58 B.C.E. - 29 C.E.
Empress

Unsettled Life. Livia was born into a patrician family with a long history of active political involvement. In 43 or 42 B.C.E., at the age of fifteen or sixteen, she married Tiberius Claudius Nero. In 40 B.C.E. Livia and Claudius had to flee Rome because Claudius had chosen to support Lucius Antonius, the enemy of Octavian, in the war in Perusia. Livia, Claudius, and their young son Tiberius returned to Rome after the pact of Misenum granted clemency in 39 B.C.E. Octavian soon persuaded Claudius to divorce Livia so that he could marry her. Even though Livia was pregnant with their second child, Claudius consented and even betrothed her to Octavian himself. Livia's second child, Drusus Julius Caesar, was born in 38 B.C.E., three months after her marriage to Octavian.

A Good Match. Contrary to Octavian's...