, protected and guided by Livia, at last
hazarded this step.

It is impossible to say what part Livia played in this terrible
tragedy. It is certain that either she or some other influential
personage succeeded in gaining possession of the proofs of Julia's
guilt and brought them to Augustus, threatening to lay them before the
pretor and to institute proceedings if he did not discharge his duty.
Augustus found himself constrained to apply to himself his own terrible
law. He himself had decreed that if the husband, as was then the case
of Tiberius, could not accuse a faithless woman, the father must do so.
It was his law, and he had to bow to it in order to avoid scandals and
worse consequences. He exiled Julia to the little island of
Pandataria, and at the age of thirty-seven the brilliant, pleasing, and
voluptuous young woman who had dazzled Rome for many years was
compelled to disappear from the metropolis forever and retire to an
existence on a barren island. She was cut off by the implacable hatred
of a hostile party and by the inexorable cruelty of a law framed by her
own father!

[Illustration: Mark Antony.]

The exile of Julia marks the moment when the fortunes of Tiberius and
Livia, which had been steadily losing ground for four years, began to
revive, though not so rapidly as Livia and Tiberius had probably
expected. Julia preserved, even in her misfortune, many faithful
friends and a great popularity. For a long time popular demonstrations
were held in her favor at Rome, and many busied themselves tenaciously
to obtain her pardon from Augustus, all of which goes to prove that the
horrible infamies which were spread about her were the inventions of
enemies. Julia had broken the _Lex Julia_,--so much is certain,--but
even if she had been guilty of an unfortunate act, she was not a
monster, as her enemies wished to have it believed. She was a
beautiful woman, as there had been before, as there are now, and as
there will be hereafter, touched with human vices and with human
virtues.

As a matter of fact, her party, after it had recovered from the
terrible shock of the scandal, quickly reorganized. Firm in its
intention of having Julia pardoned, it took up the struggle again, and
tried as far as it could to hinder Tiberius from returning to Rome and
again taking part in political life, knowing well that if the husband
once set foot in Rome, all hope of Julia's return would be lost. Only
one of them