Medici: Masters Of Florence

Medici: Masters of Florence

Episode three ► Pestilence

Women of Rome | Livia Drusilla (58 BC – 29 AD)

Livia was the most important woman of her time. Her character, discretion, and intellect complemented her strategic skills and were enhanced by the advantage of a long life. […] Born on January 30, 58 BC, […] Livia married twice. Her first husband, whom she married at the age of 15 or 16, […] was Tiberius Claudius Nero, quaestor in 48 and a distant relative. She gave birth on November 16, 42 BC to Tiberius, the future emperor. […] In 39 BD Livia became pregnant with her second child. She also began an affair with Octavian. […] He sought an opinion from the college of pontifices about contracting a marriage with the still-pregnant Livia. They ruled in his favor. […] The two became a model Roman husband and wife and remained married for 50 years, until the death of the emperor in 14 AD. […] After their marriage, even before Octavian became Augustus, Livia’s elevated status was clear. In 35 BC, Livia and Octavian’s independent-minded sister Octavia were accorded the status of tribunica sanctissima, which made any assault upon their person as if an attack on the state. Never previously held by a woman nor ever again. […] The office also gave the women independent authority over property and wealth. […] A wealthy woman to begin with, Livia managed people and property well. Her alliances with other women, many of whom were also influential in the public and private aff airs of the period, constituted a circle within which she did business and traded favors. […] Livia and Augustus’s relationship joined both family and the affairs of state, and sometimes the two were indistinguishable. […] Augustus regularly asked her advice. Often he took it. […] In all Livia worked unceasingly, especially, to enhance the interests of her family and particularly the future of her own sons. […] In her husband’s will, Livia was named Julia Augusta and was adopted into the Julian gens. […] Augustus left her one-third of his estate, and her son, Tiberius, two-thirds. She also became the priestess of her husband’s cult after his deification. […] Members of the Senate proposed a number of possible titles for Livia, such as parens patriae (Parent of her Country) or mater patriae (Mother of her Country). Others wanted to add Iuliae filius (Son of Julia [Augusta]) to Tiberius’s name. Tiberius claimed history had no such honors for women and added that he would also refuse similarly nontraditional honors for himself. […] Livia died in 29 AD at the age of 86. Tiberius did not attend her funeral and would not allow her to be deified. He also refused to execute her will. […] Her eulogy was delivered by her grandson and future emperor, the young Gaius Caligula, who had lived for a short time in his grandmother’s house. He called her Ulixes stolatus, “Ulysses in skirts”. When he became emperor, he executed her will, and when Claudius, who also had lived in her household, became emperor, he deified her. [x]

EDIT REQUEST MEME: ASOIAF + favorite minor character requested by @madaboutasoiaf ↳ Shireen Baratheon  

get to know me meme // [1/5] favourite tv shows → rome

you boys play too rough for me. knives in the senate house? i didn’t know you had it in you.

You can’t stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting.

At night, desperate to sleep, you imagine an ocean. I see it… I see the island.