DOMVS IVLIO–CLAVDIATHE IMPERIAL FAMILY ARCHIVE
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Sister of Caligula

Julia Livilla

Julia Livilla

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.

Dynastic role
Sister of Caligula
Life
c. 18 – 41 CE
Archive group
Daughters and sisters

The youngest daughter of Germanicus

Julia Livilla was the youngest child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, and a younger sister of Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, and Julia Drusilla. Like her sisters, she received unusual public honours in the early part of Caligula’s reign.

Two exiles

In 39 CE Caligula exiled Livilla, implicating her in a conspiracy connected to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, her sister Agrippina’s alleged lover. Claudius recalled her after his accession in 41 CE, but she was exiled again — and put to death — later that same year, reportedly at the instigation of Messalina, who saw her as a rival for Claudius’s attention. No surviving portrait is confidently identified as her.

Historical sources

Cassius Dio, Roman History 59.22; 60.8
Livilla’s first exile under Caligula and her death under Claudius.

Suetonius, Claudius 29
Messalina’s role in securing Livilla’s downfall.

About the sources and further reading