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The Great Cameo of France, from around 23 AD, pictures several members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty

Around the start of the Common Era, the family trees of the gens Julia and the gens Claudia became intertwined into the Julio-Claudian family tree as a result of marriages and adoptions.

Descendancy of the emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty

The Julio-Claudian dynasty was the first dynasty of Roman emperors. All emperors of that dynasty descended from Julii Caesares and/or from Claudii. Marriages between descendants of Sextus Julius Caesar I and Claudii had occurred from the late stages of the Roman Republic, but the intertwined Julio-Claudian family tree resulted mostly from adoptions and marriages in Imperial Rome's first decades. Note that descendancy of the Julii Caesares before the generation of Julius Caesar's grandfather is in part conjectural, but as presented by scholars.^[1]

Simplified

By generation

In the Julio-Claudian dynasty of Roman emperors, the lineage of the Julii Caesares was separated from those of the Claudii up to Augustus' generation. The next generation had both Claudii with a Julia as ancestor, as Claudii adopted into the Julii Caesares family. After Tiberius, the remaining three emperors of the dynasty had, outside adoptions, ancestors both in the Julian as the Claudian families.

Generation of Julius Caesar's grandfather

Gaius Julius Caesar II and Lucius Julius Caesar II may have had Sextus Julius Caesar, the military tribune of 181 BC, as a common ancestor.^[1]

Generation of Julius Caesar's father

This generation of Julii Caesares has two consuls: Sextus Julius Caesar III in 91 BC, and Lucius Julius Caesar III the next year.^[1] This generation has also two female descendants very close to the centers of power by their marriages: Julia, the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar II was married to seven-times consul Gaius Marius, while Julia, the daughter of Lucius Julius Caesar II was married to the two-times consul and Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had successfully challenged Marius' power.^[7] For ensuing generations, Gaius Julius Caesar the Elder, married to a consul's daughter, and Lucius Julius Caesar III proved to be quintessential ancestors of those who held Imperial power in the Julio-Claudian dynasty.^[1]

Julius Caesar's generation

Following Sulla's example Julius Caesar's and Pompey's first marriages were with women of their own generation, later marrying women of a younger generation. After being betrothed to Cossutia, Julius Caesar's first wife was Cornelia, the mother of Julia.^[2] The younger of Caesar's two sisters married Marcus Atius: they were ancestors of all the Julio-Claudian emperors, apart from Tiberius.^[1][4][5]

This is also the generation of Mark Antony's parents. Mark Antony's mother Julia Antonia was the daughter of Lucius Julius Caesar III: she was an ancestor of the last three emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.^[4][5]

Generation of Julius Caesar's daughter

By this time marriages with a political agenda among the powerful families were in full swing, however not yet between Julii Caesares and Claudii. Pompey married Julius Caesar's daughter Julia. Julius Caesar's second wife Pompeia, possibly a great-granddaughter of Lucius Julius Caesar II, was a granddaughter of Sulla. His third wife Calpurnia is said to be younger than his daughter. His son Caesarion resulted from his relation with Cleopatra.^[1]

Atia Balba Caesonia, the daughter of Julius Caesar's sister, married Gaius Octavius: they became the parents of the first emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, then still called Octavianus. Their daughter Octavia the Younger became an ancestor to the last three emperors of that dynasty. In this generation Mark Antony had children by, among others, Antonia Hybrida Minor, and Fulvia.^[4][5]

Generation of the Octavias

The Claudii were a powerful gens with consuls and other high ranking politicians in several of its families across several generations. In this generation the first marriages between Claudii and descendants of the Julii Caesares took place. This however didn't mean yet that the dynastic family trees of both gentes got merged into a single one: that didn't happen until the adoption of Claudii by (adopted) Julii Caesares in the generations to come.

Octavia the Younger's first husband was a Claudius from the Marcelli family. Clodia Pulchra, descending from Claudii, became the first wife of Octavian, who by then was adopted in the Julii Caesares family by the testament of his uncle Julius Caesar. After her first husband's death, Octavia married Mark Antony, who besides the offspring of his first three marriages had had children by Cleopatra.