selene II, twin sister of Alexander Helios, survived the fall of her parents. Raised in Octavia Minor’s household, she married Juba II and became queen of Mauretania.

Read profile   ↗Youngest son of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra

Ptolemy Philadelphus

36 BCE – after 29 BCE

Ptolemy Philadelphus was the youngest child of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra VII. He appeared in the Donations of Alexandria and was later brought to Rome after Octavian conquered Egypt.

Read profile   ↗Mother of Germanicus and Claudius

Antonia Minor

31 January 36 BCE – 1 May 37 CE

The daughter of Marcus Antonius and Octavia Minor married Drusus the Elder. Their children included Germanicus, Claudius, and Livilla, making her a central ancestor of the later imperial house.

Read profile   ↗Sister of Germanicus and Claudius

Livilla

c. 13 BCE – 31 CE

Livia Julia, generally known as Livilla, was the younger sister of Germanicus and the future emperor Claudius. Her marriage to Drusus the Younger joined the two principal Claudian branches of the imperial household.

Read profile   ↗Granddaughter of Augustus

Agrippina the Elder

c. 14 BCE – 18 October 33 CE

The daughter of Julia the Elder and Agrippa married Germanicus. Their children included Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla, and Julia Livilla. She linked the direct descendants of Augustus to the Claudian line.

Read profile   ↗Wife of Claudius

Valeria Messalina

c. 17/20 – 48 CE

Claudius’s third wife was the mother of Britannicus and Claudia Octavia. Her execution preceded Claudius’s marriage to Agrippina the Younger and the promotion of Nero.

Read profile   ↗Mother of Nero

Agrippina the Younger

6 November 15 – 23 March 59 CE

Sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, and mother of Nero, Agrippina the Younger occupied an exceptional position in the imperial household.

Read profile   ↗Second wife of Nero

Poppaea Sabina

c. 30 – 65 CE

Poppaea Sabina became Nero’s second wife after Claudia Octavia. Her place in the household belongs to the final generation of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Read profile   ↗Brother of Tiberius

Drusus the Elder

38 BCE – 9 BCE

Nero Claudius Drusus was the younger son of Livia and Tiberius Claudius Nero. His marriage to Antonia Minor joined the Claudian family to the descendants of Octavia and Marcus Antonius.

Read profile   ↗Son of Tiberius

Drusus the Younger

13 BCE – 14 September 23 CE

Drusus Julius Caesar was the biological son of Tiberius and Vipsania Agrippina. His position alongside the adopted Germanicus reveals how biological and adoptive succession could coexist.

Read profile   ↗Commander and adopted heir

Germanicus

15 BCE – 19 CE

The son of Drusus the Elder and Antonia Minor was adopted by Tiberius. A celebrated commander and the father of Caligula, he connected both branches of the imperial family.

Read profile   ↗Eldest surviving son of Germanicus

Nero Caesar

c. 6 – 31 CE

Nero Julius Caesar was a son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. He and his younger brother Drusus Caesar followed closely linked political paths, but they were not twins.

Read profile   ↗Son of Germanicus

Drusus Caesar

c. 8 – 33 CE

Drusus Julius Caesar was a son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder and a younger brother of Nero Caesar. The brothers became victims of the political struggle surrounding Sejanus and the succession to Tiberius.

Read profile   ↗Twin brother of Tiberius Gemellus

Germanicus Gemellus

19 CE – 23 CE

Germanicus Gemellus was one of the twin sons born to Livilla and Drusus the Younger. He was named for his maternal uncle Germanicus and died in early childhood.

Read profile   ↗Adopted grandson of Augustus

Gaius Caesar

20 BCE – 21 February 4 CE

A son of Agrippa and Julia the Elder, Gaius was adopted by Augustus together with his brother Lucius. His early death disrupted the intended succession.

Read profile   ↗Adopted grandson of Augustus

Lucius Caesar

17 BCE – 20 August 2 CE

Like his elder brother Gaius, Lucius was both a biological grandson and an adopted son of Augustus. Neither brother survived to inherit imperial power.

Read profile   ↗Youngest son of Julia and Agrippa

Agrippa Postumus

12 BCE – 20 August 14 CE

The youngest son of Agrippa and Julia the Elder was adopted by Augustus alongside Tiberius. His subsequent exile removed him from the centre of imperial politics.

Read profile   ↗Grandson of Tiberius

Tiberius Gemellus

10 October 19 CE – 37 or 38 CE

A son of Drusus the Younger and Livilla, Gemellus was the biological grandson of Tiberius. His position in the succession was overtaken by Caligula, who adopted him before having him killed.

Read profile   ↗Son of Claudius

Britannicus

12 February 41 CE – 11 February 55 CE

The son of Claudius and Messalina was a biological imperial heir. Claudius’s adoption of Nero created an older rival who ultimately succeeded to the throne.

Read profile   ↗Granddaughter of Augustus

Julia the Younger

19 BCE – c. 28 CE

A daughter of Agrippa and Julia the Elder, she was the sister of Gaius, Lucius, Agrippina the Elder, and Agrippa Postumus. She should not be confused with her mother or with Julia Livilla.

Read profile   ↗Daughter of Claudius and wife of Nero

Claudia Octavia

c. 40 – 9 June 62 CE

The daughter of Claudius and Messalina married Nero. Their marriage linked Claudius’s biological family to his adopted successor; Nero later replaced her with Poppaea Sabina.

Read profile   ↗Sister of Caligula

Julia Livilla

c. 18 – 41 CE

Julia Livilla was a daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, and a sister of Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, and Julia Drusilla. She was distinct from her aunt Livilla, the wife of Drusus the Younger.

Read profile   ↗Sister of Caligula

Julia Drusilla

16 September 16 CE – 10 June 38 CE

Julia Drusilla was a daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. Her siblings belonged to the generation that supplied both Caligula and, through Agrippina the Younger, Nero.

Read profile   ↗Daughter of Claudius

Claudia Antonia

c. 30 – 69 CE

Claudia Antonia was the daughter of Claudius and Aelia Paetina. She was a half-sister of Britannicus and Claudia Octavia.

Read profile   ↗Daughter of Marcus Antonius and Octavia

Antonia Major

Born 39 BCE — death date unknown

The elder daughter of Marcus Antonius and Octavia Minor was the sister of Antonia Minor. Through her son Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, she became Nero’s paternal grandmother.

Read profile   ↗Father of Nero

Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus

c. 17 or 2 BCE – 40 CE

The husband of Agrippina the Younger was Nero’s biological father. His mother Antonia Major connected Nero’s paternal ancestry to Octavia Minor and Marcus Antonius.

Read profile   ↗Third wife of Nero

Statilia Messalina

c. 35 – after 68 CE

Statilia Messalina was Nero’s third wife. She is a different person from Valeria Messalina, the wife of Claudius and mother of Britannicus.

Read profile   ↗
III   ·   READING THE EVIDENCE

History, with perspective.

Ancient accounts preserve invaluable detail—and the prejudices of their authors. Allegations, anecdotes, and literary tributes are not interchangeable with established facts.

The ancient voices

This archive draws on Tacitus’s Annals, Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars, and Cassius Dio’s Roman History for the dynasty’s political history; Virgil’s Aeneid commemorates Marcellus, and Macrobius preserves later stories about Julia. Detailed biographies cite their sources directly; concise identification entries are labelled as drawn from the supplied family inventory.

Tacitus and Suetonius wrote after the dynasty ended; Dio and Macrobius wrote later still. Their political and literary agendas matter, particularly for accounts of poisoning, sexual scandal, and private motives.

Read the full academic bibliography ↗

About this archive, and its name

firstcaesars.com takes its name from a literal fact: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero were the first men to carry the name Caesar as inherited power rather than a family name — before it became a generic imperial title borrowed by rulers who had no blood claim to it at all. But the Caesars were never just five men. This archive follows the family behind them: wives, mothers, rivals, and children, most of whom never ruled anything.

Built from ancient literary sources, archaeology, and modern scholarship, researched and written with AI assistance, for hobbyists, students, and anyone curious about ancient Rome. For the gods these emperors claimed as ancestors, see thegreekandromangods.com ↗. BCE and CE indicate dates before and within the Common Era.

Portrait: Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5. Cropped and colour-treated for display.