Livia

Līvĭa, v. Livius.

Līvĭa, (10) æ, f. , Livie [nom de femme ; entre autres, Livie Drusille, épouse dʼAuguste ; Livie ou Liville, épouse de Drusus, fils de Tibère] : Suet. Aug. 29 ; Tib. 4 ; Ov. F. 5, 157 || -ānus, a, um, de Livie : Plin. 13, 80.

Li'via

1. Daughter of M. Livius Drusus, consul B. C. 112, and sister of M. Livius Drusus, the celebrated tribune of the plebs, who was killed B. C. 91. [See the genealogical table, Vol. I. p. 1076.] She was married first to M. Porcius Cato, by whom she had Cato Uticensis (Cic. Brut. 62; V. Max. 3.1.2; Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 80; Plut. Cat. Mi. 1.2), and subsequently to Q. Servilius Caepio, by whom she had a daughter, Servilia, who was the mother of M. Brutus, who killed Caesar. (Plut. Brut. 2, Caes. 62, Cat. Min. 24.) Some writers suppose that Caepio was her first husband, and Cato her second.

Li'via

2. Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus, was the daughterof Livius Drusus Claudianus [Drusus, No. 7], who had been adopted by one of the Livia gens, but was a descendant of App. Claudius Caecus. Livia was born on the 28th of September, B. C. 56-54. (Letronne, Recherches pour servir à l'Histoire de l'Egypte, p. 171.) She was married first to Tib. Claudius Nero; but her beauty having attracted the notice of Octavian at the beginning of B. C. 38, her husband was compelled to divorce her, and surrender her to the triumvir. She had already borne her husband one son, the future emperor Tiberius, and at the time of her marriage with Augustus was six months pregnant with another, who subsequently received the name of Drusus. It was only two years previously that she had been obliged to fly before Octavian, in consequence of her husband having fought against him in the Perusinian war. (Suet. Tib. 3, 4; Vell. 2.75, 79; Suet. Aug. 62; D. C. 48.15, 34, 44.)

Livia never bore Augustus any children, but she continued to have unbounded influence over him till the time of his death. The empire which she had gained by her charms she maintained by the purity of her conduct and the fascination of her manners, as well as by a perfect knowledge of the character of Augustus, whom she endeavoured to please in every way. She was a consummate actress, excelled in dissimulation and intrigue, and never troubled either herself or her husband by complaining of the numerous mistresses of the latter. There was only one subject which occasioned any dissension between them, and that was the succession. Augustus naturally wished to secure it for his own family, but Livia resolved to obtain it for her own children; and, according to the common opinion at Rome, she did not scruple to employ foul means to remove out of the way the family of her husband. Hence she was said to be " gravis in rempublicam mater, gravis domui Caesarum noverca." (Tac. Ann. 1.10.) The premature death of Marcellus was attributed by many to her machinations, because he had been preferred to her sons as the husband of Julia, the daughter of Augustus. (D. C. 53.33.) But for this there seems little ground. The opportune death both of C. Caesar and L. Caesar seems much more suspicious. These young men were the children of Julia by her marriage with Agrippa; and being the grandchildren of Augustus, they presented, as long as they lived, an insuperable obstacle to the accession of Tiberius, the son of Livia. But Lucius died suddenly at Massilia in A. D. 2, and Caius in Lycia A. D. 4, of a wound, which was not considered at all dangerous. It was generally suspected that they had both been poisoned, by the secret orders of Livia and Tiberius. She was even suspected of having hastened the death of Augustus in A. D. 14.

Augustus left Livia and Tiberius as his heirs ; and by his testament adopted her into the Julia gens, in consequence of which she received the name of Julia Augusta. By the accession of her son to the imperial throne, Livia had now attained the long-cherished object of her ambition, and by means of her son thought to reign over the Roman world. But this the jealous temper of Tiberius would not brook. At first all public documents were signed by her as well as by Tiberius, and letters on public business were addressed to her as well as to the emperor; and with the exception of her not appearing in person in the senate or the assemblies of the army and the people, she acted as if she were the sovereign. She openly said that it was she who had procured the empire for Tiberius , and to gratify her the senate proposed to confer upon her various extraordinary honours. Thereupon Tiberius, perceiving that he was becoming a mere cypher in the state, forbade all these honours, and commanded her to retire altogether from public affairs; but she had gained such an ascendancy over him, that he did not feel himself his own master as long as he was in her neighbourhood, and accordingly removed his residence from Rome to Capreae. Such was the return she was destined to receive for all the toil she had sustained and the crimes she had probably committed, in order to secure the empire for her son. Tiberius no longer disguised the hatred he felt for his mother, and for the space of three years he only spoke to her once. When she was on her death-bed, he even refused to visit her. She died in A. D. 29, after suffering from repeated attacks of illness, at a very advanced age, eighty-two according to Pliny (Plin. Nat. 14.8), eighty-six according to Dio Cassius (58.2). Tiberius did not attempt to dissemble the joy which he felt at her death. He took no part in the funeral rites, and forbade her consecration, which had been proposed by the senate, on the ground that she had not wished it herself. Her funeral oration was delivered by her great-grandson, C. Caesar, subsequently the emperor Caligula; but Tiberius would not allow her testament to be carried into effect. The legacies which she had left were not fully paid till the accession of Caligula; and her consecration did not take place till the reign of Claudius. (Tac. Ann. 1.3, 5, 8, 10, 14, 5.1, 2; D. C. 57.12, 58.2, 59.1, 2, 60.5; Suet. Tib. 50, 51.)

Li'via

3. Livia or Livilla, the daughter of Drusus senior and Antonia, and the sister of Germanicus and the emperor Claudius. [See the genealogical table, Vol. I. p. 1076.] In her eleventh year B. C. 1, she was betrothed to C. Caesar, the son of Agrippa and Julia, and the grandson of Augustus. She was subsequently married to her first cousin, Drusus junior, the son of the emperor Tiberius, but was seduced by Sejanus, who both feared and hated Drusus, and who persuaded her to poison her husband, which she accordingly did in A. D. 23. Her guilt was not discovered till the fall of Sejanus, eight years afterwards, A. D. 31, when it was revealed to Tiberius by Apicata, the wife of Sejanus. According to some statements Livia was put to death by Tiberius, but according to others she was spared by the emperor on account of her mother, Antonia, who, however, caused her to be starved to death. Such is the account of Dio Cassius (58.11); but from Tacitus saying (Ann. 6.2) that in A. D. 32 the statues of Livia were destroyed and her memory cursed, because her crimes had not yet been punished, it would appear as if he supposed that she had died before the fall of Sejanus. (Suet. Cl. 1; Tac. Ann. 2.43, 84, iv 1, 40, 6.2; D. C. 57.22, 58.11.)

Li'via

4. Julia Livilla, the daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina. [Julia, No. 8.]

Li'via Gens

plebeian, but one of the most illustrious houses among the Roman nobility. Suetonius says (Tib. 3) that the Livii had obtained eight consulships, two censorships, three triumphs, a dictatorship, and a mastership of the horse. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was M. Livius Denter, B. C. 302; and it at length rose to the imperial dignity by the marriage of Livia with Augustus, whose son Tiberius by a former husband succeeded the latter in the government of the Roman world. The cognomens in this gens are Denter, Drusus, Libo, Macatus, and Salinator.

Livia

(1) A sister of M. Livius Drusus, the celebrated tribune, B.C. 91. She was married first to M. Porcius Cato, by whom she had Cato Uticensis, and subsequently to Q. Servilius Caepio, by whom she had a daughter, Servilia, the mother of M. Brutus, who killed Caesar.

(2) Livia Drusilla, the daughter of Livius Drusus Claudianus. She was married first to Claudius Nero, and afterwards to Augustus, who compelled her husband to divorce her in B.C. 38. She had already borne her husband one son, the future emperor Tiberius, and at the time of her marriage with Augustus was six months pregnant with another, who subsequently received the name of Drusus. She never had any children by Augustus, but she retained his affection till his death. On the accession of her son Tiberius to the throne, she at first attempted to obtain an equal share in the government; but this the jealous temper of Tiberius would not brook, and he commanded her to cease meddling in public affairs. From that time he showed towards her only hatred, refusing even to visit her when she was dying. She died in A.D. 29, at the age of 82 or 86.

(3) Livilla, the wife of the younger Drusus, son of the emperor Tiberius. She was seduced by Seianus, who persuaded her to poison her husband, a.d. 23.

(4) Iulia Livilla, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina. See Iulia.