2. DRUSUS, No. 7], who had been adopted by one of
the Livia gens, but was a descendant of App. Claudius Caecus. Livia was born on the 28th of
September, Recherches pour servir à l'Histoire de l'Egypte, p. 171.) She was
married first to Tib. Claudius Nero; but her beauty having attracted the notice of Octavian at
the beginning of
Livia never bore Augustus any children, but she continued to have unbounded influence over
him till the time of his death. The empire which she had gained by her charms she maintained
by the purity of her conduct and the fascination of her manners, as well as by a perfect
knowledge of the character of Augustus, whom she endeavoured to please in every way. She was a
consummate actress, excelled in dissimulation and intrigue, and never troubled either herself
or her husband by complaining of the numerous mistresses of the
Augustus left Livia and Tiberius as his heirs ; and by his testament adopted her into the
Julia gens, in consequence of which she received the name of Julia Augusta. By the accession
of her son to the imperial throne, Livia had now attained the long-cherished object of her
ambition, and by means of her son thought to reign over the Roman world. But this the jealous
temper of Tiberius would not brook. At first all public documents were signed by her as well
as by Tiberius, and letters on public business were addressed to her as well as to the
emperor; and with the exception of her not appearing in person in the senate or the assemblies
of the army and the people, she acted as if she were the sovereign. She openly said that it
was she who had procured the empire for Tiberius , and to gratify her the senate proposed to
confer upon her various extraordinary honours. Thereupon Tiberius, perceiving that he was
becoming a mere cypher in the state, forbade all these honours, and commanded her to retire
altogether from public affairs; but she had gained such an ascendancy over him, that he did
not feel himself his own master as long as he was in her neighbourhood, and accordingly
removed his residence from Rome to Capreae. Such was the return she was destined to receive
for all the toil she had sustained and the crimes she had probably committed, in order to
secure the empire for her son. Tiberius no longer disguised the hatred he felt for his mother,
and for the space of three years he only spoke to her once. When she was on her death-bed, he
even refused to visit her. She died in A. D. 29, after suffering from repeated attacks of
illness, at a very advanced age, eighty-two according to Pliny (