POMPEY ‘THE GREAT’: The most powerful man in Rome during the last decades of the Republic.
SEXTUS POMPEY: His son. A piratical opponent of the Triumvirs following Julius Caesar’s assassination.
CRASSUS: A fabulously wealthy power-broker who died fighting the Parthians in 53 BC.
HORTENSIUS HORTALUS: An orator famous for his brilliance and high living.
HORTENSIA: His daughter.
CASSIUS: Assassin of Julius Caesar.
BRUTUS: Assassin of Julius Caesar. Descended from the Brutus who expelled Tarquin the Proud.
JUNIA: His sister. Long-lived.
ANTONY: Lieutenant of Julius Caesar. Triumvir. Bon viveur.
LUCIUS: Antony’s brother.
IULLUS ANTONIUS: Antony’s son.
CLEOPATRA: The Queen of Egypt. Paramour first of Julius Caesar, then of Antony.
LEPIDUS: Triumvir and Pontifex Maximus.
The Julians
AENEAS: Son of Venus. A Trojan prince who fled the sack of his city for Italy.
JULUS: The son of Aeneas. Ancestor of the Julians.
JULIUS CAESAR: The conqueror of Gaul whose crossing of the Rubicon led to civil war and his own subsequent dictatorship. Assassinated in 44 BC.
OCTAVIUS: Great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar. Triumvir. Ended up as Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus, and ruled as Princeps until his death in AD 14.
SCRIBONIA: His first wife.
JULIA: The daughter of Augustus and Scribonia. Close friends with Iullus Antonius. Exiled in 2 BC.
OCTAVIA: Augustus’s sister. Married to Antony, then divorced. Stepmother to Iullus Antonius.
MARCELLUS: Son of Octavia by her first marriage. Descended from the Marcellus who won the ‘spoils of honour’. Died in 23 BC.
ANTONIA THE ELDER: Elder daughter of Octavia and Antony.
ANTONIA THE YOUNGER: Younger daughter of Octavia and Antony. Mother of Germanicus, Livilla and Claudius.
GAIUS: Oldest son of Julia and Agrippa. Adopted by Augustus. Died in AD 4 in Asia Minor.
JULIA: Oldest daughter of Julia and Agrippa. Owner of the smallest dwarf in Rome. Exiled in AD 8.
LUCIUS: Second son of Julia and Agrippa. Adopted by Augustus. Died in AD 2 in southern Gaul.
AGRIPPINA (I): Second daughter of Julia and Agrippa. Married Germanicus. Mother of Nero (I), Drusus (III), Caligula, Agrippina (II), Drusilla and Julia Drusilla. Returned to Rome with her husband’s ashes in an urn. Fell out spectacularly with Tiberius.
AGRIPPA POSTUMUS: Third son of Julia and Agrippa. Adopted by Augustus, then exiled by him in AD 9.
The Claudians
ATTIUS CLAUSUS: Migrated to Rome in 504 BC. Founder of the Claudian line.
APPIUS CLAUDIUS THE BLIND: Builder of the Appian Way.
CLAUDIUS PULCHER: Son of Appius Claudius. His descendants, the Pulchri, constituted the more high-achieving branch of the Claudians.
CLAUDIUS NERO: Son of Appius Claudius. Ancestor of the Nerones, whose achievements under the Republic failed to measure up to those of the Pulchri.
APPIUS CLAUDIUS PULCHER: Notoriously arrogant head of the Claudians during the last decade of the Republic. A fan of oracles.
CLODIUS PULCHER: His younger brother. Tribune and paramilitary.
CLODIA METELLI: Eldest of the three sisters of Appius Claudius and Clodius. Famously soignée.
DRUSUS CLAUDIANUS: A partisan of Julius Caesar who then became a follower of his assassins. Livia’s father.
LIVIA DRUSILLA: Mother of Tiberius and wife of Augustus. Ended up a goddess.
TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS NERO: First husband of Livia. Unsuccessful rebel.
TIBERIUS: The elder son of Livia and Tiberius Claudius Nero. Son-in-law, then adopted son of Augustus. Rome’s most effective general. Succeeded Augustus as Princeps. Ruled from AD 14–37.
DRUSUS (I): The younger son of Livia and Tiberius Claudius Nero. Married to Antonia the Younger. Led a Roman army to the Elbe. Father of Germanicus, Livilla and Claudius.
VIPSANIA: Tiberius’s much-loved first wife, until he was obliged by Augustus to divorce her. Subsequently married to Asinius Gallus.
DRUSUS (II): The son of Tiberius and Vipsania. Married to Livilla. Father of Gemellus.
GERMANICUS: The elder son of Drusus and Antonia the Younger. Dashing. Married to Agrippina (I).
LIVILLA: The daughter of Drusus and Antonia the Younger. Bitchy. Married to Drusus (II).
GEMELLUS: The son of Drusus (II) and Livilla. Tiberius’s grandson.
CLAUDIUS: The younger son of Drusus and Antonia the Younger. Prone to stammering and dribbling. Emperor from AD 41 to 54.
ANTONIA: Daughter of Claudius and his second wife, Aelia Patina.
MESSALINA: Wife of Claudius. A great-grandniece of Augustus. Notorious for her love-life.
OCTAVIA: Daughter of Claudius and Messalina. Nero’s first wife. Their marriage was not a success.
BRITANNICUS: Son of Claudius and Messalina. The last of the Claudians.
The Julio-Claudians
NERO (I): Eldest son of Germanicus and Agrippina (I). Came to a sticky end.
DRUSUS (III): Second son of Germanicus and Agrippina (I). Came to a sticky end.
CALIGULA: Youngest son of Germanicus and Agrippina (I). Properly called Gaius, ‘Caligula’ was a nickname given him as a young boy. Emperor from AD 37 to 41.
LOLLIA PAULINA: Famously rich and beautiful. Caligula married her in AD 38, then divorced her six months later.
MILONIA CAESONIA: Caligula’s last wife. Enjoyed dressing up.
JULIA DRUSILLA: The daughter of Caligula and Milonia Caesonia. Reportedly an unpleasant child.
AGRIPPINA (II): Eldest daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina (I). Sister of Caligula, niece and wife of Claudius, mother of the Emperor Nero.
NERO: The son of Agrippina (II) and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. Adopted by Claudius in AD 50. Emperor from AD 54 to 68.
DRUSILLA: Second daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina. Caligula’s favourite sister. Ended up a goddess.
JULIA LIVILLA: Youngest daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina. Exiled by both Caligula and Claudius.
The Ahenobarbi
LUCIUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS: Married to Antonia the Elder. The first Roman general to cross the Elbe.
GNAEUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS: His son. Married to Agrippina (II). Father of Nero.
DOMITIA: Nero’s aunt, who looked after him during his mother’s exile.
DOMITIA LEPIDA: Domitia’s sister. The mother of Messalina.
Augustus’s Rome
MARCUS AGRIPPA: Augustus’s consigliere. Married to Julia (I).
MAECENAS: Descendant of Etruscan kings. Patron of poets.
HORACE: Poet and – thanks to Maecenas – owner of a Sabine farm.
VEDIUS POLLIO: Financier who flashed his cash too much for Augustus’s liking.
EGNATIUS RUFUS: Sponsor of firemen and would-be consul.
HOSTIUS QUADRA: Notorious as the most depraved man in Rome. Fond of mirrors.
OVID: Poet. A flâneur who pushed at limits.
TITUS LABIENUS: Historian, whose account of the civil wars was burned on Augustus’s orders.
CASSIUS SEVERUS: Sharp-tongued lawyer.
Governors and generals
MARCUS LICINIUS CRASSUS: Grandson of the Crassus killed at Carrhae. Governor of Macedonia, but not as decorated a general as he would have liked to be.
BALBUS: The last citizen from outside the August Family to celebrate a triumph.
LOLLIUS: Governor of Gaul who lost an eagle to a warband of Germans. Guardian of Gaius on his eastern tour. Grandfather of Lollia Paulina.
VARUS: Governor of Germany. Led three legions into the Teutoburg Pass. Did not lead them back out.
CAECINA: Germanicus’s deputy in Germany.
GNAEUS CALPURNIUS PISO: Governor of Syria. Close associate of Tiberius and opponent of Germanicus. Ended up in serious legal difficulties.
PLANCINA: Piso’s wife. Friend of Livia.
SENTIUS: Appointed governor of Syria by enemies of Piso.
GALBA: Appointed to the command of the Rhine by Caligula. Appointed to Spain by Nero.
SUETONIUS PAULINUS: As governor of Mauretania he crossed the Atlas mountains, and as governor of Britain suppressed Boudicca’s revolt.
Praetorians
SEIUS STRABO: An Etrurian. Appointed Prefect by Augustus. Ended up as Governor of Egypt.