Caligula Three Sisters AE Sestertius Roman Empire 37-38 AD Copper Coin Aged with Oxidized Green Patina Museum Reproduction CBRS0033

Unnaturally adoring Caligula maintained incestuous relationships with his three sisters even after assuming the purple. Of the three, Drusilla was his favorite. When she died on June 10, 38 A.D., Caligula was thrown into an insane grief. He took the unprecedented act of having her deified (Drusilla thus became the first woman of Rome to enjoy this honor) and proclaimed an Empire-wide mandatory period of mourning where laughing, bathing and dining with company was punishable by death. Drusilla’s demise also soured Caligula’s relations with his other two sisters – undoubtedly a spiritually healthy turn of events, but not one in terms of the women’s safety. Caligula was never very fond of Julia Livilla to begin with and although he laid with her, he preferred pimping her out to his friends. When Drusilla’s husband Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (who was reputed to have been perversely involved with the whole inner Caligulan coterie) was tried and convicted of a plot on the emperor’s life, Julia Livilla and her eldest sister Agrippina Junior were implicated and exiled to the Pontian Islands. Fortunately for them – and for Rome, their vile brother was murdered a year later, and they were recalled by their uncle Claudius. Claudius then married his niece Agrippina, who already had a son, Nero (the future emperor) from her marriage to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. Luckless Julia, though, was soon accused of having an adulterous affair with Seneca (future tutor to Nero), sent back to exile and executed a year later on charges that Tacitus claims were unsubstantiated.

DESIGN:
Obverse side
Laureate head left
Legend:
C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT

Reverse side
The sisters of Gaius standing facing: Agrippina, as Securitas, holds cornucopiae in r . hand resting on column, with l. hand on shoulder of Drusilla, as Concordia, who holds patera and cornucopiae; Julia, as Fortuna, holds rudder and cornucopiae
Legend:
AGRIPPINA DRVSILLA IVLIA S C

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