, most commonly known by her family nickname of '''Livilla''' (the
"little Livia") (''circa''
13 BC –
AD 31 ) was the only daughter of
Nero Claudius Drusus and
Antonia . Her chief role in the history of the
Julio-Claudian Dynasty was as a bride — and alleged murderer — of the heir apparent to the
Principate during the reigns of
Augustus and her uncle
Tiberius .
She was a granddaughter of the empress
Livia (after which she was named), sister of
Germanicus and
Claudius , daughter-in-law of
Agrippa and
Tiberius , and aunt of
Caligula ,
Agrippina The Younger and
Britannicus . See also the
Julio-Claudian Family Tree .
We know little of her relations with her family members, though
Suetonius reports that she despised her younger brother Claudius (having heard he would one day become emperor, she deplored publicly such a fate for the Roman people). She may have felt ressentment and jealousy over her sister-in-law
Agrippina The Elder , the arrogant wife of Germanicus, who fared much better in producing imperial heirs to the household and was much more popular. However,
Tacitus informs us that she was a remarkably beautiful woman, despite the fact she was rather ungainly as a child. As most of the female members of the Julio-Claudian clan, she may also have been very ambitious, especially for her male offspring.
She was married twice, first in
1 BC to
Gaius Caesar , grandson of Augustus and potential successor. He died in
4 , and Livilla married her cousin
Drusus , son of Tiberius. Her daughter
Julia was born shortly after this second wedding.
In
19 she gave birth to twin sons,
Tiberius Gemellus and Germanicus Gemellus; only Tiberius Gemellus survived infancy. In this time it appears she was seduced by
Sejanus , the
Praetorian Prefect of Tiberius. Sejanus had designs on the supreme power, and needed to remove Drusus as a potential successor. Ancient sources (
Tacitus ,
Suetonius ,
Dio Cassius ) concur that with Livilla as his accomplice he poisoned her husband. If Drusus was indeed murdered, then it was done so skillfully that his death in
23 seemed natural and caused no suspicion. Sejanus' request to marry Livilla in 25 was however rejected by Tiberius.
In
31 Tiberius finally allowed Livilla and Sejanus to be betrothed. Yet in that same year Tiberius received evidence from his sister-in-law
Antonia that Sejanus planned to overthrow him. Tiberius had Sejanus denounced in the Senate, then arrested and dragged off to prison to be put to death. A bloody purge then erupted in Rome, most of Sejanus' family and followers sharing his fate. Among the innocent victims of the purge were Sejanus' children. Aelius Strabo, the eldest, was the first to be executed. Upon learning of his death, Sejanus' former wife Apicata committed suicide, but not before addressing a letter to Tiberius claiming that Drusus had been poisoned, with the complicity of Livilla. Drusus’ cupbearer Lygdus and Livilla's physician Eudemus were now tortured, and seemed to confirm Apicata’s accusation. Livilla too perished, whether by execution or suicide.
Dio Cassius (58.11.7) mentions one version of her fate, namely that out of regard for her mother he handed Livilla over to her for punishment, whereupon
Antonia locked her in her room and starved her to death.
At the beginning of 32 the Senate proposed "terrible decrees...against her very statues and memory" (Tacitus, ''Annals'' 6.2). There were to be further allegations of adultery - with her physician Eudemus (Pliny ''NH'' 29.20) and with the great senator Mamercus Scaurus (''Annales'' 6.29; Dio Cassius 58.24.5).
Due to the
damnatio memoriae voted against her by the Senate after her death, the iconographic identification of Livilla has posed many problems to date. Several possibilities have been advanced but none has to date received widespread acceptance. However, a portrait type that survives in at least three replicas and sometimes known as the
Alesia type may very well represent Livilla. As seen in the picture above, it shows the head of a lady in her blossom years, with a hairstyle clearly from the tiberian period. The physiognomy is close but not identical to portraits of Antonia Minor, Livilla's mother, and some replicas seem to bear the marks of voluntary damage (that one would expect from a
damnatio memoriae). For all these reasons, it has been proposed to see in this portrait type a representation of Livilla.
Reference:
Queyrel F., « Une princesse Julio-claudienne à Alésia », in Revue. archéologique
de l'Est et du Centre Est, 1993, n°44, pp. 411-428.
A cameo portrait apparently of Livilla, with the silhouettes of two infants, can be seen at http://home.earthlink.net/~jburns31780/gasvips.htm. (Figure 10).
The character of Livilla has appeared in the BBC TV series
I, Claudius and was played the British actress
Patricia Quinn . In the 1985 epic mini series
A.D. Anno Domini, which chronicles the very beginning of Christianity and its struggle with the Roman Empire, the character of Livilla was played by the famous Hollywood actress
Susan Sarandon .
