Product Description

Livia, wife of the first Roman emperor Caesar Augustus and mother of the second, Tiberius, wielded extraordinary power at the centre of Roman politics. In this biography of Livia, the first in English, Anthony Barrett sets aside the portrait of a cunning and sinister schemer to reveal Livia as a complex figure whose enduring political influence helped shape Roman government long after her death.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242988 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
"First-rate." Mary Beard, Times Literary Supplement; "An excellent biography of Livia - as appealing to the general reader as it is satisfying to the scholar." Colin M. Wells, Trinity University, San Antonio; "In reading Anthony Barrett's biography of Livia, I not only learned about this remarkable woman, but also gained a meaningful appreciation of life and society in her time." Howard Alper, President, The Royal Society of Canada"

Colin M. Wells, Trinity University, San Antonio
An excellent biography of Livia - as appealing to the general reader as it is satisfying to the scholar.

About the Author
Anthony A. Barrett, professor of classics at the University of British Columbia, is also the author of Caligula: The Corruption of Power and Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire, both published by Yale University Press in the U.S. only.

Customer Reviews

Rescues a reputation
The wife of Augustus has been painted throughout history as a murderous woman who sacrificed her relatives to smooth her son, Tiberius' path to the throne. She is even believed to have killed her own son Drusus for his Republican tendencies. With popular drama series like I, Claudius (which is almost entirely based on the scurrilous writings of the gossip Suetonius), this reputation has become stuck in the thoughts of even the most dedicated Roman historian. Accessible, well researched and deeply compelling this book seeks to re-examine the evidence. The picture that emerges illustrates a woman of great power and personality, but not a mass murderess. Although many of the juicy legends have been discounted Barrett makes Livia just as interesting. Barrett seems to be dedicated to rescuing those condemned by time and this joins his books on Caligula and Agrippina on my bookshelf to be read and re read. A must for an ancient historian and for the interested layman

but is it good 'history'?
As another reviewer here has rightly said, this book does rescue Livia's reputation, but I can't help feeling that Barrett's Livia is as imaginative a construct as Robert Graves'. The fact is that there is extremely little evidence for Livia's life (Barrett himself admits that we know practically nothing from the time she's around 20 till she's about 50), and the literary sources are undoubtedly conditioned by their own political views. There are times when I felt that Barrett is writing against Robert Graves (a novelist!) more than any 'historical' reputation that Livia might have.

All that aside, this is a good read, (and the second half better, perhaps than the first) but it should definitely come with a historical health warning.