Livia Augusta
—Chrissie
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In the middle decades of the last century BCE, Rome was in the midst of a power struggle between two strongmen competing for the legacy of Julius Caesar. One, Marc Antony, had served beside Caesar for many years and had acted as his lieutenant during Caesar’s dictatorship. The other, Gaius Octavian, was Caesar’s great-nephew, a young man who had not yet entered into politics when he found himself named Caesar’s heir.
One of the key players in this political scene was Livia Drusilla, a young woman of noble heritage. She was married to a well-placed Senator, Tiberius Claudius Drusus, who was a partisan of Antony. In 39 BCE, at a time when hostilities between Antony and Octavian had been suspended (for a time), Livia and Octavian met. The sources say that he was immediately taken with her, despite the fact that she was already married, had one young son, and was pregnant with another. Whether she was equally attracted to him at the time we cannot be sure, however, there was no doubt she was attracted to the opportunity to improve her position. As the wife of one of Antony’s supporters, she had little prospects for power if he were to emerge victorious; as the wife of Octavian, she could help him to succeed and stood to become the wife of the First Man in Rome. There was a greater risk, for sure, but with a much better potential reward. Octavian immediately divorced his wife, Scribonia, and forced Livia’s husband to do the same. They were married on the 17th of January in 38 BCE. Livia’s ex-husband served as the father of the bride. Three months later, Livia gave birth to her second son, Drusus, then sent the baby boy to live with his father and elder brother, Tiberius, as tradition dictated and in order to quiet rumors that the child was Octavian’s. She and Octavian never had any children together. It is difficult to say whether this was intentional, as their mutual children would certainly have begun a dynasty, but the lack thereof allowed Livia to push her own sons into similarly situated positions.
Over the next seven years, Livia stood beside her husband as he warred with Antony, who allied with Cleopatra, until the latter pair was defeated at the Battle of Actium, leaving Octavian as the sole ruler of Rome. After Antony’s defeat, Octavian made a show of restoring order via the Senate, creating an appearance that they had been returned to their previous authority. Over the next decade he was, however, granted many special honors and positions that allowed him to guide, or dictate outright, policy. He was also granted a number of titles, including the honorific name by which he is better known: Augustus. During the nearly fifty years he ruled Rome, Livia acted as an unofficial advisor to her husband. As her husband held an immensely powerful and unprecedented position, she also was in an equally unprecedented and, in her case, unrecognized position: the Empress of Rome. As Rome had no traditions that included politically powerful women, Livia walked a fine line of maintaining the appearance of a dutiful wife and helpmeet while also acting as a patroness in her own right for various projects and people within Rome’s environs.
Both of her sons served admirably as generals in Augustus’ armies. The younger, Drusus, served in Germany and died there after a fall from his horse. Drusus was father to one of Augustus’ successors, Claudius, and grandfather to another, Gaius Caligula. The elder son, Tiberius, also led soldiers in Germany until he was brought home to serve his stepfather’s political ends. In the year 2 CE, after all of Augustus’ previously chosen heirs had died, he adopted his stepson to be heir to his name and property. This also meant Tiberius was heir to Augustus’ power in Rome, though that was never explicitly stated.
At Augustus’ death in 14 CE, Tiberius was granted in one moment all of the public powers that his stepfather had slowly accrued over the previous 44 years. And, as those powers were passed to him, the Senate voted to deify Augustus. Livia was granted one of the few public positions available to Roman women: she became the head priestess of her late husband’s cult, a role she took very seriously. She also tried to advise her son in his politics as she had advised her husband, but Tiberius seems to have done his best to avoid it. In spite of his apparent wishes, Livia’s name appears alongside his on many documents in the early years of his reign.
At Livia’s death in 29 CE, the Senate offered to give her unprecedented honors, all of which Tiberius refused, claiming she would not have wanted them. However, in 42, during the reign of her grandson Claudius, she was deified in order that she could be honored in the Imperial Pantheon alongside her husband, the deified Augustus.