The hard years of civil war were followed by a widespread and growing sense of confidence in the leadership of Augustus, in the belief that the new state he had established would last forever. Internal peace, prosperity and a consolidated territory were clearly visible to all. It therefore became a necessity to ensure that these successes endured, underlining that only the family of the Princeps could guarantee their preservation. Augustus intended to establish a bloodline succession to the Principate. Accordingly, he joined the Gens Iulia – his own family line by virtue of his adoption by his uncle Julius Caesar – with the Gens Claudia, of which Livia was a prominent member, founding the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Although his marriage to Livia was a loving union, it failed to produce any heirs. Augustus consequently explored an alternative hereditary line through his daughter Julia, born from his previous marriage, by marrying her to his siter’s son Marcellus, whom he designated as his successor. Following the premature death of Marcellus, Julia was then wedded to Augustus’ loyal lieutenant Agrippa. Two of the five children born from this union, Gaius and Lucius, were adopted by their grandfather while still children and with their parents still alive. Augustus had high hopes for his grandchildren, overseeing their education and lavishing great honours on them. But the deaths of Lucius in 2 BCE and of Gaius in 4 CE obliged him to rethink the succession again. In 4 CE he adopted both Agrippa Postumus, the youngest son of Julia and Agrippa, and Tiberius, Livia’s son from her first marriage. The banishment of his daughter Julia, of her daughter and of Agrippa Postumus himself, marked the final years of Princeps’s life. When he died, in 14 CE, Agrippa Postumus was killed and Tiberius proclaimed the new emperor.