148 WIVES OF THE C.ESARS. 



an indifferent, perhaps a welcome, casualty. She was, however, 

 destined to a short enjoyment of her widowhood. Augustus speedily 

 resolved on the marriage of his daughter ; he deliberated, as before, 

 on the selection of her future husband ; at one time his preference 

 rested on the order of the senators ; at another on the order of the 

 knights. He seriously thought of Proculeius, the brother of Mu- 

 raena and Terentia.* He eventually decided in favour of Tiberius, 

 Livia's son. If this distinction flattered his ambition, it utterly sub- 

 verted his domestic happiness. His placid union with Vipsania or 

 Agrippinat had already been productive of a son ; she was pregnant 

 for the second time, when Caesar's policy compelled him to abjure 

 the bonds of an auspicious marriage. The anguish of Tiberius, at 

 his separation from his virtuous consort, was aggravated by his per- 

 sonal experience of Julia's immorality^ He bitterly lamented 

 Agrippina after her divorce ; and such was his intense emotion once, 

 on seeing her by chance, that strict precautions were observed in 

 future to prevent the pain and peril of their meeting. But the 

 mandate of the Emperor was paramount to the suggestions of con- 

 jugal affection ; and Tiberius, privy to the vicious character of Julia, 

 whose concessions he had shared, divorced a wife of unimpeachable 

 fidelity to wed a harlot, who had vulgarly defiled the bed of two 

 illustrious husbands, and had stained the glory of the Ceesars with 

 notorious and indelible disgrace. The immediate sequel of their 

 marriage excited the most flattering expectations in Augustus and the 

 people. Apparent confidence and concord implied the mutual satis- 

 faction of Julia and Tiberius ; but the general hope was shortly 

 blasted by the abrupt suspicions of the latter, which Julia, far from 

 striving to dispel, sustained with supercilious indifference. She 

 found in her severe and gloomy husband an unwelcome check upon 

 her freedom, and affected to despise him as an unworthy partner of 

 her bed. Their domestic disagreements were awhile withheld from 

 public knowledge ; their cause was carefully suppressed in delicate 

 consideration of their infant son, whose death, however, soon dis- 

 solved their mutual interest, when the veil of decency was rent, 

 which shrouded their antipathy, and placed it palpably before 

 the eager speculation of the public. Julia, in the paroxysms of her 

 disgust, embittered the condition of Tiberius by deep humiliation ; 

 she added contumely to inconstancy ; she even published the dis- 



* " Mullis, ac diu, etiam ex equestri ordine, circumspectis conditionibus, 

 Tiberium privignuni suum elegit ; coegitq. prsegnantem uxorem, et ex qua jam 

 pater erat dimittere. 'Sueton. in August. 



f Suetonius calls her Agrippina ; Tacitus calls her Vipsania ; both are cor- 

 rect, as she not only bore the name but the cognomen of her father. After her 

 divorce, she married Asinius Gallus, the son of Asinius Poilio. u Notandum 

 vero quod Agrippinam vocat Suetonius quam Tacitus Vipsaniam, ut eadem 

 patris non nomen tantum sed et cognomen tulerit. Post Tiberium Asinio Gallo, 

 Asinii Pollionis filio, nupsit." Comm. in Sueton, Agrippina was the daughter 

 of Agrippa, and the grand-daughter of Csecilius Pomponius, called Atticus from 

 his residence at Athens. " Nomen Attici perire, Ciceronis epistolae non si- 

 nunt," says Seneca, Epist. 21. 



^ " Sed Agrippinam et abegisse post divortium doluit ; et semel omnino ex 

 occursu visam, adeo'contentis ettumentibus oculis prosecutus est ut custoditum 

 sit, neumquam in conspectum ejus posthac veniret." Sueton. in Tib. 



