Livia (30 January 58 BC-28 September 29 AD) was Empress of the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 14 AD as the wife of Augustus. She was the mother of Tiberius and Nero Claudius Drusus, and her first son, Augustus' stepson, succeeded him as emperor on his death in 14 AD. Livia was known as an evil schemer who was responsible for the murders of her kinsmen Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Nero Claudius Drusus, Lucius Caesar, Agrippa Postumus, her own husband Augustus, and Germanicus as a part of her ambition to ensure that her son Tiberius would succeed Augustus as emperor, although she was ultimately estranged from her son due to her insistence that Tiberius was only on the throne because of her actions. After her death in 29 AD, however, her son deified her to honor her last wishes, so that she may evade torment for her crimes in the afterlife.
Biography[]
Livia in 23 BC
Livia Drusilla was born on 30 January 58 BC into a Roman noble family, and she married Tiberius Claudius Nero, her patrician cousin, in 43 BC. Her first child, the future emperor Tiberius, was born in 42 BC, and her family was forced to flee to Sextus Pompey's Sicily after they were proscribed as enemies of the state by the Second Triumvirate for their support of the Liberatores. After the general amnesty of 39 BC, the family returned to Rome, and Livia first met Octavian there. Octavian immediately fell in love with her, and he persuaded Tiberius Claudius to divorce Livia so that he could marry her. Livia was an ambitious mother; while she and Octavian (known as Emperor Augustus after 27 BC) had no children apart from a single miscarriage, Livia attempted to push her sons into positions of power, and she poisoned Augustus' nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 23 BC. In 4 AD, Tiberius was adopted as Augustus' heir. After Augustus' death in 14 AD (which she caused by poisoning Augustus' figs), Livia exercised unofficial power in Rome upon her son's accession to the throne; speaking against her became treason in 20 AD. However, Tiberius resented the notion that he had risen to the throne because of his mother, and he rejected the Roman Senate's plan to name her "Mother of the Fatherland", the female version of the same title given to Augustus. Tiberius eventually grew sick of his mother and moved to the island of Capri to avoid her, but he visited her in Rome one last time while she was on her deathbed in 29 AD. She was deified after her death by her son Tiberius in accordance with her last wishes, as she did not want to face justice for her crimes in the afterlife.
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