Family as Strategy: Image-Making and the Children of Germanicus

This paper will examine the “display” of the children of Germanicus and Agrippina I, particularly in the context of Germanicus' triumph of 17 CE. One of the developing trends of empire was to promote imperial children through events and institutions which were often steeped in precedent and tradition, such as the triumph. The children of Germanicus, however, played an even more significant role in the overall visual framework of the Early Empire; they were used to help shape the image of their father, heir to Augustus and Tiberius, in Rome, on the military front, and in key areas of the empire. Germanicus' military and political achievements were often represented as events of family (and hence Roman) significance.