Livia  

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  1. The state of being chaste; chastity

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Quotations

  • 1805 Emily Clark - The banks of the Douro
    The chasteness of her dress made her appear the allusive semblance of Purity itself
  • 2005 Gocha R. Tsetskhladze - Ancient West & East
    Livia's public image and her statues portrayed her as one imbued with the qualities of moral chasteness and matronly respectability

Livia in literature and popular culture

Livia in ancient literature

In Tacitus' Annals, Livia is depicted as having great influence, to the extent where she "had the aged Augustus firmly under control — so much so that he exiled his only surviving grandson to the island of Planasia".

Livia's image appears in ancient visual media such as coins and portraits. She was the first woman to appear on provincial coins in 16 BC and her portrait images can be chronologically identified partially from the progression of her hair designs, which represented more than keeping up with the fashions of the time as her depiction with such contemporary details translated into a political statement of representing the ideal Roman woman. Livia's image evolves with different styles of portraiture that trace her effect on imperial propaganda that helped bridge the gap between her role as wife to the emperor Augustus, to mother of the emperor Tiberius. Becoming more than the "beautiful woman" she is described as in ancient texts, Livia serves as a public image for the idealization of Roman feminine qualities, a motherly figure, and eventually a goddesslike representation that alludes to her virtue. Livia's power in symbolizing the renewal of the Republic with the female virtues Pietas and Concordia in public displays had a dramatic effect on the visual representation of future imperial women as ideal, honorable mothers and wives of Rome. <ref>I Claudia II: Women in Roman art and society. Edited by Diana E. E. Kleiner and Susan B. Matheson Yale University Art Gallery. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000.</ref>

Livia in modern literature

In the popular fictional work I, Claudius by Robert Graves--based on Tacitus' innuendo--Livia is portrayed as a thoroughly wicked, scheming political mastermind. Devoted to bringing Tiberius to power and then maintaining him there, she is involved in nearly every death or disgrace in the Julio-Claudian family up to the time of her death. However, this portrait of her is balanced by her intense devotion to the well-being of the Empire as a whole. In the 1976 BBC television series based on the book, Livia was played by Siân Phillips. Phillips won a BAFTA for her portrayal of the role.

In the ITV television series The Caesars, Livia was played by Sonia Dresdel.

A heavily fictionalized version of Livia appeared on the show Xena: Warrior Princess, played by Adrienne Wilkinson.

Livia is also dramatized in the HBO/BBC series Rome. Introduced in the 2007 episode "A Necessary Fiction", Livia (Alice Henley) soon catches the eye of young Octavian, who has never been married or fathered any children. Historically, of course, Octavian had already been married to and divorced Clodia Pulchra by this time, and was married to a pregnant Scribonia. Rome does acknowledge the existence of Livia's child, Tiberius Nero, by her first husband, but not that she was pregnant with Nero Claudius Drusus when she met Octavian. Livia is portrayed as deceptively submissive in public, while in private she possesses an iron will, and a gift for political scheming that matches Atia's.

Livia appears in Neil Gaiman's comic "Distant Mirrors - August" collected in The Sandman: Fables and Reflections.

In John Maddox Roberts's short story "The King of Sacrifices," set in his SPQR series, Livia hires Decius Metellus to investigate the murder of one of Julia's lovers.

In Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough, Livia is portrayed as a cunning and effective advisor to her husband, whom she loves passionately.

Livia plays an important role in two Marcus Corvinus mysteries by David Wishart, Ovid (1995) and Germanicus (1997). She is mentioned posthumously in Sejanus (1998).



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Livia" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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