Book II: Lucius
I. The clan of the Vipsanii was one of plebeian nature, and had only risen within the period following the Social War. The grandfather of the Caesar Lucius, Lucius Vipsanius the Elder, was of Pisa, though his family itself was Venetii in nature, and little has been said or written of him, or if there was any it has been lost to time. His family was of a decent albeit minor stature, and he one of the many New Men that had risen as a result of the Social War. Lucius the Elder had borne 3 children with his wife by the time of his death, in order, Lucius Vipsanius the Younger, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and Vipsania Polla.
The family would continue to rise up in status, and by the time of the First Civil War, the younger Lucius chose to side with the faction of Pompey. Lucius the Younger would be captured and pardoned after the Pompeian defeat at Pharsalus, however he would immediately turn disregard his clemency, and instead joined Cato the Younger in Africa. After the defeat of the Pompeians at Thapsus, Lucius was once again taken as prisoner, and was considered for execution.
II. It should be noted that the younger brother of Lucius, Marcus Agrippa, was a schoolmate of Gaius Octavius, the great-nephew and future heir of Julius Caesar, and the two had become brothers over the years. When word reached Marcus of his brother’s imprisonment, he begged Octavius to have his brother pardoned by Julius, and Octavius obliged him. The young Octavius asked his uncle to pardon Lucius Vipsanius, which he did, and this endeared the boy to him further and what was, in my belief, what pushed Julius Caesar towards accepting the young Octavius as his heir. As for Agrippa, in thanks for this pardon, he became Octavius’ undying follower, and the future Caesar’s key to victory in the Civil Wars to come.
Much of Marcus’s time spent following Caesar Augustus has already been detailed, and as such shall be skipped ahead of. It was in [21 BC] that Augustus married Agrippa to his daughter Julia. While married they had 4 children, Gaius, Julia, Lucius, and Agrippina, while after Agrippa’s death Julia would have one son, Agrippa Postumus. Lucius himself was born on the 6th day before the Ides of March in the year of [17 BC]. His older brother Gaius was born 3 years before in the year of [20 BC]. The location of his birth is unclear, though according to certain sources he was born in Samos as his father was serving in the East at the time of his birth. Others proclaim that he was born in Rome or Naples, and more distrustworthy men proclaim he was born in Velitrae like his grandfather.
III. Both Gaius and Lucius were adopted by their grandfather shortly after their births in an almost ceremonial sale by their father, and were taken to Rome. There the brothers were put under the guardianship of Augustus, who made sure to afford them as best of an education as he could. As previously mentioned, he taught the boys how to read, write, swim, and even educated them personally to ensure that they were properly fit to rule. The young Caesar also grew up alongside both Germanicus and Claudius the Elder [1], the latter of whom would become one of Lucius’s closest confidants, and the most reputable source for this work. According to the pagan sources of more unscrupulous times, their childhood was also frequently marked with omens, as when their grandfather made them sacrifice a bird each at the Temple of Apollo, the bird of Gaius had entrails in a dark color, similar to that of obsidian, while Lucius’ bird had healthy entrails. The pagan priests declared later on this omen foreshadowed the early death of Gaius and the long reign of Lucius, however Augustus was said to had any augurs who attempted to tell him the meaning of this omen silenced and threatened their own lives. In my own opinion this is likely apocryphal, as no simple entrails can predict the life God dictates in a man. In Gaius’ 20th year he assumed the consulship alongside his brother-in-law Lucius Aemilius Lepidus. A year after his consulship, Augustus sent his grandsons off for military training, with Gaius going to Syria and Armenia, while Lucius was sent to Hispania.
IV. While on his way towards Hispania, Lucius fell deathly ill with a disease. Many make the accusation that Livia had poisoned him as she did Marcellus, and this is a fine accusation. But whatever the case, Lucius’s life was held in the balance as he laid near death in Massalia. Augustus himself held public sacrifices across Rome in an attempt to appease the gods into protecting his son, and he had the Senate sacrifice alongside him. However none of these practices worked and he continued to succumb to his illness, until he was raised again by the actions of a Gaulish physician, who treated his sickness with the utmost care and used the odd method of ice baths to banish his fever. As such Lucius did recover by the new year in [3 AD]. He did continue onwards to Spain, where he fought against the hill tribes of the northern region, who had continued to resist Roman rule.
It was in this same year that his brother Gaius received a wound while campaigning in Armenia. While at first the wound was only a minor nuisance, he eventually felt himself succumbing to an infection. By the middle part of the year he had officially renounced his command and sent word to his grandfather, retiring as a private citizen. The wound itself reportedly warped his mind, and became unfit for office, falling into long bouts of unbridled depression and raging fear. Augustus attempted to convince him to return home, but the young Gaius refused and died on the kalends of May in Lycia the very next year. The Emperor is said to have wept for days, and proclaimed “To save one son I have lost another!”.
V. Lucius spent the rest of [4 AD] in Hispania before returning to Rome. The very next year Lucius was elected as consul and served a full term alongside Lucius Valerius Messalla. Afterwards he was assigned to Illyricum and fought in the Pannonian Revolt alongside his step-brother Tiberius Nero the Elder. It was also in the year of his consulship that he married Julia Livilla, daughter of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor. She had been previously married to Gaius, however due to the young man’s death Augustus sought to marry her off to Lucius to keep his plans intact. The marriage between the two was deeply unhappy, and both had grown to despise one another throughout their time. They only had two children, Gaius a year after his consulship was assumed, who died of a fever in his second year, and Tiberius in [10 AD], named after his father’s comrade Tiberius Claudius the Elder, the son of Germanicus. In the same time of his consulship Augustus also adopted the last son of Agrippa, Marcus Agrippa Postumus, as his own son. The young Agrippa would be neither like his father nor his brothers, as he acted cruelly and with impudence, being banished to Planasia [2] as punishment.
VI. After the Pannonian Revolt was defeated, Lucius was awarded a Triumph by the Senate, and many thought to give him the name Pannonicus or Invictus, however Augustus denied him this honor, claiming that he would have enough honors when he inherited his father’s titles and offices. Lucius denied himself the triumph, as only shortly before his set date the legion of Publius Quinctilius Varus was ambushed and killed by the Cherusci. While the majority of the army had avoided the ambush thanks to the presence of Germanicus, the loss of the Legion and its Eagle Standard caused great sadness among the people of Rome, and it was felt to be in bad taste that Lucius would hold a Triumph so shortly after.
He would then go on to serve in Germany, working alongside Germanicus in establishing Roman authority in Germania Magna. While he would spend the year in the north, he was recalled to Rome by his father, who had him invested with the powers of the Caesars and acting as his own subordinate Caesar. He spent the remainder of Augustus’s lifetime in Italy, managing his affairs and awaiting for his father’s passing and for him to succeed him as Caesar.
VII. The descriptions of Lucius often portray him as a handsome man within his youth, having dark brown hair and a defined face. He had a tall and large frame, though in his age he would begin to shrink down to a more humbled form and lost much of his weight. The Caesar possessed a deep voice as well, and great oratory skill, having imposed himself with the grace of his grandfather upon the Senate and people of Rome. Many have made the claim that in his period of co-rulership with his grandfather, Lucius’ lecherous tendencies began to manifest themselves, and not without reason. He had many mistresses, of both plebeian and patrician stock, and frequently seduced the wives of senators. The number of bastards he sired is unknown to me, however some up the estimate to 5 or 6, with the most outlandish claiming he had 23 bastard sons. Claudius the Elder makes no mention of bastards, however he does note how Lucius in his early years held a relationship with one Aemilia Lepida, who would later marry the general Servius Galba. There are no legitimate reports of pedeastery, but there are some unscrupulous men who claim that he took his share of young men as he did young women.
VIII. It was in [14 AD] that the revered Augustus would pass on of an illness, likely caused by his own wife. Only 4 days after interring his father’s ashes in his Mausoleum was Lucius proclaimed by the Senate. He took the titles of Princeps, Pater Patriae, Imperator, and Augustus, and the Civic Crown was placed upon his head by a troupe of Senators. His only major reform of that year was to put the Praetorian Guard under the command of Lucius Aelius Sejanus, and allowing Claudius the Elder to enter the Cursus Honorum.
Promptly afterwards, in the next year, Lucius was invested with his second Consulship, and went north to the Rhine in order to lead a campaign of revenge against the Germans.
While his wars were successful, he slowly grew distrusting of the highly popular Germanicus, who had also gained victories in the war against the German tribes. He was fed this distrust by Sejanus, with whom he frequently communicated during his time along the Rhine. He grew contempt for the rising general, and even considered having him killed, though Claudius had managed to persuade him otherwise.
IX. Instead he sent Germanicus off to Rome to serve a Consulship in [18 AD], with him being sent off the next year to govern the Orient. Germanicus died the very next year in Antioch, after suffering a short and suspicious illness. Many have chosen to blame Lucius for this action, however no reputable source chooses this explanation, and rather the only person truly blamed by them for poisoning is Gnaeus Piso. Germanicus was still awarded a state funeral by Lucius, and his son Nero was allowed to enter the Cursus Honorum, alongside his cousin Drusus the Younger, the son of Tiberius Nero. The generosity of Lucius in my opinion disabuses the notion that he may have poisoned his own cousin, as he did take both Drusus and Gaius Germanicus to be raised in his own household. A proper source proclaims that, after Lucius heard of the death of Germanicus, he blamed himself for removing his own cousin and leaving him to die at the hands of cruel enemies and chose to adopt both Drusus and Gaius as repentance for his own betrayal. Gnaeus Piso as well was set to be tried publicly, however before he could be the people of Rome overwhelmed the transport carrying him to court and tore him to shreds, punishment for murdering their beloved Germanicus.
X. Despite the Roman affirmation of dominance beyond the Rhine, Lucius chose not to leave the frontier, claiming to the Senate that he still had to pacify Germania Magna, and asking them to make the newly conquered territories their own provinces, that of Boihaemia and Germania Magna. While the Senate itself was weary of this prospect, they were pushed into accepting by Sejanus, who himself grew more and more powerful as a result of the Emperor’s distance from Rome. In this time Sejanus also grew close with the Emperor’s wife, Livilla, who had remained in Rome along with their son Tiberius. They frequently engaged in adulterous actions, and they even made plans to take the Empire for themselves. Lucius, while spending his time in the city of Colonia Agrippinensium, also fell into an adulterous romance, this time with Agrippina Cassia. She was the daughter of a local Gallic noble, and had a reportedly unparalleled level of physical beauty. While under her trance the Emperor remained in the city, and even renamed it in honor of her, hence it becoming Colonia Agrippinensium, however the official reason the Caesar gave was that it had been chosen in honor of his sister, Agrippina the Elder. He has been said to have constructed a palace there, and to have had frequent drunken parties. He led a debauched lifestyle and seemed to have forgotten about his own duties in Rome for the time, being seduced by both the prospects of a Germanic conquest and his own mistress.
XI. Although Sejanus and Livilla plotted to take over for themselves, they found staunch opposition in the forms of Nero Germanicus and Drusus the Younger. Both refused to bend to the will of the two, and instead attempted to uphold the rule of the Caesar by resisting Sejanus’s influence and organizing opposition to his rule. In the very same year of Nero’s Consulship [23 AD], Drusus died under unclear circumstances. Many make the claim that Sejanus was the one who killed him through poison, and this is an accurate assessment to make, as the two had been known to hold a deep seated rivalry between one another. Drusus the Younger did have one son, a young Tiberius Gemellus, who was taken in and raised by Nero after his father’s death. In the very same year the young Tiberius Caesar was also recalled to Rome and taken out of the grasp of his mother, who had wished to use him as a puppet to secure power for herself and her lover. Without their key to power, both attempted to look for other ways to seize legitimate control. While they did attempt to convince the ancient Tiberius Nero to assist them, he was much to elderly and had chosen to completely isolate himself on the island of Capraea [3].
As such they turned to the young and exiled Agrippa Postumus. While they never made their move openly, they made arrangements so that Agrippa would be transported to Rome once they had their plan in order, and they purged the Senate of many who had attempted to oppose them. By [26 AD], they were on the verge of a revolution against the rule of Lucius, however their correspondence was leaked and their whole plot together made openly known to both the people of Rome and to the Caesar. When he heard the news of his wife’s adultery, he simply replied “I would only be surprised had she not slept with another”.
XII. Sejanus was shortly thereafter executed on orders of Lucius, with Nero personally strangling him and his sons on the Gemonian Stairs and their bodies being cast down the Steps. Livilla was formally divorced from Lucius and received as her official punishment forced starvation, being locked in her apartment with the only one to hear her cries being her grandmother Antonia Minor. The memories of both traitors were damned, their names struck from official records and their statues destroyed. A purge was then enacted upon the Senate, cleansing it of those who had shown any sign of loyalty to Sejanus over their Emperor during the period. Many historians choose to look down upon Lucius for this action, however I am of the belief that many chose to slander him afterwards, looking to support their own agendas.
Despite the executions of Sejanus and Livilla, Agrippa Postumus had managed to escape from his exile within Planasia, avoiding Rome and instead turning towards Sicily. Postumus attempted to stir a revolution within Sicily for his own gain, inciting the flames of the aristocracy into open rebellion against Lucius, as the local gentry upon the island held a deep rooted dislike for the Emperorship in general, and especially that of Lucius and his focus in the northern reaches rather than on their spoiled senses. The rebellion of Postumus took hold across Africa Proconsularis and Bruttium [4], as he managed to flip 2 legions upon his own side, and raised one more. As has been said before, Postumus was not a man of tactics nor of patience, instead his hotheaded personality drove the young man to push directly upon Rome, thinking he could dislodge his brother from power. His rash plan was of course, very swiftly defeated by the forces of Lucius, with many surrendering and returning to the cause of Lucius to preserve their own lives and wealth. Postumus fled once more, only making it to Thurii before the armies of Lucius had him surrounded. The Caesar had given direct orders for his brother to be brought to Rome unharmed and alive, however Postumus resisted to the point where the Legionaries saw it more fit to kill him than to take him in. When Lucius heard news of his brother’s death, he reportedly said “Woe for my brother, and woe for me, the last of our brood.”[5]. He had those who murdered Postumus crucified along the Via Appia, and gave his brother a state funeral, though his ashes were not interned in the Mausoleum of Augustus.
XIII. Almost a month after the death of Livilla, Lucius remarried once more, this time to his long time mistress Agrippina. Together they had no recorded legitimate children, though I have found many who have made the claim that they did sire a daughter while in Colonia Agrippinensium and that this daughter had progeny, however these sources are apocryphal and date back to the days of the numerous usurpers, when they wished to establish their own legitimacy.
Nevertheless, the decade after the failed usurpation by Sejanus would be marked by relative peace and security, as the remaining soldiers in Germania had managed to subdue the remaining tribes and force the tribes of the region to accept Germanic overlordship, establishing the now renowned city of Augusta Chassalla [6] along a tributary of the Veserus [7] and establishing client kingdoms as far as the Albis [8]. In Rome itself, the political order would only be interrupted with the youngest son of Germanicus, Gaius, becoming an adult. Despite the level of competence set by his family, Gaius was a brash and callous young man, with no regard for authority upon any level. He treated others cruelly and despite the attempts made by his adoptive father, Lucius, to rear him correctly, Gaius would prove a difficult man to properly raise. By the time of his 25th year in [37 AD], he was allowed to enter the Cursus Honorum, and from there he caused a great ruckus. Though he was elected to Quaestor and later Aedile, he often made a mockery of not only those men in the Senate but of all around him. While the plebeians loved the public games he threw, and how he did not act in the manner of the upper Patricians, many within the Senate grew to despise him. During his tenure as a Senator he frequently insulted his comrades upon the floor of the Curia, especially during debates, and he showed no regard for the political formalities of the state. It was said that after a Senate meeting where he was publicly rebuked by a senator, Gaius met him on the streets of home with his own personal guard, and threatened the man’s own life as a form of cruel revenge. Later men like Seneca the Younger and the freedmen of Gaius would write upon how he treated his own slaves as dogs and beat them whenever he saw fit. However the most notable scandal came in the year of [40 AD], as he was found to be carrying on multiple affairs with his own sisters, Julia Livilla and Agrippina the Younger.
When news of this scandal became apparent, the Senate pushed Lucius into forcefully banishing his adoptive son as well as his sisters, sending them off to Melita [9] and Ephesus respectively. Gaius would die only a year later, and while official records proclaim that it was the cause of a fever, I and many are inclined to believe that this was upon orders of the Senate, seeking to rid the man of whom they despised the most.
XIV. While Rome was seemingly stable afterwards, the internal system seemed to have been coming down upon the Emperor. With a newly resurgent Senate and his own power being undermined and pulled around on multiple occasions, he truly seemed weaker than ever. The possibility of a revolution that could remove the Emperor seemed imminent, as the loyalty of the Legions slowly began to wane. As a result, under the advice of Claudius the Elder, Lucius made one more move to secure his life and his power, annexing the Kingdom of Thracia and launching an invasion of Britannia.
XV. Long had the island been under the rule of barbarian chiefs, and despite the attempts by Julius Caesar to civilize the island, it fell to Lucius to finish the job. In [41 AD], he invaded with the force of 4 whole legions, landing in the south of the isle and leading his men to victory there. Both Claudius the Elder and a young general by the name of Vespasian would prove themselves alongside the Emperor, securing dominance throughout the southern regions and allowing for colonies to be established, such as the city of Camulodunum [10].
From there the firm grasp upon the island had been formed and Lucius had seemed like a true marvel, for in those days most men believed that the island was the edge of the world and the gates of Hades, and in seeing it’s conquest by the Emperor their faith within him rose once again. When he returned to Rome he was granted a triumph by the Senate, and took it with pride, riding through the streets and displaying the captured gold and slaves alongside his soldiers. The people and the Senate of Rome acclaimed him so much, they saw it fit to grant him the title “Britannicus” in honor of his deeds, though after his death he would pass it on to his companion Claudius rather than to his own son.
XVI. After his conquest of Britannia and his triumph in the city, the remainder of Lucius’ reign was spent in peace and quiet, with the state continuing to thrive. He affirmed the succession of his son, granting him the consulship twice over as well as sending him off to govern provinces. After the death of Ptolemy, King of Mauretania, he had the province annexed as well, and his soldiers put down an attempted revolt by one of the King’s freedmen, Aedemon. Lucius would serve only one more consulship, alongside his son, and increasingly spent his time upon his private villa in Capraea. There he had the home of the long since deceased Tiberius rebuilt and refurbished into the highly luxurious Villa Jovis, which still stands to this day upon that island. Even in his old age did his salacious actions continue, as he had whole throngs of women who would remain around the palace, tending to his needs, both in the sense of a servant and in that of a prostitute.
XVII. After Thirty-seven years, Six months, and Fifteen days, the Emperor Lucius died in his villa on Capraea. His body was then cremated upon the island and his ashes carried on a march from Misenium to Rome, and the eulogy was given twice, with both Tiberius Caesar and Drusus Germanicus giving their speeches from the rostra. Many senators vied to give him honors, hoping to win favor from Tiberius in a sycophantic manner. One proposed that the month of September be renamed after Lucius, as the months of August and July had been for his own predecessors. Some said that no golden rings should be worn during the days after the ceremony, and that only those of iron should be allowed. Most of these attempts at flattery were not passed, and instead they simply had him deified in the manner of his forbearers, and a temple for him constructed upon the Campus Martius. Within his will he produced as his primary heir Tiberius Caesar who took upon his name and the majority of his wealth, and to a second degree Drusus Germanicus and Nero Germanicus, who took a quarter of his fortune between them, and to a lesser degree other family members as well as the citizens of Rome.
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[1] THE Claudius, the one who was an OTL Emperor
[2] IOTL island of Pianosa in Italy, close to Elba
[3] IOTL Capri
[4] IOTL Calabria
[5] Agrippina the Elder still died shortly before this, her death is unrecorded and the date unknown
[6] IOTL Kassel
[7] A made up Latin name for the Weser, couldn't find out what they actually used for it
[8] IOTL Elbe
[9] IOTL Malta
[10] IOTL Colchester
Brackets are put around the year as in contemporary texts people use regnal years/consular years rather than the Anno Domini system, as by the 9th century it was still catching on.