Livia Drusilla is the ambitious young wife of Octavian.
Personality[]
At first glance, Livia may seem like a quiet and friendly woman, but, like her husband and her mother-in-law, she is cold, ambitious and intelligent.
Second Season[]
Octavian decides it is time to find a bride, and gives a speech about morality to a group of women. When finished, he approaches Maecenas who says that he was found the perfect wife for him. Octavian meets the girl, Livia, who is with her mother, Alfidia. Octavian quickly proposes marriage and she accepts, shocked but happy. Though currently married to and having a child with another man, Alfidia is sure that he will agree to a divorce (after all, it is Octavian that demands it). Historically, Livia was also about 6 months pregnant with her second child, though this is not indicated in the series.
Later, Octavian asks if her (former) husband or her father ever used to beat her. She insists not, saying that she should hope that she never did anything to deserve being hit. Octavian warns her that he will beat her, as it gives him sexual pleasure. Though slightly alarmed, Livia does not protest.
Octavian invites his family over for dinner in order for them to meet his future wife. Harking back to his speech about morality, Octavian lashes out at his mother, Atia, and sister, Octavia, informing them that he knows they lack any virtue (though Octavia was forced to marry her mother's lover Mark Anthony, he and Atia have continued seeing each other while Octavia was seeing Agrippa, one of Octavian's closest friends). He threatens Mark Anthony who is forced to leave Rome (and Atia) for Egypt, while Agrippa later breaks off his relationship with Octavia. Disgusted, the two women leave, but not before Octavia warns Livia that she is about to marry a monster.
Several months pass and Livia is thoroughly enjoying her marriage to Octavian, as she has discovered that it is he who prefers to be abused during sex. Though seemingly coy and shy, she is able to control Octavian (without his knowledge) and is very much his intellectual equal.
Trivia[]
- The somewhat unsympathetic portrayal of Livia in Rome almost certainly alludes to the fictional work I, Claudius by Robert Graves - based on Tacitus' innuendo. In it, she is involved in nearly every death in Octavian Augustus' family, in order to bringing to power her devoted son, the Emperor Tiberius.