The daughter of Aemilia Lepida and Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, Calvina belonged to two patrician houses: the gens Aemilia and gens Junia respectively. She was also the great-great-granddaughter of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus on her mother's side of the Imperial family. As such, she was also related by blood to the gens Julia, the aristocratic family of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar.