Drusilla

1. Livia Drusilla, the mother of the emperor Tiberius and the wife of Augustus. [Livia.]

2. Drusilla, a daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, was brought up in the house of her grandmother Antonia. Here she was deflowered by her brother Caius (afterwards the emperor (Caligula), before he was of age to assume the toga virilis, and Antonia had once the misfortune to be an eye-witness of the incest of these her grandchildren. (Suet. Caligula, 24.) In A. D. 33, the emperor Tiberius disposed of her in marriage to L. Cassius Longinns (Tac. Ann. 6.15), but her brother soon afterwards carried her away from her husband's house, and openly lived with her as if she were his wife. In the beginning of his reign, we find her married to M. Aemilius Lepidus, one of his minions. The emperor had debauched all his sisters, but his passion for Drusilla exceeded all bounds. When seized with illness, he appointed her heir to his property and kingdom; but she died early in his reign, whereupon his grief became frantic. He buried her with the greatest pomp, gave her a public tomb, set up her golden image in the forum, and commanded that she should be worshipped, by the name Panthea, with the same honours as Venus. Livius Geminius, a senator, swore that he saw her ascending to heaven in the company of the gods, and was rewarded with a million sesterces for his story. Men knew not what to do. It was impiety to mourn the goddess, and it was death not to mourn the woman. Several suffered death for entertaining a relative of guest, or saluting a friend, or taking a bath, in the days that followed her funeral. (Dio Cass. lix. II; Senec. Consol. ad Polyb. 36.)

3. Julia Drusilla, the daughter of the emperor Caius (Caligula) by his wife Caesonia. She was born, according to Suetonius (Caligula, 25), on the day of her mother's marriage, or, according to Dio (59.29), thirty days afterwards. On the day of her birth, she was carried by her father round the temples of all the goddesses, and placed upon the knee of Minerva, to whose patronage he commended her maintenance and education. Josephus (J. AJ 19.2) relates, that Caligula pronounced it to be a doubtful question whether he or Jupiter had the greater share in her paternity. She gave early proof of her legitimacy by the ferocity and cruelty of her disposition, for, while yet an infant, she would tear with her little nails the eves and faces of the children who played with her On the day that her father was assassinated, she was killed by being dashed against a wall, A. D. 41, when she was about two years old

4. Drusilla, daughter of Herodes Agrippa I., king of the Jews, by his wife Cypros, and sister of Herodes Agrippa II., was only six years old when her father died in A. D. 44. She had been already promised in marriage to Epiphanes, son of Antiochus, king of Commagene, but the match was broken off in consequence of Epiphanes refusing to perform his promise of conforming to the Jewish religion. Hereupon Azizus, king of Emesa, obtained Drusilla as his wife, and performed the condition of becoming a Jew. Afterwards, Felix, the procurator of Judaea, fell in love with her, and induced her to leave Azizus--a course to which she was prompted not only by the fair promises of Felix, but by a desire to escape the annoyance to which she was subjected by the envy of her sister Berenice, who, though ten years older, vied with her in beauty. She thought, perhaps, that Felix, whom she accepted as a second husband, would be better able to protect her than Azizus, whom she divorced. In the Acts of the Apostles (24.24), she is mentioned in such a manner that she may naturally be supposed to have been present when St. Paul preached before her second husband in A. D. 60. Felix and Drusilla had a son, Agrippa, who perished in an eruption of Vesuvius. (Josephus, J. AJ 19.7, 20.5.)

Tacitus (Tac. Hist. 5.9) says, that Felix married Drusilla, a granddaughter of Cleopatra and Antony. The Drusilla he refers to, if any such person ever existed, must have been a daughter of Juba and Cleopatra Selene, for the names and fate of all the other descendants of Cleopatra and Antony are known from other sources; but the account given by Josephus of the parentage of Drusilla is more consistent than that of Tacitus with the statement of Holy Writ, by which it appears that Drusilla was a Jewess. Some have supposed that Felix married in succession two Drusillae, and countenance is lent to this otherwise improbable conjecture by an expression of Suetonius (Suet. Cl. 28), who calls Felix trium reginarum maritum. [J.T.G]

(1) Livia. The wife of Augustus Caesar. See Livia.

(2) Livia, a daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, born at Augusta Trevirorum (Trèves) A.D. 15. She was far from inheriting the excellent qualities of her mother. Her own brother Caligula seduced her, and then gave her in marriage, at the age of seventeen, to Lucius Cassius Longinus, a man of consular rank. Subsequently, however, he took her away from her husband and lived with her as his own wife. This connection lasted until the death of Drusilla, A.D. 38, and at her decease Caligula abandoned himself to the most extravagant sorrow. Divine honours were rendered to her memory, and medals were struck in her honour with the title of Augusta. She was twenty-three years of age at the time of her death ( Calig. 24). Dio Cassius calls the name of her husband Marcus Lepidus, differing in this from Suetonius. He may possibly refer to a second husband, who may have been given her, for form's sake, a short time before her death (Dio Cass. lix. 3).

(3) A daughter of Agrippa, king of Iudaea, remarkable for her beauty. She was at first affianced to Epiphanes, son of Antiochus, king of Commagené. But, on his declining to submit to the rite of circumcision and become a Jew, the marriage was broken off. She was then given to Azizus, king of Emesa. Not long after, however, Drusilla renounced the religion of her fathers, abandoned her husband, and espoused Antonius Felix, a freedman of the emperor Claudius, and brother to Pallas, the freedman of Nero. This is the Felix who was governor of Iudaea and is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Drusilla was with Felix at Caesarea when St. Paul appeared before the latter. She had a son by her second husband, named Agrippa, who perished in the eruption of Vesuvius which took place during the reign of Titus (Joseph. Ant. Iud. xix. 9).