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#REDIRECT [[Amorium]]
[[Image:Livia statue.jpg|right|thumb|A cult statue of Livia represented as [[Ops]], with sheaf of wheat and [[cornucopia]], 1st century.]]
{{Julio-Claudian dynasty}}
'''Livia Drusa Augusta''', '''Livia Drusilla''', or '''Julia Augusta''' ([[58 BC]]-[[29|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 [[Nero Claudius Drusus|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 (honorific)|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 daughter{{ref|1|portraits}}.
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 ([[Nero Claudius Drusus|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.
===Livia, Roman empress===
[[Image:octavia.JPG|thumb|Once thought to be Octavia Thurina Minor, now identified as Livia, in Egyptian [[basalt]].]]
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' nephew. Tiberius was adopted by his stepfather in [[4|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 [[Lives of the Twelve Caesars|Suetonius]]). Most modern historical accounts of her life discount the idea.
===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 [[Augusta (honorific)|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|thumb|300px|Livia as [[Pietas]].]]
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 Virgin]]s. 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 [[fresco]]s may be seen at [[Museo Nazionale Romano#Palazzo Massimo]] [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-07-18.html]. One of the most famous statues of Augustus - the [[Prima Porta Augustus]] - came from there.
==Livia in literature==
===Ancient===
{{Section-stub}}
===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]].
==See also==
* [[Julio-Claudian family tree]]
*''[[I, Claudius]]''
==External links==
{{Commons|Livia Drusilla}}
*[http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/primaporta/ Archaeology of the Villa of Livia at Primaporta]
==Notes==
{{ent|1|portraits}} For Livia's portraiture and representations, see: Rolf Winkes, ''Livia, Octavia, Iulia- Porträts und Darstellungen-'', Archaeologia Transatlantica XIII, Louvain-la-Neuve and Providence, 1995.
[[Category:58 BC births]]
[[Category:29 deaths]]
[[Category:Julio-Claudian Dynasty]]
[[Category:Roman empresses]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman women]]
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