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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 2897846, member: 75937&quot;]Livia Drusilla was born in 58 BC to Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus and his wife, Alfidia.&nbsp; At age sixteen Livia was married to her cousin, Tiberius Claudius Nero, and gave birth to two sons, the future emperor Tiberius and Nero Claudius Drusus, the general and father of the future emperor Claudius. However, as a member of a famous family, Livia was forced to divorce her husband in 39 BC and marry Octavian, the triumvir then rising to power in Rome, even though she was pregnant with her second son, Nero Claudius Drusus, and Octavian’s wife, Scribonia, was pregnant with their daughter, Julia.</p><p><br /></p><p>This marriage was arranged because it helped both families. It helped Octavian in that it lent the prestige of Livia’s ancient Claudian clan to his lesser patrician family. It helped Livia&#039;s Claudian-Nerones family because it ensured the amnesty and survival of her relatives who had earlier joined the assassins of Julius Caesar and fought against Octavian. The marriage lasted for 53 years and was supposedly a love match, but Livia bore no children to Octavian and so concentrated her motherly ambitions on her two sons by her first husband.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the politics of the Empire, Livia acted as a counselor and an adviser to Augustus, and helped to formulate his decisions. She was a powerful woman; according to Suetonius (<i>The Twelve Caesars</i>, Caligula, 23), Caligula, Livia’s great-grandson, called her &quot;Ulysses in petticoats.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>The title <i>Augustus</i>, meaning &quot;majestic; inspiring awe or reverence,&quot; was an honorific granted to Octavian by the Roman Senate in 27 BC, and it became his formal name and also an imperial title, meaning Emperor, for all the succeeding rulers of Rome. When Augustus died in AD 14, he willed the title of <i>Augusta</i>, the feminine form of <i>Augustus</i>, to Livia (Tacitus, <i>The Annals</i>, Book 1, 8, 2). The title <i>Augusta</i> thus became the equivalent of the word <i>empress</i> and thereafter was awarded by the emperors to a variety of their female relatives, including mothers, daughters, and aunts.&nbsp; Augustus’ will also provided for Livia to be formally adopted into the Julian gens (clan) and to be renamed as Julia.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin was issued in AD 10/11 under Augustus:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]697412[/ATTACH]</p><p>Livia, under Augustus, 27 BC - AD 13</p><p>Roman Æ diobol, 7.41 g, 24.2 mm, 1 h</p><p>Egypt, Alexandria, 5th series, AD 10-11</p><p>Obv: bare head right with Nodus hairstyle</p><p>Rev: Date (LM=40) within oak wreath</p><p>Refs: BMC 16.4, 31; SGI 209; Emmett 57; c.f. RPC 5058</p><p>Notes: Lindgren sale 38, lot 110</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]697413[/ATTACH]</p><p>Black basalt bust of Livia Drusilla, ca 31 BC, in the collection of the Louvre</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]697414[/ATTACH]</p><p>Numismatist Jasper Burns&#039; reconstruction of Livia&#039;s appearance, based upon statuary and coin portraits.</p><p><br /></p><p>Notice she wears her hair in a front-roll, called the Nodus or Augustan style, then in vogue.</p><p><br /></p><p>Post whatever you feel is relevant![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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