Livia Drusilla | |
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Empress consort of the Roman Empire | |
Livia Drusilla
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Born | 30 January 58 BC |
Died | 28 September 29 AD (aged 87) Rome |
Burial | Mausoleum of Augustus |
Spouse | |
Issue | |
Father | Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus |
Mother | Aufidia |
Roman imperial dynasties | |||
Julio-Claudian dynasty | |||
A cult statue of Livia represented as Ops, with sheaf of wheat and cornucopia, 1st century |
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Chronology | |||
Augustus | 27 BC – 14 AD | ||
Tiberius | 14-37 AD | ||
Caligula | 37–41 AD | ||
Claudius | 41–54 AD | ||
Nero | 54–68 AD | ||
Family | |||
Gens Julia Gens Claudia Julio-Claudian family tree Category:Julio-Claudian dynasty |
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Succession | |||
Preceded by Roman Republic |
Followed by Year of the Four Emperors |
Livia Drusilla (Classical Latin: LIVIA•DRVSILLA, LIVIA•AVGVSTA) (30 January 58 BC – 28 September 29 AD), also known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14, was the wife of the Roman emperor Augustus throughout his reign, as well as his adviser. She was the mother of the emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the emperor Claudius, paternal great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, and maternal great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero. She was deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta.
She was born on 30 January 59 or 58 BC as the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus by his wife Aufidia, a daughter of the magistrate Marcus Aufidius Lurco. The diminutive Drusilla often found in her name suggests that she was a second daughter.Marcus Livius Drusus Libo was her adopted brother.
She was probably married in 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 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 Triumvirate of Octavian (later Augustus), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Mark Antony and the proscriptions they began; and as did many of those proscribed they joined with a son of Pompey Magnus, Sextus Pompeius, who was fighting the triumvirate from his base in Sicily. Later, Livia, her husband Tiberius Nero and their two-year-old son, Tiberius, moved on to Greece.