Striking, isn’t it, that a princess with the most tragic life and death (beware of lecherous uncles…dirty Domitian, I’m looking at you!) has one of the sweetest, most appealing portraits of the period?When the ladies of the imperial court presented themselves with fancy (sometimes freaky) fashion hairdos piled high over their aged brows, her restrained coiffure passes the giggle test, emphasizing rather than detracting from her smooth countenance.
Born to the highest echelons of the Flavian imperial family, Julia Flavia (more commonly known as Julia Titi) was the daughter of the emperor Titus (39 – 81 A.D.). After the death of her patrician husband and later that of her father, she was integrated into the household of her paternal uncle Domitian, then emperor. Salacious (possibly apocryphal) accounts by detractors of her uncle report that she became his mistress and tragically died in her early 30’s as a after a botched attempt at ending a pregnancy resulting from this alleged unsavory union.
Julia Titi was a famous beauty, and certainly her portraits are the most attractive of the Flavian women. Surviving portraits of the princess, such as this one, bear this out. Here, her features are idealized, with delicate heart-shaped face, large almond-shaped eyes, full lips with pronounced ‘cupid’s bow’, and serene brow. The Flavian fashion hairstyle pioneered by her mother – a halo of curls over the brow, with deep drilling – is at its most appealing here: elegant and flattering.
