Livia

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Image:Livia statue.jpg Template:Julio-Claudian dynasty Livia Drusa Augusta, Livia Drusilla, or Julia Augusta (58 BC-AD 29) was the wife of Caesar Augustus and the most powerful woman in the early Roman empire, acting several times as regent and being Augustus' faithful advisor. She was also mother to Emperor Tiberius and Drusus, grandmother to Germanicus and Claudius, great-grandmother to Caligula and Agrippina the younger and great-great-grandmother to Nero. She was deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta.

1 Life
2 Livia in literature
- 2.1 Ancient
- 2.2 Modern
3 See also
4 External links
5 Notes

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Life

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Marriage to Octavian

She was born on September 28, 58 BC as the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus by his wife Alfidia. Her mother Alfidia was a daughter of Aufidius Lurco, a Roman magistrate from an Italian town. In 42 BC, her father committed suicide in Philippi, Greece along with Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, the assassins of Julius Caesar, who were defeated by Octavian and Mark Antony. The diminutive Drusilla often found in her name suggests that she was a second daughterTemplate:Ref.

Around 42 BC she married Tiberius Claudius Nero, her cousin of patrician status. After the civil war that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar, Claudius Nero opposed Octavian and fought against him, first with the assassins, and then on behalf of Antony and his brother. In 40 BC, the family was forced to flee Italy in order to avoid the proscriptions that claimed so many lives, and joined with Sextus Pompeius in Sicilia, later moving onto Greece. A general amnesty was announced, and Livia returned to Rome, where she was personally introduced to Octavian in 38 BC. At this time, Livia already had a son, the future emperor Tiberius, and was six-months pregnant with the second (Drusus the Elder). Legend said that Octavian fell immediately in love with her, despite the fact that he was still married to Scribonia, who had just given birth to his daughter Julia the Elder. They got married the day after both their divorces were announced, waiving the traditional waiting period for divorced widows. Apparently, Claudius Nero agreed to let her go, after establishing the paternity of her unborn child, and was present at the wedding. The importance of the patrician Claudii to Augustus' cause against opposition, and the political survival of the Claudii Nerones are probably the more rational explanations for the tempestuous union. Nevertheless, Livia and Augustus remained married for the next 51 years, despite the fact that they had no children apart from a single miscarriage. She always enjoyed the status of a privileged counselor to her husband, petitioning him on the behalf of others and influencing his policies.

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Livia, Roman empress

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After Mark Antony's suicide following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian met no opposition to his increasing power, eventually becoming Roman Emperor as Caesar Augustus always with Livia by his side. Together, they formed the role model for Rome. Despite his wealth and power, Augustus and his family continued to live modestly in their house on the Palatine Hill. Livia would set the pattern for the noble Roman matrona. She wore neither excessive jewellery nor pretentious costumes, she took care of the household and her husband (often making his clothes herself), she paid no attention to his notorious womanising, always faithful and dedicated.

In 35 BC Augustus gave Livia the unprecedented honour to rule her own finances and dedicated a public statue to her. She had her own circle of clients and pushed many protégés into political offices, including Otho's grandfather and Galba himself.

With Augustus being the father of only one daughter (Julia the Elder by Scribonia), Livia revealed herself to be an ambitious mother and soon started to push her own sons, Tiberius and Drusus into power. Rumor had it that she secretly was the cause of death for the original successors, Augustus' nephews. Tiberius was adopted by his stepfather in AD 4 and married Julia the Elder (daughter of Augustus) in 11 BC. Drusus was a trusted general and married Augustus' favourite niece, Antonia Minor. One by one, all the sons of Julia Caesaris by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa died, and Tiberius was nominated heir to the Empire. Tacitus charges that Livia was not altogether innocent of these deaths and others, but there is no other support from either contemporary historians or even later ones with access to official documents (like Suetonius). Most modern historical accounts of her life discount the idea.

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Life after Augustus

Augustus died in 14, being deified by the senate shortly afterwards. In his will, he left one third of his property to Livia, and the other two thirds to the successor Tiberius. In the will, he also adopted her into the Julian family, thus turning her into a patrician, and granted her the honorific title of Augusta. These dispositions permitted her to maintain her status and power after his death, under the name of Julia Augusta. After Augustus's deification as the Divine Augustus, Livia was appointed as a the chief priestess to her husband. Like a Vestal Virgin, Livia was granted a single lictor to escort her through Rome.

Image:Dupondius-Livia-RIC 0043v.jpg For some time, Livia and her son Tiberius, the new Emperor, got along with each other. Speaking against her became treason in 20, and in 24 he granted his mother a theatre seat among the Vestal Virgins. Livia exercised unofficial but very real power in Rome, with a man convicted of treason let go at her request. Eventually, Tiberius became resentful of his mother's political status, particularly against the idea that it was she who had given him the throne. He forbade the senate to call her Augusta and removed most of the privileges granted by Augustus. But the title he hated the most which he forbade the Senate to bestow on her was that of Mater Patriae (Mother of the Fatherland) in the same manner in which Augustus had been named Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherland)

When Livia died in 29, Tiberius had already revealed his cruel nature. He was governing Rome by proxy from Capri and refused to come to her funeral. Later he vetoed all the honours the Senate had granted her after her death and cancelled the fulfilment of her will. It would be another 13 years in the year 42, under the reign of her grandson Claudius, that all her honours would be restored and her deification finally completed. Named Diva Augusta (The Divine Augusta), she received an elephant-drawn chariot to convey her image to all public games, a statue of her was set up in the temple of Augustus along with her husbands, races were held in her honour, and women were to name her in their oaths.

Her villa north of Rome is still a spectacular site - its frescos may be seen at Museo Nazionale Romano#Palazzo Massimo [1]. One of the most famous statues of Augustus - the Prima Porta Augustus - came from there.

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Livia in literature

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Ancient

In Tacitus' The Annals of Imperial Rome, Livia is depicted as having great influence, to the extent where she "had the aged Augustus firmly under control - so much so that he exiled his only surviving grandson to the island of Planasia".

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Modern

In the popular fictional work by Robert Graves I, Claudius, Livia is portrayed as a scheming political mastermind, devoted to bringing Tiberius to power and maintaining him once he got there, and the mastermind behind nearly every death or disgrace in the Julio-Claudian family up to the time of her death. In the BBC miniseries based on the book, Livia was memorably played by Siân Phillips.

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