Julia dared appear in the provinces in public at the side of her husband and receive public homage.  In spite of the law which forbade the wives of Roman governors to accompany their husbands into the provinces, Julia prevailed upon Agrippa to make her his companion when in the year 16 B.C. he made his long journey through the East.  Everywhere she appeared at his side, at the great receptions, at the courts, in the cities; and she was the first of the Latin women to be apotheosized in the Orient.  Paphos called her “divine” and set up statues to her; Mitylene called her the New Aphrodite, Eressus, Aphrodite Genetrix.  These were bold innovations in a state in which tradition was still so powerful; but they could scarcely have been of serious danger to Julia, if her passionate temperament had not led her to commit a much more serious imprudence.  Agrippa, compared to her, was old, a simple, unpolished man of obscure origin who was frequently absent on affairs of state.  In the circle which had formed about Julia there were a number of handsome, elegant, pleasing young men; among others one Sempronius Gracchus, a descendant of the famous tribunes.  Julia seems toward the close to have had for him, even in the lifetime of Agrippa, certain failings which the Lex de adulteriis visited with terrible punishments.

[Illustration:  The great Paris Cameo.  This is the largest ancient cameo known, and is said to have been sent from Constantinople by Baldwin II. to Louis IX.  It represents the living members of the imperial family protected by the deified Augustus.  In the center Tiberius is shown seated, as Jupiter, with his mother, Livia, at his left, as Ceres.  In front of them stand Germanicus and his mother Antonia.]

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if from this time on there should have been fostered between Julia and Livia a half-suppressed rivalry.  The fact is, in itself, very probable and several indications of it have remained in tradition and in history.  We know also that two parties were already beginning to gather about the two women.  One of these might be called the party of the Claudii and of the old conservative nobility, the other the party of the Julii and of that youthful nobility which was following the modern trend.  As long as Agrippa lived, Augustus, by holding the balance between the two factions, succeeded in maintaining a certain equilibrium.  With the death of Agrippa, which occurred in 12 B.C., the situation was changed.

Julia was now for the second time a widow, and by the provisions of the Lex de maritandis ordinibus should remarry.  Augustus in the traditional manner sought a husband for her, and, seeking him only with the idea of furthering a political purpose, he found for her Tiberius, the elder son of Livia.  Tiberius was the stepbrother of Julia and was married to a lady whom he tenderly loved; but these were considerations which could hardly give pause to a Roman senator.