Herod had made his first-born son Antipater (his son by Doris) first heir in his will in 13 BCE.

The following year, suspecting both his sons (from his marriage to Mariamne I) Alexander and Aristobulus of threatening his life, Herod takes them to Aquileia to be tried.

Augustus reconciles the three.

Herod amends his will so that Alexander and Aristobulus rise in the royal succession, but Antipater is higher in the succession.

He also supports the financially strapped Olympic Games and ensures their future.

Agrippa’s last public service is his beginning of the conquest of the upper Danube River region, which becomes the Roman province of Pannonia.

He dies at Campania in March, 12 BCE, at the age of fifty-one.

His posthumous son, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Postumus, is named in his honor.

Augustus delivers a funeral oration in honor of his colleague (a fragment of that oration, in Greek translation, has recently become known).Although Agrippa had built a tomb for himself, Augustus has Agrippa's remains placed in Augustus' own mausoleum.

Honoring his friend’s memory by a magnificent funeral, Augustus spends over a month in mourning.

He will personally oversee the education of all Agrippa's children.

One of Agrippa's five children (not all survive) by Augustus' daughter Julia, Agrippina the Elder, is to become the mother of one emperor (Caligula) and the grandmother of another (Nero).

The Theater of Marcellus, named after Augustus's nephew, who died five years before its completion, is an open-air theater in Rome, is built in the closing years of the Roman Republic.

At the theater, locals and visitors alike are able to watch performances of drama and song.

Space for the theater was cleared by Julius Caesar, who was murdered before it could be begun; the theater was so far advanced by 17 BCE that part of the celebration of the ludi saeculares took place within the theater.

Completed in 13 BCE , it is formally inaugurated in 12 BCE by Augustus.

The theater, one hundred and eleven meters in diameter, can hold eleven thousand spectators.

It is an impressive example of what is to become one of the most pervasive urban architectural forms of the Roman world.

The theater is built mainly of tuff, and concrete faced with stones in the pattern known as opus reticulatum, completely sheathed in white travertine.

The network of arches, corridors, tunnels and ramps that give access to the interiors of such Roman theaters is normally ornamented with a screen of engaged columns in Greek orders: Doric at the base, Ionic in the middle.

It is believed that Corinthian columns were used for the upper level but this is uncertain as the theater was reconstructed in the Middle Ages, removing the top tier of seating and the columns.

Like other Roman theaters in suitable locations, it has openings through which the natural setting can be seen, in this case the Tiber Island to the southwest.

The permanent setting, the scaena, also rises to the top of the cavea as in other Roman theaters.

Today, the ancient edifice in the rione of Sant'Angelo provides one of the city's many popular spectacles or tourist sites.

Herod, while in Aquileia in 12 BCE, had obtained from Augustus the lease copper mining rights on Cyprus, after which many Jews emigrate to the island.

Julia has become a widow for the second time.

Augustus, who has no son, wishes to prevent a recurrence of civil warfare by arranging for his successors during his lifetime.

He wants Julia suitably married at once and chooses Tiberius as her third husband, against both their wishes.

Obediently, Tiberius divorces Vipsania (daughter of a previous marriage of Agrippa), the woman he dearly loves, and marries Julia in 11 BCE.

The same year, Augustus adopts Julia and Agrippa’s infant sons Gaius and Lucius as his sons.

In case of Augustus' death, Tiberius is to act as tutor of the emperor’s two grandsons, a role that he resents.

Drusus had been sent in 13 BCE to govern Gaul to quell riots caused by the actions of a previous administrator.

While he was present, a tribe of Germans had entered Gaul and proceeded to attack Roman settlements.

Drusus had mobilized his legions and beat the invaders back across the Rhine, then marched into Germany to defeat a superior force of Sicambri at the Lippe River the following year.

Penetrating deep into German territory, he travels as far as the North Sea and places a yearly tribute on the Frisii.

The Romans thus extend their empire north as far as the Rhine River in the present Netherlands, long occupied by such Germanic tribes as the Batavi and Frisii.

The victorious Drusus, in a show of Roman might, parades his legions back and forth between the Elbe and the Rhine.

As a reward, Drusus is made praetor urbanus for 11 BCE.

Drusus, who does not have it in him to stay in Rome, sets out in the spring of his term for the German border once more.

He pushes again into the territory of the various German tribes, only stopping at the onset of winter.

Attacked while making his way back to Roman territory, he manages to rout the German force.

His troops proclaim him Imperator and he is granted triumphal ornaments, as well as the office of proconsul for the following year.

Caesarea Maritima, where Herod has built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas, had in 13 BCE become the civilian and military capital of Iudaea Province and the official residence of the Roman procurators.

Josephus describes the harbor as being as large as the one at Piraeus, the major harbor of Athens.

Herod in 10 BCE completes the construction of the city.

The newly expanded temple in Jerusalem is inaugurated in 10 BCE; in this year, Herod initiates another war against the Nabateans.

Agrippa's death in 12 BCE had elevated Tiberius and Drusus with respect to the succession.

The marriage between Tiberius and Julia was blighted almost from the start, and the son that Julia will bear him dies in infancy.

Suetonius alleges that Tiberius had a low opinion of Julia's character, while Tacitus claims that she disdained Tiberius as an unequal match and even sent her father a letter, written by Sempronius Gracchus, denouncing him.

Reportedly, Tiberius once ran into Vipsania again, and proceeded to follow her home crying and begging forgiveness; soon afterwards, Tiberius met with Augustus, and steps were taken to ensure that Tiberius and Vipsania would never meet again.

The Chatti join with the Sicambri in 10 BCE and attack Drusus' camp, but are easily defeated.

Drusus then goes to meet Augustus and Tiberius in Lugdunum (at which point Claudius was born), and travels with them to Rome.