julia augusti IS brat

When most people think of the word “brat,” something like the image of a cranky toddler begging for candy may come to mind. After all, for hundreds of years, the word has been used to refer to “a child, especially one that is badly behaved.” I can think of several times growing up when my parents said I was acting bratty (sorry, Mom and Dad). However, the Summer of 2024 brought a new meaning to the word; now, when you google the term, both definitions will pop up. But what is this “new meaning?”

On June 7, 2024, pop artist Charli XCX released her 6th album, "Brat.” If you are like me - someone who has never been super interested in pop music and has not really listened to Charli’s solo songs aside from “I Love It” or “Boom Clap” - you may still recognize her from singing the chorus of Iggy Azalea’s 2014 hit song “Fancy.” Since then, she has made quite a name for herself in the pop scene, both performing and recording her own music and writing for other popular artists. However, I would argue that none of her previous work affected pop culture as much as her most recent album.

The album cover itself is striking to look at: a bright lime green background with brat written in all lowercase. The music on the album is even bolder, with songs ranging from the topic of self-empowerment to drugs and partying (the duality of women, some might say). Charli herself has explained that a brat is someone “who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes,” and is also "very honest, very blunt, a little bit volatile." From the moment of the album’s release, Charli’s young fanbase latched on to this messy and honest work and deemed the summer as “brat girl summer.” This makes sense due to the undeniable success of the album, but also because “brat girl summer” was seen as both a reaction to and rejection of Summer 2023’s “clean girl” aesthetic, which requires women to always look and act their best, but not look like they put in too much effort to appearing this way. Given the two options, I, along with several other young women it seems, gravitate toward the “brat” aesthetic that allows us to unapologetically be ourselves.

Like Charli XCX, Julia Augusti only recently began to interest me. Before taking one of my Classics courses last semester, I had never really heard about her, and I assume that some of you may not know who she is either. Julia Augusti (Latin for “of Augustus”) was born in 39 BCE to Emperor Augustus and his first wife Scribonia.¹ Augustus ended up divorcing Scribonia shortly after Julia was born and then married Livia Drusilla.² Julia’s upbringing was extremely strict; she was taught to spin and weave but was forbidden to speak without constraints, and her interactions with people outside of her family were managed by Augustus himself.³ She was also said to have been very well-read; it is unknown how exactly her reading was managed, but it can be assumed based on other aspects of her upbringing that it was monitored.⁴ This controlling childhood was the first of many reasons that led to “one of the unhappiest father-daughter relationships of antiquity.”⁵ As she grew up, she began to find small ways to challenge her father. A few examples come from Macrobius’ Saturnalia:

• One day, Julia was seen by her father in an unseemly outfit, but the next day she dressed modestly. When Augustus commented on this, Julia told him that yesterday’s outfit was not for him, but for her husband.⁶

• Julia once attended a gladiatorial show with Livia, but instead of sitting with Livia and the “respectable men” in attendance, Julia chose “not only youthful but extravagant” company.⁷

Though Saturnalia is a sort of historical fiction dialogue, these stories paint a "very honest, very blunt, a little bit volatile” picture of Julia. She is honest about her choices, says witty comments to her father, and makes unpredictable choices, even in public. This kind of behavior was “hardly that of a model Roman woman,” which is part of the reason she and Augustus did not get along.⁸ The tension between them was enhanced because Augustus and Livia were unable to have children who lived to adulthood.⁹ This left Julia as Augustus’ only biological child, and therefore an integral part of the Augustan bloodline; in fact, all descendants traced their lineage through Julia in order to connect themselves to Augustus.¹⁰

Since Julia was Augustus’ only hope, what better way was there to control his future than by choosing her husbands? Augustus married Julia off three times: first to Marcellus, her first cousin, then to Agrippa, and finally to Tiberius, the eventual second emperor of the Roman Empire.¹¹ Her marriage to Marcellus in 25 BCE was short and childless because he died of an illness two years after they married.¹² Agrippa, Augustus’ friend and seasoned veteran, married teenage Julia in 21 BCE after divorcing his wife Marcella the Elder, Marcellus’ sister.¹³ Though Marcellus had potential as an heir, Agrippa’s marriage to Julia positioned him as a possible successor and caused his sons with Julia - Gaius and Lucius - to be clear options as well. However, Agrippa died in 12 BCE, with his two darling sons still too young to do anything important.¹⁴ To add fuel to the fire, Livia allegedly had a hand in the two boys’ deaths; they passed “either by the premature but fated death of by the guile of their stepmother Livia” according to Tacitus.¹⁵ With Livia’s influence, Augustus reluctantly adopted her son Tiberius as his heir and made him Julia’s third husband. If you thought things weren’t confusing enough, this meant that Tiberius was forced to divorce his loving wife Vispania, his father in law’s daughter, to marry Julia, his father in law’s widow and stepfather’s daughter. Talk about keeping it in the family.

Though Julia had three chances, outside of the birth of her children (carrying on the Augustan bloodline), none of these marriages were successful, made her happy, or shaped her into a model Roman woman. In fact, they likely contributed to her embracing her “brat” era. While her affairs began much earlier, the Roman public was not aware of Julia’s adulterous behavior until 2 BCE. Over the years, Julia had affairs with a number of male politicians and managed to put quite the stain on Augustus’ image, especially concerning the fact that he had created a program of moral legislation, including the lex Julia laws about adultery.¹⁶ She became viewed as a woman who was “shameless beyond any taunt of shamelessness.”¹⁷ I believe that this scandal, while I cannot and do not condone cheating, aligns with the “messy” aspect of being “brat.”

Another (albeit modern-day) figure who can be associated with the term “brat” is none other than 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Charli XCX took to X (formerly known as Twitter) after it was announced that Harris would be joining the race to say that “kamala IS brat.” The post went viral and led to Kamala’s team seizing the branding for the campaign, allowing the nominee to lean into everything that “brat” has to offer. Given the results of the election, this did not work out in her favor. Though it is clear Harris possesses intelligence, diligence, and integrity, some believe that because of mistakes made during the early days of her term as VP and the fact that her campaign may have needed to focus its energies elsewhere, she was not able to secure the presidency. 

Like Kamala, perhaps Julia’s “brat” tendencies overshadowed anything positive she had going for herself in the eyes of the Romans. There are also scholars who believe the charges against Julia were substitutes for possible political ones, but the details concerning any political aims she may have had no longer exist.¹⁸ Additionally, while Kamala lost this election, Julia was banished to the island of Pandateria for five years before returning to the mainland.¹⁹ Though they are losses of different kinds, both Harris’ defeat in the election and Augustus’ choice to exile Julia can both be seen as public forms of disgrace.²⁰ Finally, while Harris had the support of millions of Americans, Suetonius tells us that on several occasions, the Roman people “interceded for” Julia.²¹ If Kamala Harris is a certified “brat,” the connections between her and Julia must have some merit to them.

From the sources that survive concerning Julia, it is clear that she fits the bill for being “brat.” While this is not something that the Romans appreciated, nor can all of her actions be excused, she deserves recognition for daring to not be defined by her father or any other man in her life. She let her desires, wit, and charm lead instead. While I do now know for certain whether or not Julia regretted what she did, she received plenty of punishment as it is. At the end of the day, do you know what I would say to Julia? In the words of Charli: “It’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”

Footnotes:

1. Susan E. Wood, Imperial Women: A Study in Public Images, 40 B.C.-A.D. 68, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1999), 35.

2. Suetonius, Aug, LXII.

3. Suetonius, Aug, LXIV.

4. Guy De La Bédoyère, Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018), 84.

5. Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook in Translation. 4th ed., (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), 245. 

6. Macrobius, Saturnalia, 2.5.5; Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, “Julia’s wit. Rome 1st cent. BC,” in Women’s Life in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook in Translation. 4th ed., trans. H. Lloyd-Jones, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), 245.

7. Macrobius, Saturnalia, 2.5.6; Lefkowitz, 245.

8. Kristina Milnor, Gender, Domesticity and the Age of Augustus: Inventing Private Life, (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2005), 88.

9. De La Bédoyère, 79.

10. Milnor, 291.

11. Suetonius, Aug, LXIII.

12. De La Bédoyère, 86.

13. De La Bédoyère, 89.

14. De La Bédoyère, 94.

15. Annals, 1.3.3.

16. De La Bédoyère, 101.

17. Seneca, On Benefits, 6.32.1.L; Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, “Julia, daughter of Augustus. Rome, 1st cent. AD,” in Women’s Life in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook in Translation. 4th ed., trans. Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), 245.

18. Harriet I. Flower, “Chapter 7: Public Sanctions against Women: A Julio-Claudian Innovation,” In The Art of Forgetting: Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture, (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 163.

19. Suetonius, Aug, LXV.3.

20. Flower, 164.

21. Aug, LXV.3.