Love and Politics 13–9 BC: The Loves of Tiberius and of Drusus and Their Wives on the Ara Pacis Augustae

Stern, Gaius (2021) Love and Politics 13–9 BC: The Loves of Tiberius and of Drusus and Their Wives on the Ara Pacis Augustae. ACTA ANTIQUA ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM HUNGARICAE, 61 (4). pp. 395-410. ISSN 0044-5975 (print); 1588-2543 (online)

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Abstract

Amor plays a curious and complicated role in the Augustan regime, and especially in Augustus’s secret plans to create a monarchy, for on the one hand the princeps wished to regulate love for all citizens – allegedly for the common weal – but on the other hand he had little success in forcing his relatives to love and marry one another with often disastrous and adulterous consequences that threw overboard several plans for the succession. Augustus compelled Tiberius to divorce Vipsania Minor to marry Julia with the allure of the throne, and Tiberius sold his soul for power. But Tiberius found it impossible to love Julia and after their only child died, he separated from her. In contrast, Drusus must have refused to divorce Antonia but still turned out to be Augustus’s preferred step-son, not to mention the hero of the nation. The Senate voted to build the Ara Pacis Augustae on 4 July 13 BC in the consulship of Tiberius and Varus, and the inauguration proclaiming the successes of the Augustan regime in restoring peace and prosperity to the Roman people, occurred on 30 Jan. 9 BC in the consulship of Drusus and Quinctius Crispinus. Although several married couples appear on the Ara Pacis together, it is Drusus and Antonia who show the love between husband and wife, which Augustus later tried very hard to legislate, not that of Julia and Agrippa nor of Tiberius and Vipsania, and certainly not of Augustus and Livia, who appear separately. Val. Max. 4.3.3 says that Drusus loved his wife so much he never had sex with other women! This already famous story prompted the sculptors of the Ara Pacis to place Drusus and Antonia facing one another, not only as a role model and in deference to Augustus’s natalism program, but also to add a touch of humanity to the frieze and to honor the daughter of Octavia and her husband, in whose consular year of office the monument opened.

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