(2) Iulia the elder (no issue by this marriage).
(iii) C. Caesar (Caligula), grandson of Iulia the elder; m. Caesonia, and had issue, a daughter, murdered with her father.
(iv) Ti. Claudius Caesar, m. (1) Plautia Urgulanilla. (2) Aelia Paetina, by whom he had issue, a daughter, Claudia Antonia, who survived him. (3) Valeria Messalina, by whom he had issue, Octavia and Britannicus. (4) Agrippina the younger, mother by a former husband, Cn. Domitius, of
(v) L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (Nero Claudius Caesar) m. (1) Octavia. (2) Poppaea, died without surviving issue; last of the line.[1]
Here then we have a number of successors to the throne who count their descent from members of the imperial house through women; and one legitimate patrilinear candidate at least, Britannicus, set aside and murdered. But of matrilinear descent proper we have not a trace. Augustus was succeeded by his adopted son,[2] all his attempts to find a more direct successor having failed owing to premature deaths. Claudius, in his senility, was beguiled by Agrippina into adopting her son and giving him the priority over his own, who was murdered by Nero while still legally a minor; Caligula had no heirs male, and his unpopularity sealed his little daughter's fate; and the only direct male descendant of Tiberius, Ti. Gemellus, his grandson, was murdered by his co-heir Caligula. We have here much intrigue and counter-intrigue, together with recognition of kinship through the mother as well as (not to the exclusion of) the father, but nothing against ordinary patrilinear rules of succession.
- ↑ The pedigree may be conveniently studied in Furneaux's larger edition of Tacitus, Annales, vol. i. pp. 161 sqq.
- ↑ It is inaccurate to speak of succession to the principate; theoretically each new emperor was elected, the choice of the senate being governed normally by the express wishes of the late emperor and his choice of an heir to his private fortune.
