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Metadata
Object Name |
livia drusilla |
Object ID# |
MC 0633 |
Date |
c.55 BC-AD 29 |
Description |
Livia Drusilla, also called Julia Augusta (born January 30, 58 BC-died AD 29), Caesar Augustus's devoted and influential wife who counseled him on affairs of state and who, in her efforts to secure the imperial succession for her son Tiberius, was reputed to have caused the deaths of many of his rivals She was originally the wife of Tiberius Claudius Nero by whom she had two sons Drusus and Tiberius (afterwards emperor). In 38 BC Augustus compelled her husband to divorce her and married her himself having first got rid of his own wife Scribonia. Her two sons were entrusted to the guardianship of Augustus, to whom she bore no children. Livia was suspected of committing various crimes to secure the throne for Tiberius. The premature deaths of Augustus' nephew Marcellus (whom he had at first fixed upon as his successor) and of his grandsons Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the banishment of his grandson Agrippa Postumus, and even his own death, were attributed to her. Augustus by his will declared her and Tiberius (whom he had adopted in AD 4) his heirs; Livia inherited a third of his property; she was adopted into the Julian gens, and henceforth assumed the name of Julia Augusta. She had now reached the summit of her ambition, and at first acted as joint-ruler with Tiberius. Tiberius, however, soon became tired of her control; his retirement to Capreae is said to have been caused by his desire to escape from her. Livia continued to live quietly at Rome, in the full enjoyment of authority, until her death at an advanced age. |
Place of Origin |
Rome |
Medium |
Bust |
Material |
Marble (orig.) // Plaster combination (copy) |
Metzger Location |
Roman Empire |
Location of Original |
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum Copenhagen Denmark |
Dimensions Details |
Height: 420 mm |