Personatge

Livia Drusila

(Iulia Augusta, Diva Augusta)

Roma c. 58 a.e.c. ‖ Roma 29

Període d'activitat: Des de 43 a.e.c. fins 29

Classificació geogràfica: Europa > Itàlia

Moviments socio-culturals

Antiguitat > Cultura romana > Imperi

Grups per àmbit de dedicació

Governants > Emperadrius / Reines / Nobles

Context de creació femenina

The Roman patriarchal society deprived the midwives of the rights granted to the men, excluding them from politics, religion, or war. Nevertheless, we have news of brave noble women who, when they saw their interests threatened or of their relatives, they didn’t stay behind the shadow, instead they occupied the public space or took decisions on the highest level of Roman politics. We have received, among others, the names of Cornelia, mother of the Graco; Hortensia, who pronounced the speech at the forum in favor of the women; Fulvia, who was able to recruit an army through her means; or Servilia, Octavia, and Mucia, who intervened in the negotiations of several political agreements during the Triumvirates… The troubled moments at the end of the Republic were an encouragement for the emancipation of the women.

It is in the Principality of Augustus that women from aristocratic families begin to have a greater presence in the public sphere. Augusto, first to Octavia and then to Livia, grants a series of honors such as disposing and managing their own inheritance freely, without a guardian, with which they become women with great economic power who claim relevant power in the political sphere. This fact laid the foundations and marked the beginning of the public role of imperial women, which would be reinforced with the introduction of images of the female members of the imperial household as a new element of political propaganda.

The following empresses of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (Messalina, Agrippina, and Poppaea) were true emperors in the shadow of their husbands.

Ressenya

Livia was one of the most remarkable women of antiquity. Her literary tradition has left us with contradictory, and sometimes biased, images of her. Being the wife of Augustus and mother of Emperor Tiberius, she had a role that no other woman had had before in Roman society. She became involved in government tasks, supporting her husband in the construction of the Principality and the formation of the domus augusta. Thanks to the economic freedom that Augustus gave her, she was able to control her patrimony, dedicating it to improving the living conditions of the inhabitants of Rome.

Activitats

Justificacions

Wife of Emperor Augustus, mother of Tiberius, grandmother of Claudius, great-grandmother of Caligula, and great-great-grandmother of Nero, she was the author of the configuration of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
She-she personified the model of a Roman matron. Augusto's adviser and confidant, she exerted a great influence on him on the political level.
She promoted the construction and repair of public buildings and was a patron and benefactor of needy families.

Biografia

[...] His birth is situated between the years 59 and 58 a. C., within an aristocratic family belonging to the Claudia gens. At the age of 16, she married Tiberio Claudio Nero, a relative of the same genes as hers. She with him she had two sons, Tiberio and Druso. At 19 years old, and pregnant with her second, she began her relationship with Octavio. Shortly after, they celebrated her marriage, in the year 38 a. C. she With him she received extraordinary honors that made her inviolable by the granting of sacrosanctity, in addition to allowing her to control her rich heritage without the presence of her guardian. She promoted her popularity in imperial society through statues and coinage. When Octavio defeated Marco Antonio and became the owner of the Mediterranean, Livia's role increased, along with that of her sister-in-law Octavia of hers, both representing the perfect traditional model of a Roman matron that Augustus needed. In addition, she became involved in government tasks, skilfully and unconditionally supporting her husband in the construction of the Principality, and in the formation of the dynastic system from which the so-called domus Augusta derived. Augusto sought, through the marriages of her daughter Julia and her grandchildren, Gaius and Lucio, an heir to her political legacy. When his nephew Marcelo and his grandchildren died prematurely, he established alliances with Livia's relatives. The branch of the Claudians ended up imposing itself, as reflected in the marriage between Germanicus, Livia's grandson, and Agrippina the Elder, Augustus' granddaughter. The following princes of this dynasty until reaching Nero would be descendants of this couple. Tiberius succeeded Augustus, after his death, in the year 14, thanks to the work of Livia. She played a crucial role in the tributes paid to the deceased Augusto, gaining her recognition as divo Augusto. From that moment, Augusto received cult by decision of the Senate and with popular support, and his family exhibited a divine ancestry. Paradoxically, Tiberio was not very considerate of her. Perhaps to avoid the image of a man dominated by a woman, he removed her from power, retiring to Capri. Livia then turned to religious duties and she died in the year 29, at the age of 86. Tiberius did not attend her funeral and refused the honors offered by the Senate. Livia enjoyed public recognition, as evidenced by the many tributes she received in Rome and the provinces. Her grandson Claudio deified her, reinforcing the prestige of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the Domus Augusta.

Rosa María Cid López. 250 mujeres de la Antigua Roma, ed. Pilar Pavón, Sevilla, pp. 95, 96.

Obres

Bibliografia

-Cid López, Rosa María (2022). “Livia”, 250 mujeres de la Antigua Roma, ed. Pilar Pavón, Sevilla, pp. 95, 96.

-Hidalgo de la Vega, María José (2012). Las emperatrices romanas. Sueños de púrpura y poder oculto. Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, pp. 15-34.

-López Gómez, Helena (2022).” Las funciones institucionales de las mujeres de la familia de Augusto: Octavia, Livia y Julia”, Lucentum, 41, pp. 231-246.

-Mañas, Manuel (2003). “Mujer y sociedad en la Roma imperial del S. I”, Norba: Revista de historia. Vol. 16, pp. 191-207.

-Oya García, Goretti (2017). ”Livia y Octavia dos primeras damas del imperio romano”, Mujeres que hacen historia, Vol.2, Universidad del País Vasco, pp. 229-242.

-Pavón Pilar (dir.), (2022). “Exposición Virtual: 250 mujeres de la antigua Roma” en Conditio feminae I: Marginación y visibilidad de la mujer en el Imperio Romano. Universidad de Sevilla, (retrieved on 21/11/2022),<https://grupo.us.es/conditiofeminae/index.php/2022/03/08/57-livia/>

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