Livia, Ancient Rome’s First Lady, Was a Popular Matriarch, Not a Murderer

‘Livia: Mother of Rome’ By Caitlin GillespieYale University Press, 240 pagesIf your understanding of Livia, the wife of Augustus and the mother of Tiberius, the first two Roman emperors, is derived from the Claudius novels of Robert Graves, or the BBC adaptation of his work, then you will be surprised to learn, according to Caitlin C. Gillespie, that much of what has been written negatively about Livia is the result of Roman historians and leaders (including her own son) who resented her authority and did their best to malign her.Livia, Claudius’s grandmother, was not the plotter and behind the scenes murderer of legend, but a public benefactor, much admired in Rome by a populace who regarded her as an incorruptible force for good government and family values. That she was also politically savvy, her biographer acknowledges, and may have, in certain instances, been as brutal as the men against whom she had to maintain her position, especially in the decades after Augustus’s death.When Augustus emerged triumphant over all his rivals, and set about creating the marbleized Rome that remains in the ruins of empire, he chose as his wife a woman already known for her fidelity and exemplary behavior as the descendent of the distinguished Claudian line of patricians.No woman held an office in the Roman Empire, but there Livia was at Augustus’s side, advising on policy, including the shrewd move of pardoning the men involved in an assassination plot against him. She argued that not executing them would be a show of strength and clemency and bind the Roman people to him.Livia was right, as she almost always was, in Ms. Gillespie’s revisionist biography, which seeks not merely to rehabilitate Livia, but to show how this high born woman was able to further the interests of the Roman Empire and of herself and her line even without the sanction of an official position.Members of Livia’s own family, including some of the women in it, tried to challenge her authority without much success. Livia’s reactions to their machinations is not known, but so admiring is Ms. Gillespie of her subject that she sometimes lapses into the bane of ancient biography stating what “must have” been Livia’s feelings, which are virtually never malevolent.I once heard classical scholar Mary Beard express her frustrations at biographers of ancient lives for making assumptions that simply cannot not be corroborated. They would be better off writing historical fiction, she argued, although I’m not sure she would go so far as endorsing the liberties with the historical record that abound in Robert Graves’s work.The tensions between Livia and her son Tiberius make for fascinating reading. Without the insistent efforts of his mother on his behalf, it seems doubtful, Ms. Gillespie implies, that Tiberius would have succeeded Augustus. Not that he was grateful. Just the opposite, he resented what he considered to be his mother’s intrusion into male prerogatives. It was galling to think that he owed his power to his mother.Here Ms. Gillespie is on solid factual ground, noting how Tiberius went out of his way not to honor Livia after her death, deliberately ignoring the efforts of the Roman people to perpetuate her memory and her example. She does not need to speculate about his feelings. His resentment plainly showed in his actions.Ms. Gillespie does not draw analogies between past and present, the ancient and the modern world, let alone what is happening to women married to men of power today. Yet it is striking that Livia’s behavior and accomplishments remain relevant. She managed her family and her role as wife of a leader, and then as the caretaker of his legacy, with aplomb and public approval.How did she do it? She sought allies and also developed a distribution network of public benevolence that made her popular and respected without having to tout her accomplishments or seek credit for them. That circumspection alone, if I may speculate, may well have infuriated her choleric son. I can imagine him saying a woman’s ways are wily ways.So immense were Livia’s contributions to Roman comity that Ms. Gillespie devotes a concluding chapter to them. I keep thinking the biographer, Livia-like, is saying, without having to say it: “Let that be a lesson to you.”Mr. Rollyson’s forthcoming book is ‘Sappho’s Fire: Kindling the Modern World.‘

Livia, Ancient Rome’s First Lady, Was a Popular Matriarch, Not a Murderer

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