SEG 34.180 Honours for Julia Drusilla the new goddess Aphrodite

Honours for Julia Drusilla the new goddess Aphrodite

SEG 34.180 Date: 38 AD

[(This statue of) Drusilla, new goddess] Aphrodite,^[1] [sister of] ⟦[ Gaius Caesar] Augustus⟧ ⟦[ Germanicus (was erected by . . . )]⟧^[2]

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References:

SEG 34.180 (Translated text) (PHI)

Schmalz 141

Agora XVIII 257

Leone, Polis, Platz und Porträt 38

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base

Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 4313)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This fragment derives from a statue of Julia Drusilla, the favourite sister of the emperor Gaius Caligula (r. 37-41 AD), on whom see IG II² 3267 with notes. The name of the authority responsible for the erection of the monument is missing; it was probably the city of Athens. The fragment was found in a secondary context south of the Agora and Geagan suggests that it was originally set up in the Temple of Ares in the Agora, which contained several statues of Aphrodite (Agora XVIII, p. 149). There is a hole in the top for insertion of the plinth that supported the marble statue. Along with her two elder sisters, Drusilla received unprecedented emphasis during her brother’s reign in public monuments and on Imperial coinage (RIC² Gaius/Caligula 33). She was apparently made Caligula's legal heir in 37 AD. On her death in 38 AD, she became the first female member of the Imperial House to be deified at Rome and Caligula installed a golden cult statue of her in the Temple of Venus Genetrix at Rome (see A. Barrett, Caligula, 1993, 62-63, 85-89 and M. Kantiréa, Les dieux et les dieux augustes, 2007, 72 on her cult in Greece). It seems likely that this monument belongs to the same moment, along with other monuments identifying Drusilla with Aphrodite at Kos (IG XII.4 2, 640), Kyzikos (IMT Kyz Kapu Dağ 1439, l. 12), Magnesia (I Magnesia 156), Miletos (I Miletos VI.3, 1095), Mytilene (IG XII.2, 172), and perhaps Epidauros (IG IV² 1, 600, but see SEG 49.380). Court gossip accused Caligula of engaging in a sexual relationship with his sister, but the identification with Venus / Aphrodite was probably meant to recall Venus' role as the patron deity of the Julii (Kantiréa 2007, 72). For the identification of Julio-Claudians as "new" versions of Olympian gods, see SEG 29.167 with notes. The statue base IG II² 4168 may honour Drusilla’s husband, L. Cassius Longinus. [2] Caligula's name was erased following his assassination and the condemnation of his memory in 41 AD. For other instances of damnatio memoriae at Athens, see IG II³ 4, 1397.

Added: 24 Jul 2026
Updated: 24 Jul 2026
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