The succession problem under Augustus, including the candidates (Marcellus, Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius, Agrippa Postumus), the role of Livia, and the death of Augustus in AD 14

What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to describe Augustus's succession problem: the absence of a biological son, the succession of candidates (Marcellus, Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius, Agrippa Postumus), their fates, the role of Livia, the smooth transition on Augustus's death in AD 14, and the foundation of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

The answer

The succession problem

Augustus had no biological son. His only biological child was Julia (born 39 BC, by his first wife Scribonia). The principate had no formal hereditary basis: the title "princeps" was personal, not hereditary, and Augustus's accumulated constitutional powers (tribunicia potestas, maius imperium proconsulare, the auctoritas) were granted to him individually by the senate.

The succession therefore depended on Augustus's choice of heir, validated by the army's loyalty and the senate's confirmation. Throughout the reign, Augustus prepared multiple candidates, each in turn cut short by death.

Marcellus (died 23 BC)

Marcus Claudius Marcellus, son of Augustus's sister Octavia. Married Julia in 25 BC. Held the aedileship in 23 BC. Augustus appeared to prepare him for the succession.

Marcellus died of illness later in 23 BC, possibly during the same crisis that triggered the Second Settlement. He was around 19. Virgil's Aeneid 6 includes the famous elegy ("Heu miserande puer..."), recited to Augustus and Octavia. Suetonius (Divus Augustus 63) records the political shock.

Agrippa (died 12 BC)

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Augustus's closest associate from his earliest days. Admiral at Actium (31 BC), architect of the Pantheon (25 BC), and builder of much of Augustan Rome. Married to Julia after Marcellus's death (in 21 BC).

Agrippa and Julia produced five children:

• Gaius Caesar (born 20 BC)
• Lucius Caesar (born 17 BC)
• Julia the Younger
• Agrippina the Elder (mother of the emperor Caligula)
• Agrippa Postumus (born 12 BC, posthumously)

In 18 BC Agrippa was granted tribunicia potestas and (later) maius imperium proconsulare. He was effectively co-ruler. He died suddenly in 12 BC, of unknown cause.

Gaius and Lucius Caesar (adopted 17 BC, died AD 4 and AD 2)

Augustus adopted his two eldest grandsons (sons of Agrippa and Julia) as his own sons in 17 BC. The adoption made them Gaius Julius Caesar and Lucius Julius Caesar, principes iuventutis ("leaders of the youth").

The two were intensively prepared. They were trained in military command, given precocious offices, and presented in propaganda as the heirs apparent. Gaius was sent on an Eastern mission (negotiating with Parthia, recovering Armenia); Lucius was sent to Spain.

Lucius died at Massilia (Marseilles) on the way to Spain in AD 2, aged 19. Gaius died at Limyra in Lycia in AD 4, aged 23, from wounds received in Armenia.

Tacitus (Annals 1.3) and other ancient sources speak of suspicion that Livia engineered both deaths to clear the way for her son Tiberius. The poison narrative is not credible as evidence but reflects later Roman gossip.

Tiberius (adopted AD 4)

Tiberius Claudius Nero, Augustus's stepson, son of Livia by her first husband (Tiberius Claudius Nero the Elder). A successful general in Germany and the Balkans. Married Julia after Agrippa's death (an unhappy match). The marriage produced one child, a son who died in infancy.

Tiberius retired to Rhodes in 6 BC, partly because of marital unhappiness, partly (it seems) because he had been passed over for the young Caesars. He remained on Rhodes for several years.

After the deaths of Gaius and Lucius, Augustus recalled Tiberius and adopted him in AD 4. The adoption was a political necessity: Tiberius was the only mature, militarily competent candidate left. Augustus also required Tiberius to adopt his nephew Germanicus (son of Drusus the Elder and Antonia), securing the next generation.

Tiberius received tribunicia potestas (renewed annually until Augustus's death) and proconsular imperium. He effectively co-ruled the empire from AD 4.

Agrippa Postumus

The youngest son of Agrippa and Julia, born after his father's death in 12 BC. Adopted by Augustus alongside Tiberius in AD 4. The two adoptions, taken together, were a hedge: Tiberius as adult heir, Agrippa Postumus as eventual successor or backup.

Agrippa Postumus was disinherited and exiled to the island of Planasia in AD 7, reportedly for violent and unstable behaviour. Modern historians cannot determine the exact cause from the sources.

Agrippa Postumus was murdered shortly after Augustus's death in AD 14, almost certainly on the orders of Tiberius or Livia. Tacitus (Annals 1.6) records the murder and the rumour that Augustus had visited Agrippa on Planasia shortly before his death, suggesting a possible reconciliation that Livia prevented from materialising. The historicity is disputed.

Livia's role

Livia Drusilla (later Julia Augusta) was Augustus's second wife from 38 BC. Her two sons by her first husband (Tiberius and Drusus the Elder) became important figures.

Tacitus (Annals 1.3 to 1.5) presents Livia as a scheming figure who engineered the succession of her son. He hints at her involvement in the deaths of Marcellus, Gaius, and Lucius (though the language is rhetorical and not direct accusation). The poisoning narrative is unlikely as evidence but reflects later Roman attitudes.

What is certain is that Livia had substantial influence with Augustus over five decades of marriage. After Augustus's death she was given the title Julia Augusta (under his will) and remained politically significant under Tiberius until her own death in AD 29.

The death of Augustus (19 August AD 14)

Augustus died at Nola in Campania on 19 August AD 14, aged 75. He had been ill for some time. His last words, according to Suetonius (Divus Augustus 99), were a request to those at his deathbed to "applaud, since I have played my part well in the comedy of life" (a quotation from Greek theatre).

The transition to Tiberius was smooth. Tiberius was already in possession of tribunicia potestas and proconsular imperium. The senate confirmed his powers; the army swore the oath of loyalty.

Tacitus (Annals 1.1) opens his history with the death of Augustus and the cool observation that the new political form had now lasted long enough that few remembered the Republic.

Posthumous honours

Augustus was declared divus (a god) by the senate. Livia (now Julia Augusta) and her grandson Drusus the Younger oversaw the funeral. The Mausoleum of Augustus received his ashes. The Res Gestae was inscribed at the entrance.

The temple of Divus Augustus was begun by Tiberius and dedicated by Caligula.

Augustan succession at a glance

Historiography

Adrian Goldsworthy (Augustus, 2014) treats the succession as the unresolved problem of the reign: Augustus tried multiple candidates and settled on Tiberius only by default.

Werner Eck (The Age of Augustus, 2003) emphasises the smooth transition in AD 14 as evidence of the institutional success of the principate.

Anthony Barrett (Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome, 2002) rehabilitates Livia against the Tacitean caricature.

Ronald Syme (The Roman Revolution, 1939) treats the succession crisis as the structural problem of the principate: a personal regime without hereditary legitimacy.

How to read a source on this topic

Section IV sources on the succession typically include extracts from Tacitus's Annals 1.1 to 1.6, Suetonius's Lives of Augustus and Tiberius, the Res Gestae, or coinage celebrating the various heirs. Three reading habits.

First, distinguish ancient gossip from evidence. Tacitus's hints at Livia's poisonings are rhetorical, not documentary. Don't treat them as established fact.

Second, watch the propaganda evolution. Coinage and statues celebrating Gaius and Lucius are different from those of Tiberius. The propaganda follows the candidates.

Third, integrate with the wider political structures. The succession problem is the structural weakness of the principate (Syme). The smooth AD 14 transition is the institutional success (Eck). Both readings are available.

Common exam traps

Treating Livia as straightforwardly a poisoner. Tacitus is rhetorical. Barrett's rehabilitation is now the more careful view.

Forgetting Agrippa. He was a serious co-ruler in the late 20s and 10s BC.

Missing Agrippa Postumus's murder. It is the first political act of Tiberius's reign and routinely tested.

Confusing the two Drususes. Drusus the Elder (Tiberius's brother, died 9 BC in Germany). Drusus the Younger (Tiberius's son).

In one sentence

Augustus's succession was the unresolved structural problem of the principate: with no biological son, he tried Marcellus (died 23 BC), Agrippa (died 12 BC), his adopted grandsons Gaius and Lucius Caesar (died AD 4 and AD 2), and finally his stepson Tiberius (adopted AD 4), with Livia exerting steady influence and Agrippa Postumus (also adopted AD 4 but exiled AD 7 and killed AD 14) serving as a hedge, in a sequence that Goldsworthy treats as the unresolved problem of the reign and Eck reads as ultimately producing a smooth institutional transition on Augustus's death at Nola on 19 August AD 14, founding the Julio-Claudian dynasty.