Livia

Livia Drusilla, after 14 called Julia Augusta (PIR² L 301) (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.

Life

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 daughterFor Livia's portraiture and representations, see: Rolf Winkes, Livia, Octavia, Iulia- Porträts und Darstellungen-, Archaeologia Transatlantica XIII, Louvain-la-Neuve and Providence, 1995..

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 39 BC. At this time, Livia already had a son, the future emperor Tiberius, and was 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. Octavian divorced Scribonia in 39, on the very day that she gave birth to his daughter Julia the Elder ( Dio Cassius 48.34.3). Seemingly around that time, when Livia was six months pregnant, Tiberius Claudius Nero was persuaded or forced by Octavian to divorce Livia. On 14 January the child was born, and Octavian and Livia got married on 17 January, waiving the traditional waiting period. Tiberius Claudius Nero was present at the wedding, giving her in marriage "just as a father would" (Dio Cassius 48.44.1-3). The importance of the patrician Claudii to Octavian's cause, and the political survival of the Claudii Nerones are probably more rational explanations for the tempestuous union. Nevertheless, Livia and Octavian 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 privileged counsellor to her husband, petitioning him on the behalf of others and influencing his policies.

Livia, Roman empress

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 Octavian 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. Drusus was a trusted general and married Augustus' favourite niece, Antonia Minor. Tiberius married Julia the Elder (daughter of Augustus) in 11 BC, to be ultimately adopted by his stepfather in AD 4 and nominated heir to the empire.

Rumor had it that when Marcellus, nephew of Augustus, died in 23, it was no natural death, and that Livia was behind it (Dio Cassius 55.33.4). One by one, all the sons of Julia the Elder by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa died: first Lucius and then Gaius, whom Augustus had adopted as his sons, intending them to be his successors. Finally Agrippa Postumus, Julia's one remaining son and also adopted as Augustus' son, was also incarcerated and finally killed. Tacitus charges that Livia was not altogether innocent of these deaths (esp. Annals 1.3; 1.6), and Dio Cassius also mentions such rumours (53.33.4, 55.10A, 55.32; 57.3.6); but not even the gossipmonger Suetonius, who moreover had access to official documents, repeats them. Most modern historical accounts of her life discount the idea. Even less plausible is the rumour mentioned by Tacitus (Annals 1.5) and Dio Cassius (55.22.2; 56.30) that Livia encompassed Augustus' death (Dio mentions poisoned figs).

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.

For some time, Livia and her son Tiberius, the new Emperor, appeared to get 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. At the beginning of the reign he vetoed the unprecedented title Mater Patriae ("Mother of the Fatherland") that the Senate wanted to bestow upon her, in the same manner in which Augustus and before him Julius Caesar and Cicero had been named Pater Patriae ("Father of the Fatherland"). (Tiberius also consistently refused the title of Pater Patriae for himself.)

The historians Tacitus and Dio Cassius depict an overweening, even domineering dowager, ready to interfere in Tiberius’ decisions, the most notable instances being the case of Urgulania, a woman who correctly assumed that her friendship with the empress placed her above the law (Dio Cassius 57.12, Tacitus, Annals 2.34), and Plancina, suspected of murdering Germanicus and saved at Livia’s entreaty (Annals 3.17). A notice from AD 22 records that Julia Augusta dedicated a statue to Augustus in the centre of Rome, placing her own name even before that of Tiberius.

Ancient historians give as a reason for Tiberius’ retirement to Capri his inability to endure her any longer (Annals 4.57, Dio Cassius 57.12.6). Until AD 22 there had, according to Tacitus, been "a genuine harmony between mother and son, or a hatred well concealed" (Annals 3.64); Dio tells us that at the time of his accession already Tiberius heartily loathed her (57.3.3). In 22 she had fallen ill, and Tiberius had hastened back to Rome in order to be with her (Annals 3.64). But in 29 when she finally fell ill and died, he remained on Capri, pleading pressure of work and sending Caligula to deliver the funeral oration (Annals 5.1, Dio 58.2). Suetonius (Vita Tiberii 51) adds the macabre detail that "when she died... after a delay of many days, during which he held out hope of his coming, she was at last buried because the condition of the corpse made it necessary...". Divine honours he also vetoed, as if he took a perverse pleasure in depriving her of her secret aspirations. 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, before 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 ad Gallinas Albas north of Rome is currently being excavated: its famous frescos of feigned garden views may be seen at Museo Nazionale Romano#Palazzo Massimo ^*. One of the most famous statues of Augustus - the Prima Porta Augustus - came from the grounds of the villa.

Livia's personality

While reporting various unsavoury hearsay, the ancient sources generally portray Livia (Julia Augusta) as a woman of proud and queenly attributes, faithful to her imperial husband, for whom she was a worthy consort, forever poised and dignified. With consummate skill she acted out the roles of consort, mother, widow and dowager. Dio (58.2.5) records two of her utterances: "Once, when some naked men met her and were to be put to death in consequence, she saved their lives by saying that to a chaste woman such men are in no way different from statues. When someone asked her how she had obtained such a commanding influence over Augustus, she answered that it was by being scrupulously chaste herself, doing gladly whatever pleased him, not meddling with any of his affairs, and, in particular, by pretending neither to hear or nor to notice the favourites of his passion."

With time, however, and widowhood, a haughtiness and an overt craving for power and the outward trappings of status came increasingly to the fore. Livia had always been a principal beneficiary of the climate of adulation that Augustus had done so much to create, and which Tiberius despised ("a strong contempt for honours", Tacitus, Annals 4.37). In AD 24, typically, whenever she attended the theatre, a seat among the Vestals was reserved for her (Annals 4.16), and this may have been intended more as an honour for the Vestals than for her (cf. Ovid, Tristia, 4.2.13f, Epist.Ex Ponto 4.13.29f).

Livia played a vital role in the formation of her children Tiberius and Drusus. Attention focusses on her part in the divorce of her first husband, father of Tiberius, in 39/38 BC. It would be interesting to know her role in this, as well as in Tiberius’ divorce of Vipsania in 12 BC at Augustus' insistence: whether it was merely neutral or passive, or whether she actively colluded in Caesar’s wishes. The first divorce left Tiberius a fosterchild at the house of Octavian; the second left Tiberius with a lasting emotional scar, since he had been forced to abandon the woman he loved for dynastic considerations. Ancient testimonies are lacking, but it may well be that Tiberius’ deep-seated antipathy towards Livia is rooted in these two events.

Livia in literature

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".

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.

References

(edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III, Berlin, 1933 - . (PIR²)

External links

58 BC births | 29 deaths | Julio-Claudian Dynasty | Roman empresses | Ancient Roman women

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