of the empire, so that she was not forced to step down from the lofty
position which the marriage with Agrippa had given her. Tiberius,
furthermore, was a very handsome man and for this reason also he seems
not to have been displeasing to Julia, who in the matter of husbands
considered not only glory and power.

The marriage of Julia and Tiberius began under happy auspices. Julia
seemed to love Tiberius and Tiberius did what he could to be a good
husband. Julia soon felt that she was once more to become a mother and
the hope of this other child seemed to cement the union between husband
and wife. But the rosy promises of the beginning were soon
disappointed. Tiberius was the son of Livia, a true Claudius, the
worthy heir of two ancient lines, an uncompromising traditionalist,
therefore a rigid and disdainful aristocrat, and a soldier severe with
others as with himself. He wished the aristocracy to set the people an
example of all the virtues which had made Rome so great in peace and
war: religious piety, simplicity of customs, frugality, family purity,
and rigid observance of all the laws. The luxury and prodigality which
were becoming more and more wide-spread among the young nobility had no
fiercer enemy than he. He held that a man of great lineage who spent
his substance on jewels, on dress, and on revels was a traitor to his
country, and no one demanded with greater insistence than he that the
great laws of the year 18 B.C., the sumptuary law, the laws on marriage
and adultery, should be enforced with the severest rigor. Julia, on
the other hand, loved extravagance, festivals, joyous companies of
elegant youths, an easy, brilliant life full of amusement.

[Illustration: Octavia, the sister of Augustus.]

For greater misfortune, the son who was born of their union died