Page 66 of Agrippa

He laughed.

– Yes, indeed, I realise that! But then the question arises, who should she marry? My son-in-law, if he became the father of my eventual heir, would be a powerful figure in the state, possibly in time even a rival. I must choose her husband very carefully.

– I am sure you will.

He fiddled with his signet ring, turning it this way and that.

– You have four daughters – perhaps you suffer from the same misfortune as I do.

– It is possible, although I certainly intend to have a son if I can.

– But not with Claudia?

– No. We are not well suited. In fact, since you raise the matter, I would like your permission to divorce her.

– Even though that would weaken your connection with my family? I should not like that. If you are to be accepted as my replacement, it will be necessary at least to maintain the link. Or better still, strengthen it.

Another long silence ensued. Finally I remarked that he would make a most formidable father-in-law.

– And you a son-in-law.

– It would certainly be a curious turn of fate after all these years. Do you think she would find the idea acceptable?

– We can send for her now to ask her, although the final decision is mine, not hers.

And so, without my asking for it, or him offering it, we arrived at the only logical solution – for Augustus, for me and for the stability of the state – which was that I should marry Julia.

XX

She was seventeen. I was forty-one.

Such a gulf in age is not, of course, uncommon, especially in marriages in which matters of state are involved. There, it is often the case that the bride and groom are complete strangers to one another.

But I had known Julia since she was a baby. I had watched her father tossing her in the air and catching her. She was the same age as my daughter Agrippina. They were friends and often together. I had seen her grow into a young woman. I had even given her away at her first wedding to Marcellus.

That made the prospect of marrying her, for me at least, much more, not less awkward than if I had never met her.

She arrived with her maids in answer to her father’s summons – a tall, slim, demure figure, with a delicate oval face, her fair hair gathered up and tied at the back to reveal her long, pale neck. She looked the image of youth and innocence. I felt certain she would find the idea of marrying me repugnant.

However, after Augustus had explained his wishes to her and left us alone to discuss our future, her manner changed entirely, as it generally did when he was no longer in the same room. She let out her breath and raised her eyes to the ceiling in relief.

– Well, that could have been worse! I thought he was going to suggest someone awful.

– You don’t object to marrying me?

– No. Why should I? I have always liked you.

When I pointed out I was the same age as her father, she laughed and said I was in better physical condition than most men ten years my junior – which was true: I had never suffered a day’s illness in my life – and that she, already a widow, had always been much more mature than her years.

– I believe our marriage can be a success if we allow one another a certain degree of freedom. In any case, I can’t refuse to do what my father wishes – and let’s face it, Agrippa, neither can you, so we had better make the best of it. And now you may kiss me if you wish.

I was captivated by her at that moment and have gone on being captivated by her ever since.

She was – still is – vivacious, teasing, clever, ruthless, unsentimental, often outrageous, not at all dutiful, and certainly never boring. In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to her remark about giving one another freedom, but at the time I thought little of it. Her honesty is one of the few qualities she does not share with her father. Otherwise, she was as formidable at seventeen as he was.

I divorced Claudia the following year. Each of us was mightily relieved to be free of the other. I gave her the house on the Vatican Hill and built a new villa for myself and Julia on the west bank of the Tiber, looking out over the bridge I had constructed to the Field of Mars and all the great buildings I had erected.

We married quietly on her eighteenth birthday, in the presence of my daughters, her mother and her half-brother and half-sister. Augustus was not in Rome. He had left on a two-year tour of the eastern provinces, taking Livia with him. Her absence from Rome was a relief. She had bitterly opposed our marriage. She saw in it the possibility that we might produce a son who would be a threat to the position of Tiberius. She even tried to persuade Augustus to give Julia’s hand to Tiberius instead, but he would not hear of it – that would have made him unquestionably his heir. Besides, Tiberius was still engaged to my Agrippina, with whom, to my secret astonishment – for I had not believed him capable of any emotion except anger – he appeared very much in love.