Julia Flavia

Who was Julia Flavia?

Flavia Julia Titi was the daughter and only child to Emperor Titus from his second marriage to the well-connected Marcia Furnilla. Her parents divorced when Julia was an infant, due to her mother's family being connected to the opponents of Roman Emperor Nero. In 65, after the failure of the Pisonian conspiracy, the family of Marcia Furnilla was disfavored by Nero. Julia's father, Titus considered that he didn't want to be connected with any potential plotters and ended his marriage to Marcia Furnilla. Julia was raised by her father. Julia had been born in Rome and Titus conquered Jerusalem on Julia's sixth birthday.

When growing up, Titus offered her in marriage to his brother Domitian, but he refused because of his infatuation with Domitia Longina. Later she married her second paternal cousin T. Flavius Sabinus, brother to consul T. Flavius Clemens, who married her first cousin Flavia Domitilla. By then Domitian had seduced her.

When her father and husband died, in the words of Dio, Domitian:

"lived with [her] as husband with wife, making little effort at concealment.