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LIVIA BEFORE OCTAVIAN* Abstract: Continued interest in the role of women in antiquity and in the dynastic arrangements of the Julio-Claudian dynasty has focused considerable attention on the prominent figure of Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius. As a result, the importance of Livia in the ancient sources has also provided fertile ground for mod- ern authors. Yet while Livia is a well-documented figure in her own right during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, most of what is known about the first twenty years of her life stems from her relation- ship with the two men who dominated her early and teenage years: her father, M. Livius Drusus Claudianus, and her first husband, Ti. Claudius Nero. From these men Livia derived social status and aristo- cratic connections that made marriage to her particularly attractive to Octavian. These connections, resulting from strategic adoptions and marriages, created family alliances that Livia maintained and which help explain the rise of certain families early in the principate of Augustus. However, following the lead of Tactius and Suetonius, most modern studies usually treat Livia’s history before her marriage to Octavian per- functorily. The possible implications of the future Augustus’ marrying into such an old Republican family seem to have included his gaining control of her property and resources and the obtaining of support from the old Republican nobility. While the latter is certainly true, it is not likely that the nobility came over en bloc. More likely the marriage rep- resented an alliance with a particular faction or alliance of families within the established aristocracy. Carefully reexamining the evidence for Livia’s connections helps reconstruct this faction, better explaining the importance of Octavian’s marriage alliance with her family. Consideration of these relationships in light of issues of ancestry, adoption, inheritance, and civil war political alliances cast them in a different light, a light which more satisfactorily explains her first marriage, her flight with Nero after the Perusine War, her return to Italy after the pact of Misenum, and the advancement of certain families after Livia’s husband at last became Augustus. * Full references to the literature cited are given in the Bibliography. All dates are BC unless otherwise indicated. Ancient Society 39, 121-169. doi: 10.2143/AS.39.0.2042609 © 2009 by Ancient Society. All rights reserved. 22366-09_Anc_Soc_39_07_Huntsman.indd366-09_Anc_Soc_39_07_Huntsman.indd 112121 114-10-20094-10-2009 008:51:558:51:55 122 E.D. HUNTSMAN Continued interest in the role of women in antiquity and in the dynastic arrangements of the Julio-Claudian dynasty has focused considerable attention on the prominent figure of Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius. Velleius Paterculus noted that at the end of her life Livia was eminentissima et per omnia deis quam hominibus similior femina, cuius potentiam nemo sensit nisi aut levatione periculi aut acces- sione dignitatis1. Tacitus, when not disparaging her character, noted that she was a suitable counterpart for both Augustus and Tiberius, and Dio observed that she obtained a status beyond that held by any Roman woman before her2. As a result, the importance of Livia in the ancient sources has also provided fertile ground for modern authors3. Yet while Livia is a well-documented figure in her own right during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, most of what is known about the first twenty years of her life stems from her relationship with the two men who dominated her early and teenage years: her father, M. Livius Drusus 1 Vell. II 130.5. 2 Tac., Ann. V 1; Dio LVII 12.2. 3 After the sensational treatment of Livia and other imperial women in the eighteenth- century work of JACQUES ROERGAS DE SERVIEZ, Les impératrices romaines (1758), the first scholarly treatment of Livia was by J.R. ASCHBACH, Livia, Gemahlinn des Kaisers Augustus (1864). His biography of Livia was followed by H. WILLRICH, Livia (1911) and the entry in RE by L. OLLENDORF, Livius (Livia), no. 37 (1926). After these early German attempts to treat Livia comprehensively, she has since appeared as one of the principal figures in general works on Roman women such as G. FERRERO, The Women of the Caesars (1925); R.B. HOFFSTEN, Roman Women of Rank of the Early Empire (1939); J.P.V.D. BALSDON, Roman Women (1962); S. FISCHLER, The Public Position of the Women of the Imperial Household in the Julio-Claudian Period (1989); R.A. BAUMAN, Women and Politics in Ancient Rome (1992). Of greater value to the study of Livia have been individual articles and monographs treating specific issues — such as G. GRETHER, Livia and the Imperial Cult (1946), now supplemented by such works as D. FISHWICK, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West (1987), passim; S. FISCHLER, Public Position (1989), p. 98-192; C.G. CALHOON, Livia the Poisoner (1994), p. 100-108 and 177-196; S. TREGGIARI, Jobs in the Household of Livia (1975); N. PURCELL, Livia and the Womanhood of Rome (1986); M.B. FLORY, Sic exem- pla parantur (1984), Octavian and the Omen of the Gallina Alba (1988–89), Livia and the History of Public Honorific Statues for Women in Rome (1993), and Dynastic Ideology, the Domus Augusta, and Imperial Women (1996); C.-M. PERKOUNIG, Livia Drusilla–Iulia Augusta (1995). Detailed treatments of Livia’s iconography and her use in imperial propa- ganda include W.H. GROSS, Iulia Augusta (1962); C.B. ROSE, Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture (1997); E. BARTMAN, Portraits of Livia (1999). A full-length biography of Livia in English finally appeared in 2002 with the publica- tion of A.A. BARRETT’s Livia, and a substantial treatment of her life now appears in a chapter of J. BURNS, Great Women of Imperial Rome (2007), p. 5-24. 22366-09_Anc_Soc_39_07_Huntsman.indd366-09_Anc_Soc_39_07_Huntsman.indd 112222 114-10-20094-10-2009 008:51:558:51:55 LIVIA BEFORE OCTAVIAN 123 Claudianus, and her first husband, Ti. Claudius Nero4. From these men Livia derived social status and aristocratic connections that made mar- riage to her particularly attractive to Octavian. These connections, result- ing from strategic adoptions and marriages, created family alliances that Livia maintained and which help explain the rise of certain families early in the principate of Augustus. However, following the lead of Tactius and Suetonius, most modern studies usually treat Livia’s history before her marriage to Octavian per- functorily and in the conventional manner of reviewing some of her Livian and Claudian forebears, quickly noting her first marriage to Ti. Claudius Nero, and then making some proposals regarding the reasons for and timing of her subsequent marriage to Octavian. Exceptions to this include Bartman’s rather more careful review of her background, Flory’s careful analysis of the historiographical tradition of Livia’s marriage to Octavian, and Sirago’s study of the possible implications of this marriage5. Sirago in particular tried to suggest the significance of the future Augustus’ marrying into an old Republican family; in addi- tion to gaining control of her property and resources, he proposes that she was responsible for the change in Octavian’s behavior in the trium- viral period and brought with her the support of the old Republican nobility6. While the latter is certainly true, it is not likely that the nobil- ity came over en bloc. More likely the marriage represented an alliance with a particular faction or alliance of families within the established aristocracy. Carefully reexamining the evidence for Livia’s connections helps reconstruct this faction, better explaining the importance of Octavian’s marriage alliance with her family. Consideration of these relationships in light of issues of ancestry, adoption, inheritance, and civil war political alliances cast them in a different light, a light which more satisfactorily explains her first marriage, her flight with Nero after the Perusine War, her return to Italy after the pact of Misenum, and the advancement of certain families after Livia’s husband at last became Augustus. 4 For Drusus Claudianus, see MÜNZER, Claudius, no. 290, col. 2846 = Livius (Drusus), no. 19, col. 881-884; DRUMANN, Claudius no. 30, II, p. 158; PIR2 L 294. For Nero, see MÜNZER, Claudius, no. 254, col. 2777-2778. 5 BARTMAN, p. 57–58; FLORY, Abducta Neroni uxor (1988); SIRAGO, Livia Drusilla (1979). 6 SIRAGO, p. 179-181. See also BARRETT, p. 22. 22366-09_Anc_Soc_39_07_Huntsman.indd366-09_Anc_Soc_39_07_Huntsman.indd 112323 114-10-20094-10-2009 008:51:558:51:55 124 E.D. HUNTSMAN SCION OF THE CLAUDII AND LIVII Livia’s importance in the dynastic politics of the late Republic stemmed largely from her paternal connections to some of Rome’s most illustrious gentes. Her ancestry can be determined from the nomenclature of her father Drusus Claudianus and from statements regarding her son Tiberius. Suetonius’ account of Tiberius’ ancestry provides the crucial information regarding the family background of Drusus Claudianus: Ex hac stirpe Tiberius Caesar genus trahit, et quidem utrumque: paternum a Tiberio Nerone, maternum ab Appio Pulchro, qui ambo Appi Caeci filii fuerunt. Insertus est et Liviorum familiae adoptato in eam materno avo7. Tacitus roughly parallels this account, although significantly his account states only that Tiberius was descended from Claudians on both sides with- out explicitly identifying the stirpes Nerones and Pulchri8. Drusus Claudi- anus’ nomenclature is inconsistent in the literary sources, but epigraphic evidence establishes the complete name as M. Livius Drusus Claudianus9. The combination of the nomen and agnomen thus supports the evidence from Suetonius that he was a Claudian adopted by a Livius Drusus. The adoptive father of Drusus Claudianus is widely agreed to have been M. Livius Drusus, the tribunus plebis of 91, and many modern scholars, following Suetonius, suggest that Drusus Claudianus’ natural father was a Claudius Pulcher.
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