Junia Calvina

Last updated June 17, 2024

Junia Calvina was a Roman noblewoman who lived in the 1st century AD.

Biography

The daughter of Aemilia Lepida and Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, consul in 19, Calvina belonged to two patrician houses: the gens Aemilia and gens Junia respectively. She was also the great-great-granddaughter of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus on her mother's side of the Imperial family. As such, she was also related by blood to the gens Julia, the aristocratic family of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Tacitus calls Calvina "festivissima puella" and the Emperor Vespasian, in one of his jokes, mentions her as living in AD 79.^[1] Seneca describes her as "most celebrated of all women (she whom all called Venus)."^[2]

Calvina may have been married to Gaius Sallustius Passienus Crispus and had a daughter named Sallustia Calvina with him, this woman married Publius Ostorius Scapula.^[3]

Calvina was married to Lucius Vitellius, the brother of Aulus Vitellius, in the 1st century AD. Despite, or rather because of their blood relation to the first emperor of Rome, Calvina's close family was often persecuted by their kinsmen, particularly the lineal descendants of Livia Drusilla, Augustus' third wife and the first Roman empress. Calvina and Vitellius were divorced in AD 49 following allegations of incest with her younger brother, Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus, who was forced to commit suicide shortly thereafter. In the same year, Calvina was exiled from Rome by Emperor Claudius, only to be recalled a decade later by his successor, Nero.

With Nero's suicide in AD 68, the Julio-Claudian dynasty collapsed and gave way to the Roman civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. By then Calvina was one of Augustus' few remaining descendants who survived the fall of Rome's first Imperial dynasty.

Related Research Articles

Julia Agrippina, also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from AD 49 to 54, the fourth wife and niece of emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero.

The Julio-Claudian dynasty comprised the first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.

AD 69 (LXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the consulship of Galba and Vinius. The denomination AD 69 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

The 60s decade ran from January 1, AD 60, to December 31, AD 69.

The gens Julia was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator and grand uncle of the emperor Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century AD. The nomen Julius became very common in imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.

Marcus Junius Silanus was a Roman senator.

Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus was a Roman senator who lived during the 1st century.

Two noblemen, an uncle and nephew, who shared the name Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus and were descendants of the Roman Emperor Augustus, lived during the 1st century AD.

Junia Lepida was a Roman noblewoman who lived in the first century.

Vipsania Julia Agrippina nicknamed Julia Minor and called Julia the Younger by modern historians, was a Roman noblewoman of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was emperor Augustus' first granddaughter, being the first daughter and second child of Julia the Elder and her husband Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Along with her siblings, Julia was raised and educated by her maternal grandfather Augustus and her maternal step-grandmother Livia Drusilla. Just like her siblings, she played an important role in the dynastic plans of Augustus, but much like her mother, she was disgraced due to infidelity later on in her life.

Gaius Sallustius Passienus Crispus was a prominent figure in the Roman Empire during the first century. He held the consulship twice, and was stepfather of the future emperor Nero.

The gens Junia or Iunia was one of the most celebrated families of ancient Rome. The gens may originally have been patrician, and was already prominent in the last days of the Roman monarchy. Lucius Junius Brutus was the nephew of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of Rome, and on the expulsion of Tarquin in 509 BC, he became one of the first consuls of the Roman Republic.

Lucius Aemilius Paullus was the son of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus and Cornelia, the elder daughter of Scribonia. He was married to Julia the Younger, the eldest granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus.

Lucius Vitellius was a Roman senator who lived in the 1st century. He was the second son of Lucius Vitellius and Sextilia, and younger brother of emperor Aulus Vitellius. Lucius was suffect consul in the nundinium of July-December 48 with Gaius Vipstanus Messalla Gallus as his colleague.

Titus Flavius T. f. T. n. Sabinus was a Roman politician and soldier. A native of Reate, he was the elder son of Titus Flavius Sabinus and Vespasia Polla, and brother of the Emperor Vespasian.

Aemilia Lepida was a noble Roman woman and matron. She was the first great-grandchild of the Emperor Augustus.

Quintus Junius Blaesus was a Roman politician who lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. He was the maternal uncle of Lucius Aelius Sejanus, the Praetorian Prefect of Emperor Tiberius.

The gens Vitellia was a family of ancient Rome, which rose from obscurity in imperial times, and briefly held the Empire itself in AD 69. The first of this gens to obtain the consulship was Aulus Vitellius, uncle of the emperor Vitellius, in AD 32.

Marcus Junius D. f. M. n. Silanus was a Roman senator and consul in 25 BC as the colleague of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, the emperor Augustus.

Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus was a Roman senator. He was consul in AD 19, with Lucius Norbanus Balbus as his colleague.

References

↑ Tacitus. Annals, Book XII, paragraph 4; Suetonius, Vespasian, paragraph 23
↑ Seneca, Apocolocyntosis, paragraph 8.
↑ Settipani, Christian (2000). Continuité gentilice et continuité familiale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale: mythe et réalité. Prosopographica et genealogica (in Italian). Vol. 2 (illustrated ed.). Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford. p. 304. ISBN 9781900934022.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Tacitus. Annals, Book XII, paragraph 4; Suetonius, Vespasian, paragraph 23

[2] Seneca, Apocolocyntosis, paragraph 8.

[3] Settipani, Christian (2000). Continuité gentilice et continuité familiale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale: mythe et réalité. Prosopographica et genealogica (in Italian). Vol. 2 (illustrated ed.). Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford. p. 304. ISBN 9781900934022.

[1]

[2]

[3]