Life
Named after her late aunt and her father's favorite sister, Julia Drusilla, Julia was born not long after Caligula married Caesonia (some sources have her being born on the same day as the marriage). The date of her parents' marriage has not been determined for sure, but it is known that it was sometime in the summer of AD 39. When Drusilla, as the child was called, was born, Caligula took her to a temple that housed statues of goddesses and placed her on the lap of Minerva, instructing the goddess to nurse and train his new daughter. The reason of Caligula's hasted marriage with the neither young nor beautiful Milonia Caesonia was the purported illegitimacy of his daughter: should Caligula marry his daughter's mother, the child would become his heir.
The order of events suggests that he did not want to marry until a child of his had already been born, a child who would be the purpose of the union. Soon after her birth, Caligula set up donation boxes around Rome marked "Julia's Drink" or "Julia's Food". According to the ancient historian Suetonius, Caligula believed that Minerva would supervise his daughter's growth and education. Suetonius further claims that " considered as his own child for no better reason than her savage temper, which was such even in her infancy, that she would attack with her nails the face and eyes of the children at play with her."
Read more about this topic: Julia Drusilla (daughter Of Caligula)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of turns, achievements, disappointments, surprises, and crises is a life full of landmarks. The empty life has even its few details blurred, and cannot be remembered with certainty.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“I have given the best of myself and the best work of my life to help obtain political freedom for women, knowing that upon this rests the hope not only of the freedom of men but of the onward civilization of the world.”
—Mary S. Anthony (1827–1907)
“The spring is here, young and beautiful as ever, and absolutely shocking in its display of reckless maternity; but the Judas tree will bloom for you on the Bosphorus if you get there in time. No one ever loved the dog-wood and Judas tree as I have done, and it is my one crown of life to be sure that I am going to take them with me to heaven to enjoy real happiness with the Virgin and them.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)