Livia

Family: Julio-Claudian house · Role: wife of Augustus · First appears: Augustus 29

In Augustus 29, Augustus constructed a portico in Livia’s name, alongside buildings named for Lucius, Caius Caesar (grandson of Augustus), and Octavia. Livia later married Augustus while pregnant with Tiberius, and within three months gave birth to Drusus the Elder. While pregnant with Tiberius, she sought through divination to learn whether her child would be a son. Augustus refused her request for Roman citizenship for a tributary Gaul, offering tax exemption instead, and their marriage was described as precipitate.

In Augustus 101, Augustus named Tiberius heir to two thirds of his estate and Livia heir to the other third, asking both to assume his name. Tiberius later prevented September and October from being renamed after himself and Livia, refused her the title “Mother of her Country” and any extraordinary public distinction, and admonished her not to meddle in weighty affairs or matters he considered unsuited to her sex. He then entered into an open rupture with her, delayed her funeral until her body had decayed, forbade divine honours, and annulled her will.

After Livia’s death, Claudius secured divine honours for his grandmother from the senate, including a chariot drawn by elephants in the Circensian procession. Livia had favoured Galba, who courted her and received a bequest of fifty million sesterces in her will, but Tiberius reduced it to five hundred thousand and Galba never received it.