Julia Drusilla (daughter of Caligula)

Julia Drusilla (middle of AD 39 – 24 January 41), sometimes known as Drusilla the Younger (Latin: Drusilla Minor) during her lifetime, was the only child and daughter of Roman Emperor Gaius (Caligula) and his fourth and last wife Milonia Caesonia. The one-year-old Julia Drusilla was assassinated along with her parents on 24 January 41.

Life

Named after her late aunt and her father's favorite sister, Julia Drusilla, Julia was born not long after Caligula married Milonia Caesonia (some sources have her being born on the same day as the marriage). The date of her parents' marriage has not been determined for certain, but it is known that it was sometime in the summer of AD 39. She had three older half-sisters from her mother's previous marriage to an unknown man. When Drusilla was born, Caligula took her to a temple that housed statues of goddesses and placed her on the lap of Minerva, instructing the goddess to nurse and train his new daughter.

Caligula's marriage to Caesonia as relates to Julia Drusilla, their daughter, is subject to dispute by historians. Suetonius states that Caligula loved Caesonia sincerely, passionately, and faithfully, even before the two were married and until the day Caligula died, even though Suetonius is otherwise heavily critical of Caligula's romantic and sexual activity. Wood, however, states that the reason for Caligula's hasty marriage with the neither young nor beautiful Caesonia was the purported illegitimacy of his daughter: should Caligula marry Julia's mother, the child would become his heir. Winterling and Schneider state that the order of events suggests that Caligula did not want to marry until a child of his had already been born, a child who would be the purpose of the union.