I, Livia (3rd ed.)

A historical tradition of Roman origin represents Livia Drusilla, the third and much-beloved wife of Caesar Augustus, as a conniving, Borgia-like criminal. This view of Livia maintains that to promote the political career of her son by her former husband, Livia killed or incapacitated Augustus' descendants through his previous wife. Author Robert Graves, in his famous novel, I, Claudius, based his fictitious rendering of Livia upon this malevolent representation of her. The conceit is patently w