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91-643: Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC – AD 29) was Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Augustus , the first Roman emperor . She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julia gens in AD ;14. Livia was the daughter of the senator Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus and his wife Alfidia . She married Tiberius Claudius Nero around 43 BC, and they had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus . In 38 BC, she divorced Tiberius Claudius Nero and married

182-531: A cunning and effective advisor to her husband, whom she loves passionately. Luke Devenish's "Empress of Rome" novels, Den of Wolves (2008) and Nest of Vipers (2010), have Livia as a central character in a fictionalized account of her life and times. Livia plays an important role in two Marcus Corvinus mysteries by David Wishart, Ovid (1995) and Germanicus (1997). She is mentioned posthumously in Sejanus (1998). The 2021 Sky Atlantic series Domina relates

273-525: A duty to father and raise healthy children as future citizens of Rome, to maintain the moral propriety and well-being of his household, to honour his clan and ancestral gods and to dutifully participate—and if possible, serve—in Rome's political, religious and social life. In effect, the pater familias was expected to be a good citizen. In theory at least, he held powers of life and death over every member of his extended familia through ancient right. In practice,

364-412: A father”) refers to this concept. He held legal privilege over the property of the familia , and varying levels of authority over his dependents: these included his wife and children , certain other relatives through blood or adoption, clients , freedmen and slaves. The same mos majorum moderated his authority and determined his responsibilities to his own familia and to the broader community. He had

455-686: A foster child at the house of Octavian; the second left Tiberius with a lasting emotional scar, since he had been forced for dynastic considerations to abandon the woman he loved. The Roman tribe Livia was named in her honor. The ancient sources all agree that Livia was Augustus' best confidant and counselor, but the extent of her influence remained disputed due to the numerous attempts by her political enemies to defame her dynasty. According to Suetonius, who had access to imperial records, Augustus would write down lists of items to be discussed with Livia, and then take careful notes of her replies to be consulted again later. In Tacitus' Annals , meanwhile, Livia

546-592: A handful ruled as empresses regnant , governing in their own right without a husband. There was no single official term for the position of "empress" in Ancient Rome . Consorts were usually given the Latin title of augusta ( Greek : αὐγούστα, augoústa ), the female form of the title augustus . Insofar as augustus is understood as meaning "emperor", then a given woman could not become "empress" until being named augusta . However, not all consorts were given

637-433: A long life". In the popular fictional work I, Claudius by Robert Graves —based on Tacitus' innuendo—Livia is portrayed as a thoroughly Machiavellian , scheming political mastermind. Determined never to allow republican governance to flower again, as she felt they led to corruption and civil war, and devoted to bringing Tiberius to power and then maintaining him there, she is involved in nearly every death or disgrace in

728-453: A microcosm of the Roman state. In Roman law, the potestas of the pater familias was official but distinct from that of magistrates. Only a Roman citizen held the status of pater familias , and there could be only one holder of that office within a household. He was responsible for its well-being, reputation and legal and moral propriety. The entire familia was expected to adhere to

819-422: A miniature depicting Helena Dragaš . Given that no seals or documents of other empresses have survived, it is not known if all of them used the title, although it's most likely they did. Pater familias Roman law and tradition ( mos majorum ) established the power of the pater familias within the community of his own extended familia . In Roman family law, the term "Patria potestas" (Latin: “power of

910-513: A necessarily cruel means to what she firmly considers a noble aspiration: the common good of the Romans, achievable only under strict imperial rule. In John Maddox Roberts 's short story "The King of Sacrifices," set in his SPQR series , Livia hires Decius Metellus to investigate the murder of one of Julia the Elder 's lovers. In Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough , Livia is portrayed as

1001-506: A principal beneficiary of the climate of adulation that Augustus had done so much to create, and which Tiberius despised ("a strong contempt for honours", Tacitus, Annals 4.37). In AD 24, whenever she attended the theatre, a seat among the Vestals was typically reserved for her ( Annals 4.16), but this may have been intended more as an honor for the Vestals than for her (cf. Ovid, Tristia , 4.2.13f, Epist. ex Ponto 4.13.29f). Livia played

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1092-438: A single mother. Mandé society , while more often organized along patrilineal lines , exhibited some matrilineal lines and generally reserved powerful positions of political and household authority for women. In Igbo society , women were “most celebrated” for their roles as mothers and wives, but also participated in independent market activity and in communal defense. As a sizable proportion of enslaved people transported to

1183-502: A slave three times, he was no longer subject to patria potestas . The pater familias had the power to approve or reject marriages of his sons and daughters; however, an edict of Emperor Augustus provided that the pater familias could not withhold that permission lightly. The filii familias (children of the family) could include the biological and adopted children of the pater familias and his siblings. Because of their extended rights (their longa manus , literally "long hand"),

1274-612: A son of Pompey Magnus , who opposed the Second Triumvirate from his base in Sicily . Later, Livia, her husband Tiberius Nero and their two-year-old son, Tiberius, moved on to Greece . After peace was established between the Triumvirate and the followers of Sextus Pompeius, a general amnesty was announced, and Livia returned to Rome, where she was personally introduced to Octavian in 39 BC. At this time, Livia already had

1365-456: A son, the future emperor Tiberius , and was pregnant with the second, Nero Claudius Drusus (also known as Drusus the Elder). Legend said that Octavian fell immediately in love with her, despite the fact that he was still married to Scribonia . Octavian divorced Scribonia on 30 October 39 BC, the very day that she gave birth to his daughter Julia the Elder . Seemingly around that time, when Livia

1456-691: A statue to Augustus in the center of Rome, placing her own name even before that of Tiberius. Ancient historians give as a reason for Tiberius' retirement to Capri his inability to endure his mother any longer. Until AD 22 there had, according to Tacitus, been "a genuine harmony between mother and son, or a hatred well concealed;" Dio tells us that at the time of his accession already Tiberius heartily loathed her. In AD 22 she had fallen ill, and Tiberius hastened back to Rome in order to be with her. But in AD 29 when she finally fell ill and died, he remained on Capri, pleading pressure of work and sending Caligula to deliver

1547-523: A vital role in the formation of her children Tiberius and Drusus. Attention focuses on her part in the divorce of her first husband, father of Tiberius, in 39/38 BC. Her role in this is unknown, as well as in Tiberius's divorce of Vipsania Agrippina in 12 BC at Augustus's insistence: whether it was merely neutral or passive, or whether she actively colluded in Caesar's wishes. The first divorce left Tiberius

1638-463: A woman legally remained part of her birth family, under the hand of their pater familias . Women emancipated from the potestas of a pater familias were independent by law ( sui iuris ) but had a male guardian appointed to them. A woman sui iuris had the right to take legal action on her own behalf but not to administer legal matters for others. The laws of the Twelve Tables required

1729-527: A woman of proud and queenly attributes, faithful to her imperial husband, for whom she was a worthy consort, forever poised and dignified. With consummate skill she acted out the roles of consort, mother, widow, and dowager. Dio records two of her utterances: "Once, when some naked men met her and were to be put to death in consequence, she saved their lives by saying that to a chaste woman such men are in no way different from statues. When someone asked her how she had gained respect from Augustus, she answered that it

1820-508: Is famously depicted as having great influence, to the extent where she "had the aged Augustus firmly under control—so much so that he exiled his only surviving grandson to the island of Planasia"; Tacitus goes on to call her "a real catastrophe to the nation as a mother, and to the house of the Caesars as a stepmother" and "a compliant wife, but an overbearing mother". Livia's image appears in ancient visual media such as coins and portraits. She

1911-502: The Battle of Philippi , along with Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus , but her husband continued fighting against Octavian, now on behalf of Mark Antony and his brother Lucius Antonius . Her first child, the future emperor Tiberius , was born in 42 BC. In 40 BC, the family was forced to flee Italy in order to avoid the recriminations of Octavian in the aftermath of the siege of Perusia . They joined with Sextus Pompeius ,

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2002-533: The Julio-Claudian family up to the time of her death. On her deathbed she only fears divine punishment for all she had done, and secures the promise of future deification by her grandson Claudius, an act which, she believes, will guarantee her a blissful afterlife. However, this portrait of her is balanced by her intense devotion to the well-being of the Empire as a whole, and her machinations are justified as

2093-823: The Palatine Hill . Livia would set the pattern for the noble Roman matrona . She wore neither excessive jewelry nor pretentious costumes; she took care of the household and her husband (often making his clothes herself), always faithful and dedicated. In 35 BC, Octavian gave Livia the unprecedented honor of ruling her own finances and dedicated a public statue to her. She owned and effectively administered copper mines in Gaul, estates of palm groves in Judea , and dozens of papyrus marshes in Egypt . She had her own circle of clients and pushed many protégés into political offices, including

2184-526: The familia under its pater . The domestic responsibilities of the pater familias included his priestly duties ( sacra familiae ) to his "household gods" (the Lares and Penates ) and the ancestral gods of his own gens . The latter were represented by the di parentes as ancestral shades of the departed, and by the genius cult. Genius has been interpreted as the essential, heritable spirit (or divine essence, or soul) and generative power that suffused

2275-456: The familia , which were decisions by committee ( consilium ). The family consilia probably involved the most senior members of his own household, especially his wife, and, if necessary, his peers and seniors within his extended clan ( gens ). Augustus 's legislation on the morality of marriage co-opted the traditional potestas of the pater familias . Augustus was not only Rome's princeps but also its father ( pater patriae ). As such, he

2366-459: The gens and each of its members. As the singular, lawful head of a family derived from a gens , the pater familias embodied and expressed its genius through his pious fulfillment of ancestral obligations. The pater familias was therefore owed a reciprocal duty of genius cult by his entire familia . He in his turn conferred genius and the duty of sacra familiae to his children—whether by blood or by adoption. Roman religious law defined

2457-414: The pater familias to ensure that "obviously deformed" infants were put to death . The survival of congenitally disabled adults, conspicuously evidenced among the elite by the partially-lame Emperor Claudius , demonstrates that personal choice was exercised in the matter. The pater familias had the power to sell his children into slavery ; Roman law provided, however, that if a child had been sold as

2548-527: The patres familias also had a series of extra duties: duties towards the filii and the slaves, but some of the duties were recognized not by the original ius civile but only by the ius gentium , specially directed to foreigners, or by the ius honorarium , the law of the Magistratus , especially the Praetor , which would emerge only in a latter period of Roman law. Adult filii remained under

2639-491: The senate shortly afterward. In his will, he left one third of his property to Livia, and the other two thirds to Tiberius . In the will, he also adopted her into the Julian family and granted her the honorific title of Augusta . These dispositions permitted Livia to maintain her status and power after her husband's death, under the new name of Julia Augusta . Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that rumours persisted that Augustus

2730-407: The 'Byzantine Empire' by modern historians, endured for almost another millennium until its fall through the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The final empress of the east, and final Roman empress overall, was Maria of Trebizond , wife of Emperor John VIII Palaiologos . In addition to basílissa and autokráteira , many later eastern empresses bore the title δέσποινα ( déspoina ), the female form of

2821-545: The Constantinian and Valentinianic dynasties. Posthumous child of Constantius II and Faustina All empress, with the exceptions of Galla , " Elen ", and Thermantia , received the title augusta . Daughter of Theodosius I and Galla . Originally married the Visigothic king Athaulf , married Constantius on 1 January 417. She later served as regent for her son Valentinian III alongside Aetius . During

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2912-538: The Early Republic, a wife was "handed over" from the legal control of her father to the legal control of (the father of) her husband in the form of marriage cum manu (Latin cum manu means "with hand"). If the man divorced his wife, he or his father had to give the dowry and the wife back to the pater familias of the wife's former family. By the Late Republic, manus marriage had become rare, and

3003-465: The New World in the trans-Atlantic trade originated from Akan, Mandé, and Igbo societies, some historians have noted a connection between the matrilineal elements of these West African cultures and the centrality of women and mothers in enslaved peoples’ family units. These alternative modes of structuring household and family life among enslaved people threatened some planters’ intentions to serve as

3094-482: The Roman context, various slavery regimes in world history have adopted the concept of pater familias to structure the legal, cultural, and social relationships between slaveowners and enslaved people. The law code of fifteenth-century Valencian society , for example, adopted the classical Roman conception of familia to recognize servant laborers and enslaved persons as members of the domestic household, roughly equal in status to family members given their subjecthood to

3185-596: The Roman household model of pater familias to the level of broader society. The patriarchal mode of slavery that Southern U.S. and Caribbean slaveowners attempted to establish often clashed with the familial structures enslaved people themselves constructed. Some of these family structures had roots in West African societies . The Akan society of the Gold Coast, for example, was largely matrilineal and composed of individual “clans or lineages,” descended from

3276-529: The Senate bestowed upon him the honorary title of Augustus ("honorable" or "revered one"). Augustus rejected monarchical titles, instead choosing to refer to himself as Princeps Civitatis ("First Citizen of the State") or Princeps Senatus ("First among the Senate"). He and Livia formed the role model for Roman households. Despite their wealth and power, Augustus' family continued to live modestly in their house on

3367-421: The ability to absolve the enslaved of any wrongdoing, trying them by jury, or sentencing them to capital punishments. While some Roman patres familias permitted enslaved individuals in their households to establish quasi-marital unions (known as contubernia ) as a means of forming communal bonds among the enslaved, these unions were only recognized within the household and carried no legal bearing outside of

3458-443: The absolute authority of the pater familias weakened, and rights that theoretically existed were no longer enforced or insisted upon. The power over life and death was abolished, the right of punishment was moderated and the sale of children was restricted to cases of extreme necessity. Under Emperor Hadrian , a father who killed his son was stripped of both his citizenship and all its attendant rights, had his property confiscated and

3549-549: The authority of the pater familias . As a consequence of this, patres familias maintained honor and status within their communities by fulfilling both the material and spiritual needs of all members of the household, including enslaved persons. This included providing for the food, clothing, shelter, education, and baptism of enslaved persons. When they reneged on these obligations, the law code considered them to forfeit their right to ownership of their enslaved, leading in some cases to disputes between paternal heads of household over

3640-446: The authority of their pater and could not themselves acquire the rights of a pater familias while he lived. Legally, any property acquired by individual family members (sons, daughters or slaves) was acquired for the family estate: the pater familias held sole rights to its disposal and sole responsibility for the consequences, including personal forfeiture of rights and property through debt. Those who lived in their own households at

3731-421: The cases of Urgulania , grandmother of Claudius's first wife Plautia Urgulanilla , who correctly assumed that her friendship with the empress placed her above the law; and Munatia Plancina , suspected of murdering Germanicus and saved at Livia's entreaty. (Plancina committed suicide in AD 33 after being accused again of murder after Livia's death.) A notice from AD 22 records that Julia Augusta (Livia) dedicated

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3822-465: The concept to rationalize planter rule, claiming themselves sovereigns of their households who provided for all constituent members, and demanding their loyalty and labor in return. Drawing on the Roman precedent in this way, these planters claimed that their enslaved laborers were their “dependents,” who ultimately benefitted from the paternalistic ordering of the household. Southern newspapers and print media repeatedly promoted this idea in order to square

3913-454: The core principles and laws of the Twelve Tables , which the pater familias had a duty to exemplify, enjoin and, if necessary, enforce, so within the familia Republican law and tradition ( mos majorum ) allowed him powers of life and death ( vitae necisque potestas ). He was also obliged to observe the constraints imposed by Roman custom and law on all potestas . His decisions should be obtained through counsel, consultation and consent within

4004-403: The divorced and bereaved within certain time limits. The Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis severely penalised adulterous wives and any husbands who tolerated such behaviour. The Lex Papia Poppaea extended and modified the laws in relation to intermarriage between social classes and inheritance. Compliance was rewarded and exceptional public duty brought exemption, but dictatorial compulsion

4095-409: The domestic household and working in direct service of the pater familias. Roman women sui iuris (“of their own power,” and not under the authority of any pater familias ) possessed the legal right to own enslaved people as instrumenta , though jurists decided on a case-by-case basis whether to extend the status of pater familias to them in their capacity as slaveowners. In general, however,

4186-433: The early classical period , Roman writers and jurists have interpreted ancient writers’ invocation of pater familias as the basis of the concept of “head of household”—over the alternative Latin word for slaveowner, dominus —as a purposeful choice, intended to mitigate the harsh connotations that the act of slaveholding conferred onto heads of households and expanding the applicability of the term to non-enslaved members of

4277-485: The extreme form of this right was seldom exercised. It was eventually limited by law. In the Roman tradition, the term has appeared mostly in legal texts, and to a lesser extent, in literary texts. In both types of discourses, the term has been most commonly used to refer to the “estate owner,” a title considered conceptually separate from his familial relations. The Roman household was conceived of as an economic and juridical unit or estate: familia originally meant

4368-517: The female virtues Pietas and Concordia in public displays had a dramatic effect on the visual representation of future imperial women as ideal, honorable mothers and wives of Rome. Livia also restored the temple of the Bona Dea. Livia is mentioned by Pliny the Elder , who describes the vines of the Pulcino wine ("Vinum Pucinum" - today at best " Prosecco "). This then special and rare wine from

4459-420: The formal acceptance of infant children, coming of age, marriages, deaths and burials. In rural estates, the entire familia would gather to offer sacrifice(s) to the gods for the protection and fertility of fields and livestock. All such festivals and offerings were presided over by the pater familias . The legal potestas of the pater familias over his wife depended on the form of marriage between them. In

4550-558: The fulfillment of her will. It was not until 13 years later, in AD 42 during the reign of her grandson Claudius , that all her honors were restored and her deification finally completed. She was named Diva Augusta ( The Divine Augusta ), and an elephant-drawn chariot conveyed her image to all public games. A statue of her was set up in the Temple of Augustus along with her husband's, races were held in her honor, and women were to invoke her name in their sacred oaths. Her and Augustus' tomb

4641-414: The funeral oration. Suetonius adds the macabre detail that "when she died... after a delay of several days, during which he held out hope of his coming, [she was at last] buried because the condition of the corpse made it necessary...". Divine honors he also vetoed, stating that this was in accord with her own instructions. Later he vetoed all the honors the Senate had granted her after her death and cancelled

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4732-614: The future emperor Claudius . Drusus was killed in a riding accident only a few years later, dying in 9 BC. This was also the same year in which Livia was honored by the dedication of the Ara Pacis Augustae as a birthday present. Tiberius married Augustus' daughter Julia in 11 BC and was ultimately adopted as Augustus' heir in AD 4. Rumor had it that Livia was behind the death of Augustus' nephew Marcellus in 23 BC. After Julia's two elder sons by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa , whom Augustus had adopted as sons and successors, had died,

4823-461: The gap between her role as wife to the emperor Augustus, to mother of the emperor Tiberius. Becoming more than the "beautiful woman" she is described as in ancient texts, Livia serves as a public image for the idealization of Roman feminine qualities, a motherly figure, and eventually a goddesslike representation that alludes to her virtue. Livia's power in symbolizing the renewal of the Republic with

4914-411: The grandfathers of the later emperors Galba and Otho . With Augustus being the father of only one daughter (Julia by Scribonia), Livia revealed herself to be an ambitious mother and soon started to push her own sons, Tiberius and Drusus, into power. Drusus was a trusted general and married Augustus' favorite niece, Antonia Minor , having three children: the popular general Germanicus , Livilla , and

5005-470: The group of the famuli (the servi , the slaves of a rural estate) living under the same roof. That meaning later expanded to indicate the familia as the basic Roman social unit , which might include the domus (house or home) but was legally distinct from it: a familia might own one or several homes. All members and properties of a familia were subject to the authority of a pater familias : his legal, social and religious position defined familia as

5096-598: The household shared was their subjecthood to the authority, or potestas , of the pater familias . By the second century, A.D., the distinction between family members and enslaved persons residing in the same household had lessened, even as the patria potestas also weakened over time. Patres familias wielded complete and separate authority over members of their households, including their enslaved laborers. In cases of adjudicating legal transgressions committed by enslaved persons, patres familias exhibited equivalent jurisdiction as that of local civil magistrates , including

5187-501: The household. As a semantic term, pater familias thus connoted heads of household who were thought to combine the affective tenderness of a father with the stern coercion of a slaveowner in ordering their households. As Roman jurists began to articulate the legal conception of pater familias from the early classical period onwards, the minimum qualification for assuming the status of pater familias came to be understood as one’s capacity to own property. However, in Roman law, this

5278-434: The household. The children that resulted from these unions were themselves enslaved and considered the legal property of their mother’s owner. Roman legal sources often recognized enslaved people as part of the instrumenta (roughly translated as “equipment”) of the household to highlight the service they provided the pater familias . This definition included both enslaved people working in field settings and those living in

5369-670: The idea that it was she who had given him the throne. At the beginning of his reign Tiberius vetoed the unprecedented title Mater Patriae ("Mother of the Fatherland") that the Senate wished to bestow upon her, in the same manner in which Augustus had been named Pater Patriae ("Father of the Fatherland") (Tiberius also consistently refused the title of Pater Patriae for himself). The historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio depict an overweening, even domineering dowager, ready to interfere in Tiberius’ decisions. The most notable instances were

5460-612: The intrinsic brutality that defined the institution of slavery with the democratic ideals the nation was supposedly founded on, often developing this paternalistic ideology to irrational heights and ignoring the contradictions that it masked. This paternalistic ideology persisted after the legal abolition of slavery, as white employers and political leaders in the South attempted to maintain a hierarchical socioeconomic class status over formerly enslaved persons, as well as women and poor laborers, whom they viewed as “dependents,” thereby expanding

5551-440: The later ' Byzantine ' period, all empresses (unless noted) received the title augusta ; whether it was still considered a formal title or just a synonym to "empress" is not known. Irene Laskarina is called augusta on her seal, but it is not known if the honorific was used by other empresses too. The honorific augusta appears on the seals of Theodora , Yolande-Irene , Rita-Maria and Anna of Savoy , as well as on

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5642-436: The male title despotes , a common title in the later empire. Though the constitutional power of empresses was never defined, it was generally accepted that their coronation, performed after that of their husbands, granted them some imperial power. Often, their primary duties were to oversee the organization of ceremonies at the imperial court as well as to partake in imperial and religious affairs. Although governmental power

5733-488: The mother of the emperor until her death in AD 29. She was the grandmother of the emperor Claudius , great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula , and the great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero . In AD 42, Livia was deified by Claudius, who acknowledged her title of Augusta . Livia Drusilla was born on 30 January 59 BC as the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus by his wife Alfidia . The diminutive Drusilla often found in her name suggests that she

5824-448: The next 51 years, despite the fact that they had no children apart from the single stillbirth. She always enjoyed the status of privileged counselor to her husband, petitioning him on the behalf of others and influencing his policies, an unusual role for a Roman wife in a culture dominated by the pater familias . After Mark Antony's suicide following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian returned to Rome triumphant; on 16 January 27 BC,

5915-469: The one remaining son, Agrippa Postumus , was adopted at the same time as Tiberius, but later Agrippa Postumus was sent into exile and finally killed. Tacitus charges that Livia was not altogether innocent of these deaths and Cassius Dio also mentions such rumours. There are also rumors mentioned by Tacitus and Cassius Dio that Livia brought about Augustus' death by poisoning fresh figs, although modern historians view this as unlikely. Augustus' granddaughter

6006-478: The political leader Octavian. The Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus in 27 BC, effectively making him emperor. Livia then became the Roman empress. In this role, she served as an influential confidant of her husband and was rumored to have been responsible for the deaths of a number of Augustus' relatives, including his grandson Agrippa Postumus . After Augustus died in AD 14, Tiberius became emperor. Livia continued to exert political influence as

6097-558: The religious rites of familia as sacra privata (funded by the familia rather than the state) and "unofficial" (not a rite of state office or magistracy, though the state pontifices and censor might intervene if the observation of sacra privata was lax or improper). The responsibility for funding and executing sacra privata therefore fell to the head of the household and no other. As well as observance of common rites and festivals (including those marked by domestic rites), each family had its own unique internal religious calendar—marking

6188-626: The rise of the Roman Principate with a focus on Livia's role and relationships. She is portrayed as having sworn a sacred oath to her father 's shade to restore the Republic and to be playing a long con to that effect in concert with Gn. Calpurnius Piso . The child Livia is played by Meadow Nobrega, the adolescent and young adult Livia by Nadia Parkes , and the adult Livia by Kasia Smutniak . Her marriage with Augustus produced only one pregnancy, which miscarried. However, through her sons by her first husband, Tiberius and Drusus , she

6279-527: The status of pater familias could not be fully extended to women sui iuris because Roman law recognized the authority that pater familias wielded over members of the immediate family as strictly gendered, i.e., male. Nonetheless, historians and legal scholars have often overlooked this exception to the rule that allowed some women sui iuris (usually wealthy and of the upper socioeconomic stratum of society) to attain legal recognition as pater familias through their ownership of enslaved persons. Outside of

6370-547: The status of enslaved persons whom they each claimed to have “raised.” In the context of plantation slavery in the antebellum U.S. South , slaveowning planters developed a rhetorical defense of slavery as a benevolent, paternalistic institution based on the ancient Roman model of the pater familias . Some planters employed the concept as a legal protectionary measure, instructing renters to whom they “hired out” their enslaved laborers to “treat” them “as good pater familias ,” in an effort to stymie abusive practices. Others used

6461-471: The sunny slopes northeast of Barcola in the direction of the place Prosecco or Duino (near the historic place Castellum Pucinum) was according to Pliny the favorite wine of the Empress Livia. She is said to have loved this Vinum Pucinum for its medicinal properties and at the end of her long life (she was 87) she attributed her old age to its consumption and commended it to everyone as an "elixir for

6552-465: The third century, empresses could also receive various honorific titles, such as māter castrōrum "mother of the castra " and māter patriae "mother of the fatherland". Given that there were sometimes more than one concurrent Roman emperor, there were also sometimes two or more concurrent Roman empresses. For most of the period from 286 to 480, the Roman Empire, though remaining a single polity,

6643-423: The time of the death of the pater succeeded to the status of pater familias over their respective households ( pater familias sui iuris ) even if they were only in their teens. Children "emancipated" by a pater familias were effectively disinherited. If a pater familias died intestate , his children were entitled to an equal share of his estate. If a will was left, children could contest the estate. Over time,

6734-457: The title augusta . All empresses of this period received the title augusta . All empresses of this period were named augusta on or shortly after their marriage. All empresses during this period received the title augusta , with the sole exception of Numerian 's wife. Only Valeria received the title of augusta during the Tetrarchy, and only a few women did so in

6825-519: The title by their husbands. The title was sometimes given to other female members of the family, so empress and augusta are not always treated as synonyms. Another title often used was caesaraea (Greek: καισᾰ́ρειᾰ, kaisáreia ), the female form of caesar . In Greek, a common title was βᾰσῐ́λῐσσᾰ ( basílissa ), the female form of basileus , and αὐτοκράτειρα ( autokráteira ), the female form of autokrator (the Greek equivalent to imperator ). In

6916-600: Was Julia the Younger . Sometime between AD 1 and 14, her husband Lucius Aemilius Paullus was executed as a conspirator in a revolt. Modern historians theorize that Julia's exile was not actually for adultery but for involvement in Paullus' revolt. Tacitius alleged that Livia had plotted against her stepdaughter's family and ruined them. Julia died in AD 29 on the island to which she had been sent in exile twenty years earlier. Augustus died on 19 August AD 14, being deified by

7007-750: Was a direct ancestor of all of the Julio-Claudian emperors as well as most of the extended Julio-Claudian imperial family. List of Roman and Byzantine empresses The term Roman empress usually refers to the consorts of the Roman emperors , the rulers of the Roman Empire . The duties, power and influence of empresses varied depending on the time period, contemporary politics and the personalities of their husband and themselves. Empresses were typically highly regarded and respected, and many wielded great influence over imperial affairs. Several empresses served as regents on behalf of their husbands or sons and

7098-545: Was administratively divided into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire . Through most of this period, the separated imperial courts had their own lines of succession, and as a result their own sequences of concurrent Roman empresses. The western empire fell in the late 5th century, its final empress being the wife of Emperor Julius Nepos . The eastern empire, often referred to as

7189-414: Was by being scrupulously chaste herself, doing gladly whatever pleased him, not meddling with any of his affairs, and, in particular, by pretending neither to hear nor to notice the favourites of his passion." With the passage of time, however, some thought that with widowhood a haughtiness and an overt craving for power and the outward trappings of status came increasingly to the fore. Livia had always been

7280-625: Was called the Liviana , perhaps because of her reputed horticultural abilities, or as a tongue-in-cheek reference to this rumor. For some time, Livia and her son Tiberius , the new emperor, appeared to get along with each other. Speaking against her became treason in AD 20, and in AD 24 he granted his mother a theater seat among the Vestal Virgins . Livia exercised unofficial but very real power in Rome. Eventually, Tiberius became resentful of his mother's political status, particularly against

7371-407: Was considered a distinct dimension of the pater familias ’ authority from their capacity to hold dominion over enslaved persons. While both enslaved people and the estate itself were considered part of the familia unit over which pater familias held authority, they were recognized as distinct from family members (wives, children, and grandchildren). Despite these distinctions, what all members of

7462-439: Was deeply unpopular and quite impractical. The laws were later softened in theory and practise, but the imperial quaestio perpetua remained. Its public magistrates now legally over-rode the traditional rights of the family concilium and pater familias . The principate shows a clear trend towards the erosion of individual patria potestas and the increasing intrusion of the state into the juridical and executive independence of

7553-521: Was ironic because her first pregnancy by Augustus ended in a stillbirth, and she was unable to ever conceive another child. Tiberius Claudius Nero was present at the wedding, giving her in marriage "just as a father would." The importance of the patrician Claudii to Octavian's cause, and the political survival of the Claudii Nerones are probably more rational explanations for the tempestuous union. Nevertheless, Livia and Augustus remained married for

7644-531: Was later sacked at an unknown date. Her Villa ad Gallinas Albas north of Rome is currently being excavated; its famous frescoes of imaginary garden views may be seen at the National Roman Museum . One of the most famous statues of Augustus (the Augustus of Prima Porta ) came from the grounds of the villa. While reporting various unsavory hearsay, the ancient sources generally portray Livia as

7735-898: Was most often vested only in the emperor, empresses could gain significant authority as regents for young children or when their husbands were absent. Though they were bound by the wishes and temperaments of their husbands, empress consorts could at times also effectively become influential co-regents. In some cases, emperors reinforced their legitimacy through marrying the daughter of a previous emperor. In such cases, empresses sometimes stressed their dynastic legitimacy, greater than that of their husbands, to achieve great influence. Several influential consorts, such as Theodora , wife of Justinian I , and Euphrosyne , wife of Alexios III , held their own courts. Empresses who ruled in their own right, such as Irene and Zoë Porphyrogenita , sometimes adopted male titles such as basileus and autokrator to illustrate their power. All empresses of this period received

7826-433: Was not her father's first daughter. She may have had a brother named Gaius Livius Drusus who had two daughters named Livia Pulchra and Livilla. Her father also adopted Marcus Livius Drusus Libo . She was married around 43 BC. Her father married her to Tiberius Claudius Nero , her cousin of patrician status who was fighting with him on the side of Julius Caesar 's assassins against Octavian. Her father committed suicide in

7917-416: Was permanently exiled. The original classical Roman definition of familia referred to “a body of slaves,” and did not refer to wives and children. The classical legal concept of pater familias as “head of household” derived from this early conception of familia and, thus, from the legal relationship between slaveowners and their enslaved laborers rather than that between fathers and children. Since

8008-426: Was poisoned by Livia, but these are mainly dismissed as malicious fabrications spread by political enemies of the dynasty. The most famous of these rumors was that Livia, unable to poison his food in the kitchens because Augustus insisted on only eating figs picked fresh from his garden, smeared each fruit with poison while still on the tree to preempt him. In Imperial times, a variety of fig cultivated in Roman gardens

8099-421: Was responsible for the entire Roman familia . Rome's survival required that citizens produce children. That could not be left to individual conscience. The falling birth rate was considered a marker of degeneracy and self-indulgence, particularly among the elite, who were supposed to set an example. Lex Julia maritandis ordinibus compelled marriage upon men and women within specified age ranges and remarriage on

8190-535: Was six months pregnant, Tiberius Claudius Nero was persuaded or forced by Octavian to divorce Livia. On 14 January, the child was born. Augustus and Livia married on 17 January, waiving the traditional waiting period. On the day of his wedding to Livia, Octavian received a supposed omen of an eagle dropping a white hen with a laurel branch in its mouth into Livia's lap. This omen was interpreted as being an indication toward Livia's fertility, as she had given birth to two sons in her short two years of marriage to Nero. This

8281-485: Was the first woman to appear on provincial coins in 16 BC and her portrait images can be chronologically identified partially from the progression of her hair designs, which represented more than keeping up with the fashions of the time as her depiction with such contemporary details translated into a political statement of representing the ideal Roman woman. Livia's image evolves with different styles of portraiture that trace her effect on imperial propaganda that helped bridge

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