Livia Drusilla

Roman empress

• Born: January 30, 58 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Unknown
• Died: 29 c.e.
• Place of death: Rome (now in Italy)

Livia was an active partner with Augustus in the creation and maintenance of the Roman Empire and the Imperial family.

Early Life

No ancient literary source focuses entirely on Livia Drusilla (LIH-vee-ah drew-SIH-lah), but at least four major sources include information on her. They are Suetonius’s De vita Caesarum (c.120 c.e.; History of the Twelve Caesars, 1606); Dio Cassius’s Romaika (probably c. 202 c.e.; Roman History, 1914-1927); the Annales of Velleius Paterculus (c. 29 c.e.; Compendium of Roman History, 1924); and Tacitus’s Ab excessu divi Augusti (c. 116 c.e., also known as Annales; Annals, 1598).

Alfidia gave birth to Livia Drusilla in late January of 58 b.c.e. About Alfidia little is known except her name and that her father must have been wealthy. More can be said of Livia’s father, Marcus Livius Drusus, who was born into the family Claudii and adopted into the family of the Livii Drusi. Through her father’s family ties, Livia was a member of two of the most prestigious and oldest of all Roman families. This fact has more meaning than simple biographical information, for, like that of all ancient Romans, Livia’s role was to be defined by the family into which she was born.

Although the specifics of her education are not known, as an upper-class girl belonging to the highest social and political spheres in the Roman world, Livia was surely taught reading, writing, mathematics, the management of a household, and perhaps even rhetoric. This education was meant to prepare her to take her place as the wife and mother of males in the upper echelon of the Roman sociopolitical world. At a young age Livia was betrothed to Tiberius Claudius Nero, a cousin who was about fifteen years her senior, from another branch of the Claudian family. When she was about fifteen years old she married him. Under normal circumstances, Livia could have expected Tiberius to rise to the highest offices in Rome. She could also have expected to play an active role in his success through the maintenance and creation of political alliances behind the scenes. Livia, however, did not live in normal times.

She was only nine or ten years old when, in 49 b.c.e., Julius Caesar marched his troops across the Rubicon River and started the civil wars that would last for almost a quarter of a century and would bring the Republic to an end. During these wars, every elite family was forced to choose sides. Livia’s father sided with the ill-fated Pompey the Great against Julius Caesar. Nonetheless, the family weathered that first storm. In the next phase of the wars, beginning with the assassination of Caesar on the ides of March in 44, her husband repeatedly allied himself with the losing side. Because of this, he was forced to flee for his life several times.

The details of the relationship between Livia and her first husband are unknown, but the evidence of other women suggests that Livia had a choice: She could choose to stay with her husband, or she could choose to turn him over to his opponents. Livia chose loyalty to him and it nearly cost her her life. For example, at one point Tiberius and Livia, with their young son, Tiberius (the future emperor), had sought refuge in Sparta. When they were suddenly forced to flee Sparta (the reason is unknown) Livia, clinging to her young son, ran into a forest fire, and the two barely escaped with their lives—as Livia’s scorched clothing and hair attested.

The period of the civil wars from 49 b.c.e., and especially from 44 to 27 b.c.e., were chaotic for all Romans, and while Livia’s path may not have been more terrifying than the paths of her contemporaries, her story is the most ironic. In 40-39 b.c.e. Octavian created a general amnesty in Rome, and Tiberius and Livia returned to the city. Some time shortly after their return Octavian met Livia, and for reasons personal—he allegedly fell in love with her—as well as political—her good family name—he decided he wanted to marry her. He asked Tiberius to divorce Livia and asked Livia to marry him. All parties agreed, and Livia, pregnant with what would prove to be her second and last son, divorced Tiberius and married Octavian (January 17, 38). Her first husband even gave her away at the wedding ceremony.

It is in her marriage to Octavian, who would become Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, and subsequently in her position as mother of the second emperor that Livia’s life’s work was carried out. Livia, raised as she had been to play a political role in the life of her husband, would play a more important and more public role than any woman in Rome before her day and arguably more than any woman after her.

Life’s Work

In 31 b.c.e. Livia’s second husband defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra VII at the Battle of Actium. The following year Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Octavian became sole ruler. Three years later, Octavian ostensibly gave up his official post and, without holding any political office, he became the de facto ruler of the Roman Empire. In that same year he was granted the honorary title of Augustus (“revered”). Augustus spent the rest of his forty-one years refining his administration of the Empire and his representation of himself and his family as rulers of that empire. One of the key elements of Augustus’s plan was a massive propaganda campaign returning Rome to “traditional” Roman values. In carrying out his agenda he had a willing and capable partner in Livia.

Before examining the specifics of Livia’s participation in her husband’s agenda, it is worth considering how her precise role in these events was colored by her gender. As a woman she was traditionally limited to the private sphere, but as the wife of the First Citizen she played a remarkably public role, unique in Roman history. With Augustus’s emphasis on traditional values, Livia’s public role might have appeared somewhat anomalous. She was, however, able successfully to present herself as a public benefactor of Rome through wifely and motherly virtue: She became the ideal Roman matrona.

Livia’s commissioning of public buildings and consecrating of shrines and temples reflect her active participation in Augustus’s agenda and also reflect the specific character of that participation. The public buildings that she erected were connected with the sphere of the matrona. For example, in the Porticus Liviae—the colonnaded, covered walkway that bears her name—Livia consecrated the Shrine of Concordia, a shrine to the harmony between husband and wife. Furthermore, the date of the consecration of the shrine was June 11, 7 b.c.e. June 11 was also the festival of the Matralia, one manifestation of the mother goddess.

Livia intentionally represented herself as a mother of the Imperial family and as a mother of Rome. She served as a patron to various womanly causes: supplying dowries to deserving young women whose families were unable to ensure a suitable marriage for them and providing money for the support of orphans. One poet even referred to Livia as princeps of the class of matronae. Princeps, though not of matronae, was the same title that Augustus had received, demonstrating Livia’s role as mother and as partner with her husband.

Livia’s generosity continued even after her husband died in 14 c.e. Indeed, when Augustus died he left a large portion of his wealth to her, as much as was legally permitted, enabling her to make even further benefactions. He also adopted her in his will, which meant that she was able to take the feminine form of his family name: Julia. At the same time, the senate granted her the title of augusta, one of the few privileges offered by the senate that her son, Tiberius, was willing to allow her. Despite Tiberius’s famous stinginess when it came to honorific titles for his mother, it is clear that she continued to play an active role in the Roman political world even during his reign.

Not only did Livia’s involvement in the public sphere continue but Tiberius’s piety toward her was also officially sanctioned by the senate. The most striking example of the role of Livia as mother of the emperor and deserving of piety comes during the trial of Gnaeus Piso. Piso and his wife Plancina were implicated in the killing of Germanicus, nephew and adopted son of Tiberius. Plancina, fearful that her husband would not survive the trial, sought the help of Livia. Livia was able to intercede on her behalf, and when the senate published the results of the trial—carved on bronze tablets and posted all over the Roman Empire—the senators recorded the fact that Plancina was acquitted because of the respect the senators had for the princeps’ extreme piety toward his mother.

In the context of Germanicus’s death, Livia’s undeserved reputation for poisoning all of the potential heirs to her husband’s power requires attention. Most scholars today view these accusations as, at best, unsubstantiated. The accusations exist for two reasons. Tiberius did inherit Augustus’s position, and a remarkable number of potential heirs did predecease Augustus. More interestingly, though, the accusations of poisoning provide insight into the difficult path that Livia had to walk and the ambivalence that walk engendered. As a woman, she was expected to be involved behind the scenes. As the wife (then mother) of the most important man in Rome, she had to play a public role. Men, uncomfortable with the extent of authority wielded by this woman, may have been expressing that discomfort by spreading rumors of her killing off other members of the family.

Livia died in 29 c.e., when she was almost ninety years old. Her son, Tiberius, though still emperor, was in self-imposed isolation on the island of Capri and did not return to attend her funeral. Her grandson, the future emperor Caligula, gave her eulogy. Her death inspired the senators to proclaim multiple honors for her, the vast majority of which Tiberius forbade. They even proposed that she be consecrated as a goddess, thus demonstrating that, despite the ambivalent response to Livia in some of the extant sources, at the time of her death she was revered and admired by the Romans.

Significance

The emperor Claudius I’s deification of Livia, as one of his earliest acts as emperor, reflects the continued popularity of the first First Lady of Rome. By deifying his grandmother, Claudius reinforced his own authority. Furthermore, the consecration of Livia took place on January 17, 42, the anniversary of her wedding to Augustus. This makes particular sense because Claudius, though he was the grandson of Livia, was not biologically related to Augustus. Livia was made a goddess through her role as the ideal Roman matrona and because of her relationship to Augustus. The cultivation of this identity and this relationship, created as they were by Augustus and Livia and subsequently fostered by their descendants, helped Livia to remain in the hearts and minds of the Roman people for centuries to come.

Bibliography

Barrett, Anthony. Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002. Barrett has written a complete English-language biography of Livia. Includes nineteen appendices, notes, an extensive bibliography, and an index.

Bartman, Elizabeth. Portraits of Livia: Imaging the Imperial Woman in Augustan Rome. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Bartman attempts to identify portraits of Livia and to place them in their social and political context. Includes 194 images, two catalogs, notes, three appendices, a select bibliography, and three indexes.

Kleiner, Diana E. E., and Susan B. Matheson, eds. I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1996. Kleiner and Matheson provide a collection of essays that use images of women in art to flesh out the roles of women (including Livia) in Roman society. Includes genealogy charts, glossary, and select bibliographies.

Kleiner, Diana E. E., and Susan B. Matheson, eds. I, Claudia II: Women in Roman Art and Society. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. Continues the work of the first I Claudia. No ancient literary source focuses entirely on Livia, but these are major sources that include information on Livia.

Severy, Beth. Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire. New York: Routledge, 2003. Severy argues that Augustus’s ultimate method for establishing and maintaining his new form of government was to base it on the Imperial family. Includes notes, an extensive bibliography, and an index.