Julio-Claudian Dynasty - Relationships Between The Rulers

Relationships Between The Rulers

The great-uncle /great-nephew blood relationship and/or adopted son relationship was commonly found between the rulers of Julio-Claudian dynasty.

1. Augustus was the great-nephew of Julius Caesar and his posthumously adopted son.
2. Caligula was the great-nephew of Tiberius and his adopted son.
3. Claudius was the great-nephew of Augustus (Claudius was the only one of the five rulers to not be adopted).
4. Nero was the great-nephew of Claudius and his adopted son.

The other recurring relationship between emperor and successor is that of stepfather/stepson, a relationship not by blood but by marriage:

1. Tiberius was Augustus's stepson, because Tiberius's mother Livia Drusilla married Augustus as her third husband (Tiberius and Drusus were Livia's only natural children by her first marriage to Tiberius Claudius Nero (praetor 42 BC)).
2. Nero, as well as being Claudius's great-nephew, was also his stepson, because Nero's mother Agrippina the Younger was Claudius's niece and fourth wife.

The uncle/nephew relationship also is prominent:

1. Tiberius was Claudius's paternal uncle
2. Claudius was Caligula's paternal uncle
3. Caligula was Nero's maternal uncle

No Julio-Claudian emperor was a blood descendant of his immediate predecessor. Although Tiberius and Claudius had male direct descendants (Tiberius Gemellus and Britannicus, respectively) available for the succession, their great-nephews (Caligula and Nero, respectively) were preferred.

The fact that ordinary father-son (or grandfather-grandson) succession did not occur has contributed to the image of the Julio-Claudian court presented in Robert Graves's I, Claudius, a dangerous world where scheming family members were all too ready to murder the direct heirs so as to bring themselves, their own immediate families, or their lovers closer to the succession.