public at the side of her husband and receive public homage. In spite
of the law which forbade the wives of Roman governors to accompany
their husbands into the provinces, Julia prevailed upon Agrippa to make
her his companion when in the year 16 B.C. he made his long journey
through the East. Everywhere she appeared at his side, at the great
receptions, at the courts, in the cities; and she was the first of the
Latin women to be apotheosized in the Orient. Paphos called her
"divine" and set up statues to her; Mitylene called her the New
Aphrodite, Eressus, Aphrodite Genetrix. These were bold innovations in
a state in which tradition was still so powerful; but they could
scarcely have been of serious danger to Julia, if her passionate
temperament had not led her to commit a much more serious imprudence.
Agrippa, compared to her, was old, a simple, unpolished man of obscure
origin who was frequently absent on affairs of state. In the circle
which had formed about Julia there were a number of handsome, elegant,
pleasing young men; among others one Sempronius Gracchus, a descendant
of the famous tribunes. Julia seems toward the close to have had for
him, even in the lifetime of Agrippa, certain failings which the _Lex
de adulteriis_ visited with terrible punishments.

[Illustration: The great Paris Cameo. This is the largest ancient
cameo known, and is said to have been sent from Constantinople by
Baldwin II. to Louis IX. It represents the living members of the
imperial family protected by the deified Augustus. In the center
Tiberius is shown seated, as Jupiter, with his mother, Livia, at his
left, as Ceres. In front of them stand Germanicus and his mother
Antonia.]

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if from this time on there
should have been fostered between Julia and Livia a half-suppressed