Titans of History

But it was behind the scenes that she wielded her greatest, often supposedly malign, influence. She was a powerful woman and the sources are very prejudicial against her. There is no doubt she was ruthless and shrewd but equally there is no evidence she actually commited any of the poisonings for which she is infamous.

Augustus’s only child was Julia, a daughter from a previous marriage; so it was not clear who might succeed him. It was quite clear, though, to Livia: her own sons should inherit the throne.

The emperor’s first choice was his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus. However, in 23 BC, Marcellus died, in strange circumstances. Livia, who cultivated various experts on poison, was suspected of murder.

Next, Augustus favored Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, his closest friend and his chief military commander, the victor of Actium. In 17 BC Augustus adopted Agrippa’s two youngest sons, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, and the line of succession seemed to be secure.

Agrippa died in 12 BC, however, and the question of who would succeed Augustus was thrown into further doubt when, in AD 2 and 4 respectively, Lucius and Gaius died. The circumstances of the young princes’ deaths were mysterious, and again Livia was widely blamed. At last, Augustus was forced to embrace the option pushed by Livia: her son Tiberius, diffident but able, was adopted as the ailing emperor’s son in AD 4—thereby establishing him as one of the heirs to the throne.

Livia was forced into one final intervention. In AD 4, during the final rearrangement of his succession plans, Augustus also adopted Agrippa Postumus—Agrippa’s sole surviving son. Within two years, Postumus was exiled from Rome, possibly because of allegations that he had been involved in a coup plot against Augustus, though again Livia’s hand in events should not be discounted. Nevertheless, by AD 14 there were signs that Augustus was looking to rehabilitate his last adoptive son. Unwilling to countenance a possible late challenger to Tiberius, Livia is said to have poisoned her own husband, the aged emperor.

After Augustus’ death, Agrippa Postumus was quickly murdered, and Tiberius became emperor. Livia continued to be a figure of major importance—not least because her husband had bequeathed her one third of his estate (a highly unusual move). She now became known by the title Julia Augusta. Tiberius had always been appalled by her intrigues, even though they were in his favor; now he resented her interference.

When she died in AD 29 he did not attend the funeral. He also forbade her deification. Livia’s most fitting eulogy was delivered by Augustus’s great-grandson, whom she had helped to bring up in her own household. Caligula described her as a “Ulysses in a matron’s dress”—his praise perhaps the surest damnation that Livia could ever have received.

Though Tiberius was a competent administrator and talented general, he was all too aware that he was not his adopted father’s first choice—nor, indeed, his second or third preference, which perhaps explains why he never seemed comfortable as a ruler. Much of his reign was plagued by internal unrest and political intrigue. In AD 26, tiring of affairs of state, he moved to a palace on the island of Capri and spent the last decade of his rule in semi-retirement, leaving the Praetorian prefect, Lucius Aelius Sejanus, as de facto day-to-day ruler.

The ambitious Sejanus viewed his new role as a stepping-stone toward absolute power. From AD 29 he unleashed a terror. His enemies among the senatorial and equestrian classes were falsely accused of treason, tried and executed, making him the most powerful man in Rome. Sejanus also contrived to sideline Tiberius’ heirs. On becoming heir to Emperor Augustus in AD 4, Tiberius had adopted his nephew Germanicus, who became a popular general and later governed the eastern part of the empire. In AD 19, however, Germanicus died in Syria in mysterious circumstances. Tiberius’ own son Drusus died in AD 23—possibly poisoned by Sejanus, who was looking to further his political ambitions by marrying Drusus’ widow Livilla. Tiberius, however, refused him permission to marry her. When two of Germanicus’ sons were removed from the scene in AD 30, the succession looked as though it must fall to Germanicus’ surviving son Caligula or to Drusus’ son Tiberius Gemellus. In AD 31 Sejanus, determined to seize power for himself, hatched a plot to eliminate the emperor and the surviving male members of the imperial house. Tiberius had the Praetorian prefect arrested, then strangled and torn to pieces by a mob.

Meanwhile in Capri, Tiberius had devoted himself to more sensual pleasures since moving from Rome. The sensationalist historian Suetonius offers a flavor of what this entailed in his shocking Life of Tiberius: