Customer Reviews

Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome

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Anthony Barrett has written another excellent biography. Livia is an historical figure who has been much maligned over time and effectively turned into a ruthless serial killer in order to see her son Tiberius as emperor. Reality is a different matter and Livia emerges as an intelligent, beautiful and caring woman whose life was generally restrained by having no official political position. As Augustus' wife, she could exert a great deal of influence but until he death, when she was adopted into the Julian gens and given the title name Augusta. Mr. Barrett has examined Livia's life in detail as the wife of the princeps, the mother of the second emperor, her role as a protector and benefactor and her public and her private life.

Among the bits of interesting information I found was that Livia gave an allowance to the Elder and Younger Julia's after they had been sent into exile that lasted for the rest of their lives. Also of interest was Livia's healthy habits, which included drinking red wine each day, and that she underwent grief management after the death of her son Drusus..

Mr. Barrett separates some more specialized discussions in the appendix, dealing with such topics as Livia's name and birth to Livia's relations with Agrippina the Elder etc. The book is invaluable for the detailed listing of sources of information about Livia, including inscriptions, sculptures, books and articles and a list of abbreviations of ancient authors and their individual works. In short, this is as complete a biography of Livia that we will have in English.

LIVIA (First Lady of Imperial Rome)was just that. She was Augustus' wife and the mother of Tiberius and the grandmother of Caligula, Claudus, and Nero. As the first 'first lady' of the Imperial age she set the tone and pace of what would become the de-facto wife-of-an emperor (Augustus). No one had ever been in this position before. History has painted her as a murdering poisoner but author Anthony Barrett sets the gossip aside and plows right through the original sources teaching us why Tacitus and other primary sources were prejudiced against her and have handed down a tainted picture of her situation. Make no mistake, this was a hard book to read. It is real history by a real historian. But the effort really pays off if you are interested how Augustus and his wife virtually invented the politics that came to run the machinery started by Julius Caesar prior to his slaughter in the Senate House. I give it all 5 stars but caution that you should look elsewhere if you are just starting your adventure in reading about the glory that was Rome.

The book offers a unique insight into the life of Rome's first imperial matron, Livia. Reviewing narrative and archeological evidence, Anthony Barret succeeds in showing how Livia was perceived by her contemporaries in light of Augustus' new imperial institutions. Because there's so little information on who Livia really was as a person, Mr. Barret's analysis starts becoming rather speculative when it comes to Livia's private dispositions. The book is thus more of a review of Livia's persona as opposed to her actual beliefs and behavior behind closed doors. At the very least, he succeeds in dispelling many of the anecdotal stories of her as a ambitious master schemer and regicite. These negative qualities are mostly the product of Tacitus' biased accounts which were so wonderfully crafted into Robert Graves' "I, Claudius" books. At the very least, one gets a good picture of the political and social environment Livia found herself in when she married Augustus and how it affected her public image. The book is easy to read for the casual reader but detailed enough for the scholar. I strongly recommend this work.

Excellent historical account of Livia, wife of the Emporer and uses all historical info at a time where the writers rarely provided info on women. Must have for anyone that has a Library of Ancient Rome.

I agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviewers--even "always where under where"; "semper ubi sub ubi". It is not a difficult read so do not be put off by the reviewer who thought so.