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LIVIA (b. 58 BC, d. AD 29, wife of Augustus 37 BC to AD 14)
We’ve noted before how, in 39 BC, OCTAVIAN (the future AUGUSTUS) divorced
Scribonia because he had already met LIVIA whom he married early in 38 BC
and who was at the time six months’ pregnant with her second son, Drusus.
There can be very little doubt that the bond between Octavian and Livia was a
romantic one from the very beginning – at least on Octavian’s part.
But LIVIA was a godsend to him at the moment he met and married her.
i) He was in his on-off relationship with Marcus Antonius (which was about to
deteriorate completely).
ii) Although Octavian had, by now, a goodly number of supporters in Rome
and Italy, even within the upper classes, perhaps more than his senior
Marcus Antonius, ……
iii) Marcus Antonius’ supporters within the traditional Roman nobility were,
socially, “superior” to those of Octavian: they were men of quality.
5. To marry LIVIA was a coup for Octavian not only because of who SHE was but also
because of all the members of the traditional “nobility” who would, in all likelihood,
now throw their political support behind him - because of her.
6. And so, who was LIVIA?
LIVIA’s BACKGROUND
1. She was the daughter (born about 58 BC) of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus who had
been born Appius Claudius Pulcher but adopted into the family of the Livii.
2. This meant that LIVIA had intimate connections with two of the great “noble” families
whose ancestors had been prominent in the Roman ‘Republican’ state for centuries the “Claudians” and the “Livians”.
3. She had remained closely linked with the “Claudians” since her father married her
about 43 BC to her cousin, Tiberius Claudius Nero, with whom she had her two sons,
Tiberius, third husband of JULIA, and Drusus, husband of Antonia the
Younger, father of the future emperor Claudius and grandfather of Claudius’
predecessor Gaius (‘Caligula’).
VARIOUS HEADS OF LIVIA
4. LIVIA and her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero, had been forced to flee
from Italy to escape the members of “The Triumvirate” (Marcus Antonius, Lepidus,
and Octavian) and the brutal ‘proscriptions’ they initiated - since they were
staunch “Republicans”.
5. i) Undermining the idea that OCTAVIAN and LIVIA’s match was from the very
beginning ‘romantic’ on the part of LIVIA is, admittedly, the ‘strange’
development which not only saw Tiberius Claudius Nero “willingly”
divorcing his wife in favour of Octavian but also ‘giving her away’ “just as a
father would” (Cassius Dio 48.44) at her wedding to Octavian.
ii) The argument has been made that initially, because they had been on the
“wrong” side in the earlier civil war and had been against ‘the Caesarians’,
the marriage of LIVIA to OCTAVIAN involved a quid pro quo – namely the
‘survival’ politically of the family of the Claudii Nerones - and so Livia did
not marry for love, even if Octavian did.
LIVIA AS WIFE OF AUGUSTUS
1. It is a little surprising that we hear virtually nothing about LIVIA during the
first thirty years of her marriage to Octavian given that she was “the first lady
of Rome” - but, of course, the concept of a “first lady” had not yet taken root.
2. There are two possible explanations for her low profile:
a) The public eye, especially the eyes of the leading families which had run
the Roman state for generations, were not focused on her but
i) on the constitutional moves Octavian was making, in particular, from
27 BC onwards, as he (as “Augustus”) was moulding the new governmental
‘system’ which became ‘the Principate’; and
ii) on what he may have had in mind for members of his family as he
arranged his daughter Julia’s marriages and adopted his grandsons as his
‘sons’;
AND
b) LIVIA herself showed excellent political sense and kept a low profile,
realizing that, in the formative years of the new political system, the last
thing her husband wanted was for any of the women of his household to be
perceived as meddling in state affairs when centuries of Roman tradition
frowned upon the women of the elite participating in such matters.
3. In the event Augustus, in his public relations, was able to depict his wife (on
the few occasions that he referred to her at all) as the obedient helpmate who
i) remained in the shadows;
ii) managed his household;
iii) spun the wool;
iv) made his clothes - and, at all times,
v) personified traditional Roman virtues.
AN AUGUSTAN COIN WITH A
PERSONIFICATION OF SALVS
(“SOUNDNESS”) BUT BELIEVED
TO BE MODELLED ON LIVIA
IVSTITIA (“JUSTICE”) BELIEVED
TO BE MODELLED ON
LIVIA
Unlike later ‘emperors’ Augustus did not put his wife openly on the state’s coinage
4. Although (as we have seen) AUGUSTUS’ sister OCTAVIA remained modest and
very much in the background as her brother increased his power - withdrawing
almost totally from society after the death of her son Marcellus in 23 BC, it was
not until her death in 11 BC that LIVIA became in any sense more prominent.
5. a) Throughout her marriage, in fact, LIVIA was so good at maintaining a low
profile that not one of the ancient sources has any reference, for example, to
her accompanying Augustus on the extensive travels he undertook in the 20s
BC
i) to Gaul and to northern Spain (on campaign) between late 27 and 24 BC; and
ii) to ‘the East’ between late 22 and 19 BC.
b) i) In Spain he was taken seriously ill and had to retire to the provincial capital.
ii) It is tempting to picture LIVIA at his side, BUT we have no definitive
evidence of any sort that she was with him.
c) Even the evidence of dedications to her in various ‘eastern’ cities does not prove
that she was with Augustus in the very late 20s BC as he moved around, although
she may have been.
6. Even with the tragic death of her younger son, Drusus, in September 9 BC while
on military assignment, LIVIA, who was devastated by her loss, maintained
publicly a level of grief which earned her great respect.
LIVIA BECOMES MARGINALLY MORE PROMINENT
1. For the last twenty years or so of her marriage she was, however, a little more
in evidence publicly than before.
2. i) In 7 BC her name came more to the public attention when Augustus built a
new portico and dedicated it to her as the “Porticus Liviae”.
ii) She took part in the ceremonies, joined by her surviving elder son, Tiberius.
Plan and model
giving some
sense of what
“The Portico of
Livia” may have
been like.
3. The decision of Tiberius in 6 BC, so soon after he had had formal powers
bestowed on him, to go into self-imposed exile despite his mother’s pleas for
him to change his mind, must have upset LIVIA greatly.
4. She may have tried to soothe Augustus’ angry brow, but little other
involvement on her part is likely.
5. i) And she will have stood by him in his distress and anger at having to send
his daughter JULIA into exile four years later.
ii) And far from being involved in some imagined plot to get rid of JULIA, all
the indications are that LIVIA sympathized and, if not when Julia was sent to
Pandateria, at least when she was allowed to transfer to Rhegium on the
mainland did all she could to help her.
6. The deaths of Augustus’ two adopted sons so close together in AD 2 and AD 4 so
soon after Tiberius returned from exile to live privately gave rise, of course, to
all sorts of rumours about those deaths.
7. i) While some sort of plot to get rid of the young men cannot be total dismissed,
the complications in arranging for them to be poisoned at such a distance from
Italy make any deviousness seem implausible.
ii) Even Tacitus (working his characteristic innuendo) says that Lucius and Gaius
were carried off either “by fate” or “by the trickery of their step-mother”, but
he does not elaborate or offer any evidence.
8. a) Augustus was in his sixty-fifth year and in poor health.
b) Tiberius was the only man with sufficient experience and standing to fill the
breach.
c) And it was only natural that LIVIA would take pride in Augustus’ adoption of
her son in the place of Gaius and Lucius.
9. a) For the last decade of Augustus’ life (AD 4 – 14), Livia’s role is obscure.
b) There is little more than Tacitus’ continuing innuendo, the substance of which
most modern scholars treat with total scepticism.
10. A good example would be the claim that, when Augustus’ granddaughter JULIA
fell in AD 8, charged, like her mother before her, with ‘adultery’, LIVIA had a
hand in it because JULIA had been working against Livia’s interests.
11. This would be surprising indeed given that JULIA received an allowance in exile
from LIVIA for the next twenty years.
12. i) Yet it is not easy to explain the invective against LIVIA unless we appeal (as
most modern commentators do) to the virulent propaganda of SCRIBONIA
and her influential circle (added to the misogynistic attitude of the ‘standard’
writers who covered this period).
ii) SCRIBONIA appears to have remained bitter to the end about the way
Augustus had treated her when he divorced HER in favour of LIVIA on the
day JULIA was born and no doubt took every opportunity to discredit her.
SIÂN PHILLIPS
AS A YOUNGER AND OLDER
LIVIA
[Robert Graves’ figure was so unlike the real Livia!]
LIVIA AS MOTHER OF AN “EMPEROR” (PRINCEPS)
1. Augustus had done two things in his will, the second of which had a
considerable impact on the last fifteen years of Livia’s life:
a) in a move which is not fully understood and which wasn’t perhaps of vital
importance in the outcome, he adopted her into the ‘Julian family’, making
her, from a strictly legal point of view, his daughter!
b) Of greater moment, he bestowed upon her the ‘title’ of “Augusta”: she
would henceforth be known as “JULIA AUGUSTA”.
2. This second honour gave her some sort of formal ‘standing’ in the Roman state.
3. Since the name of ‘Julius Caesar’ still resonated in certain circles upon which
the support of the new ‘régime’ counted, the ADOPTION was probably
intended to strengthen Tiberius’ position as the new head of state.
4. He himself has become a ‘Julian’ when Augustus had adopted him in AD 4.
5. Now that LIVIA was a ‘Julian’ too, Tiberius was a ‘Julian’ on BOTH sides of
his family, which should have strengthened his position.
6. BUT the granting to LIVIA of the ‘title’ “Augusta” probably caused a
tension between Tiberius and his mother which made his rule, in his eyes, at the
same time more difficult (as we will see).
7. a) Under Augustus the title “Augustus” had slowly become associated with the
position of ‘head of state’ rather than with the man.
b) LIVIA had now been given, through the designation “Augusta”, some sort
of very vague, quasi-official role in the Roman state - which is not likely to
have gone down well with her son.
8. Livia’s public position was increased further when, with the ‘deification’ of
Augustus after his death by the Senate, she was made a priestess of the
cult of Augustus.
9. Since, apart from the six Vestal Virgins, the Roman state religion did not have
priestesses, this made LIVIA unique.
10. Even so, everything suggests that, while he respected his mother’s new status
and there was no animosity between them, TIBERIUS, as Princeps, was of the
opinion that Livia should not play a role in the governance of the state.
11. a) The sheer number of distinctions heaped upon Livia throughout the empire
shows that he did not resent his mother’s eminent status or try to stop her
being honoured, which he could have done.
b) BUT he was very uncertain about how to handle her public persona – a
difficulty which must, in large part, be laid at Augustus’ door.
12. From being a model of self-effacement under Augustus, LIVIA did not take
long under her son (now his adoptive ‘sister’!) to make it clear that she believed that as
“the Augusta” she had certain quasi-legal entitlements (which set precedents for future
generations) – that she could and should, for example, try to protect her ‘friends’
from prosecution before the courts.
13. If she believed this, then she would be putting herself, in such matters, on a par
with the Princeps in state affairs.
14. On more than one occasion as time went by she appears to have caused Tiberius no
little embarrassment when he had to intervene to stop such matters getting out of
hand.
15. One of the best known cases is that of Munatia Plancina, who got caught up in
the charges brought against her husband (Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso) who was
charged with both treason and murder when, in AD 19, Tiberius’ adopted son
and heir, Germanicus, died in suspicious circumstances in the East after Piso had
refused to obey his orders.
16. While her husband (who was clearly guilty of treason for disobeying the orders
of someone holding superior authority) committed suicide and was never tried,
Munatia Plancina was taken to court on a charge of being involved in murder
(by poison).
17. She placed herself at the mercy of Tiberius and the Senate, although, because of
their close friendship, Plancina’s protection rested ultimately on LIVIA.
18. When Tiberius sought to intervene in accordance with his mother’s wishes
(since she could not address the Senate herself), the Senate, amazingly, passed a
decree saying that it must accede to Livia’s request “because she was entitled,
by right and deservedly, to a supreme influence in any request that she might
put to the Senate” - recognizing that she had a quasi-constitutional role.
19. This gave LIVIA a public authority of a sort she would never have obtained
under Augustus.
20. i) It was this question of Livia’s right (even if she rarely exercised it) to
intervene in public matters, never enjoyed by a woman before, which
caused the tension between herself and Tiberius until he abandoned Rome for
good for his retreat on Capri in AD 26.
ii) It may even have contributed to his decision to leave.
21. LIVIA was already in her eighties and she now virtually disappears from the
historical narrative until her death in AD 29 at the age of about 87.
22. BUT, even after her death she still enjoyed an unprecedented status, since.
the SENATE passed a resolution that an arch should be erected in her honour.
23. The Senate had never honoured a woman in this way before and it never did so
again - and, in fact, the arch was never built!
We should not leave LIVIA without saying something about her wealth and
about her patronage of others.
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LIVIA AS WOMAN OF WEALTH AND AS PATRON
i) Given that LIVIA was the daughter of a man proscribed by “The Triumvirs”
(Marcus Antonius, Lepidus, and Octavian) and the wife of a man who had fled into exile,
it is most unlikely that she brought much to her marriage in 38 BC to Octavian
in terms of property.
ii) One wonders, even, what sort of dowry could be provided.
BUT by the time of her death in AD 29 at the age of 86 or so, she was one of the
wealthiest women in the Roman world.
How much her estate was worth when she died is unclear, but there is enough
solid evidence to say that it amounted to at least 68 million sesterces [say £68
million], probably much more.
We know that she received 50 million sesterces in Augustus’ will in AD 14 but
she will have accumulated much during his lifetime as Rome’s “first lady” (even
if not prominent at the state level) too.
5. i) Legacies in return for favours shown to particular families and individuals
were a phenomenon of Roman life.
ii) Although Augustus, by his own legislation in 18 and 17 BC, imposed severe
restrictions in this area on citizens who were unmarried or who did not have
at least three children, LIVIA was granted the ius trium liberorum (“the right
of someone with three children”) which gave her an exemption [as it did to others] on
the death of her son Drusus in 9 BC.
6. We do not have a list of the monies and property (including slaves) bequeathed
to Livia by others in their wills but we know of some significant examples – all
from outside Rome. For example:
a) Livia shared 500 ‘talents’ (about 35,500 lbs of silver) with Herod the Great’s
friends and freedmen when he died about 4 BC. [Augustus was left 1000 ‘talents’].
b) Herod’s sister, Salome, left Livia the bulk of her estate when she died ca. AD 10.
7. There will have been a myriad of (for us) undocumented lesser bequests over the
years.
PROPERTY
1. By Roman law a man could not give his wife significant gifts during his lifetime, but he could, of course, leave her bequests in his will (as mentioned).
2. i) He could leave her the use of a house or part of a house until she died - when it
would go to his heirs.
ii) LIVIA is believed to have moved from the main part of Augustus’ house on
the Palatine to her own quarters, the so-called domus Liviae (“House of Livia”)
[known since 1869], for the last 15 years of her life (AD 14 – 29).
iii) There she will have had a significant personal household staff.
THE HOUSE OF LIVIA
THE RELATIVELY MODEST HOUSE OF
AUGUSTUS ON THE PALATINE –
GIVEN THAT IT WAS OPEN TO ALL
SORTS OF CALLERS.
.
LIVIA’S SEPARATED QUARTERS WERE
TO ONE SIDE
3. i) Ownership of country estates was important to upper-class Romans and
Livia will have been no exception.
ii) Livia’s holdings will have been found throughout Italy and comprised land,
houses (villas) and commercial enterprises.
iii) We know, for example, that she owned brickworks in Campania which were
probably part of a large estate.
4. Her property outside Italy seems to have been even more impressive.
a) Land with copper mines (which she could exploit in her own right) in Gaul;
b) Palm groves (inherited from Salome) in Judaea;
c) A large estate near Thyateria in Asia Minor;
d) Papyrus marshes, grain lands, vineyards, vegetable farms, granaries, olive
groves in Egypt.
5. It was her prominent position which brought her a considerable fortune, which,
in turn, imposed expensive obligations.
6. One particular expense came with the deification of Augustus after his death.
7. i) The SENATE, by a motion, approved the erection of a temple to “the deified
Augustus” (divus Augustus),
ii) but this would not be paid for from state coffers.
iii) It fell to LIVIA and TIBERIUS to assume the cost of its construction.
PATRONAGE AND THE OBLIGATIONS OF FORMAL “FRIENDSHIP”
1. Despite her virtually non-existent role in state affairs under Augustus, as the first
“First Lady” (once the Principate became established) LIVIA would be looked to as a
patron of individuals, particular families, and entire communities – and expected
to offer protection as well as financial support.
2. Again, we only get glimpses of her activities, but she seems not to have been
wanting in these areas.
3. She is known
a) to have paid the dowries of daughters when their relatives did not have
sufficient means;
b) to have helped with the costs of raising the children of respected people
whose resources had declined;
c) to have helped finance the careers of some who later rose to positions of
some import;
d) to have used her influence when those to whom she had obligations of
amicitia (formal “friendship”) ran into legal difficulties, as we saw in the case
of Munatia Plancina when she was charged in AD 20 as a result of the events
surrounding the death in ‘the East’ of Germanicus.
4. Just because she was the wife of Augustus and the mother of his successor and
believed to have their ear, much was expected of her by some, although she was
not always successful in her appeals to her husband or her son.
5. At times (as noted earlier) whole communities hoped that LIVIA would intercede on
their behalf and we have a rare glimpse of such a hope in the case of the island
of Samos (off western Turkey).
6. a) Aphrodisias on the west coast of Caria (in south-west Turkey), a community
which had always been exceptionally loyal to Augustus, had been granted its
“freedom” (which meant ‘free status’ and, in practice, exemption from direct
taxation by Rome).
b) Samos, somewhat later, asked for the same privilege through LIVIA.
c) Augustus’ reply to them is preserved: he apologizes that he must say ‘No’ for to grant such an exemption again would only lead to a stream of such
requests, he says.
7. It is not the details of this example that matter but what it shows: that there was a
clear public perception that AUGUSTUS and LIVIA did discuss such issues
together before he decided what was appropriate or otherwise.
PUBLIC WORKS AND PHILANTHROPY
1. LIVIA, as would be the case with later imperial women, undertook the
restoration and construction of buildings to enhance public spaces.
2. A good example of her involvement would be her restoration (perhaps because
she was the wife of the Pontifex Maximus and had oversight of the associated
ceremonies) of the Temple of the Bona Dea (“the Good Goddess”) in Rome.
3. But she is known to have been a generous philanthropist outside Rome too.
4. And in the Roman world, where the idea of anonymous giving was unknown,
there was a quid pro quo: LIVIA would expect either material rewards or
honours in recognition of her benefactions.
5. Livia was celebrated with festivals, statues, the adoption of her name by
communities and, in the Greek half of the empire (where there was a longstanding practice inherited from the Hellenistic period), divine honours.
6. With respect to the last, since it was unthinkable that Roman citizens would
consider their leaders ‘divine’, it was not until after her death that LIVIA became
DIVA JULIA AVGVSTA (“the deified Julia Augusta” [Livia]) and this not until the
status was bestowed on her by her grandson Claudius in AD 41, twelve years
after her death.
7. Even in the eastern provinces, however, divine status (which had to be approved)
was granted sparingly.
8. An amusing example, perhaps, occurred in AD 21 under Tiberius:
i) Two corrupt Roman officials in the province of ASIA (far western Asia Minor), the
governor himself and a financial procurator who oversaw the imperial estates
there, were put on trial in Rome.
ii) Grateful that Rome had listened, the communities of the province voted
collectively to dedicate a temple to Tiberius, his mother, and the Senate.
iii) Tiberius was known to be hostile to requests for deification – especially for
himself, but on this occasion he conceded.
iv) BUT the cities of Asia became involved in a most unsettling bout of wrangling
over WHERE the temple would be located: for three years they argued, in the
end agreeing to send delegations to the Senate to have that distinguished body
in Rome decide the matter.
v) Representatives came from Pergamum, Sardis, Halicarnassus, Smyrna, and the
like and all presented their cases.
i) Halicarnassus’ argument, for example, was that their city was free from the
threat of earthquakes and should be chosen; but
ii) Smyrna was the most persuasive – arguing loyalty to Rome for centuries.
iii) The only officially sanctioned temple to Livia in her lifetime thus rose in
Smyrna - which was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake about a
hundred years later!
Livia, then, certainly qualifies as one of the “noteworthy” of the Roman period and
set many a precedent for future imperial wives.