Two noblemen, an uncle and nephew, who shared the name Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus and were descendants of the Roman Emperor Augustus, lived during the 1st century AD.
His maternal grandparents were Julia the Younger, granddaughter of Augustus, and consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus.
The Emperor Claudius betrothed him to his daughter Claudia Octavia, but this was broken off (also in 48)[1] when the Empress Agrippina the Younger, hoping to secure Octavia as bride for her son Nero and also to eliminate a potential threat to Nero's prospects,[2] falsely charged him with open affection toward his sister Junia Calvina.
After his father's murder, he was raised by his paternal aunt Junia Lepida and her husband Gaius Cassius Longinus.
Expelled from public life by Nero after his accession to the purple, Silanus was banished to the small country town of Bari (Roman Barium in Apulia).