Livia
Known forMother of Cato and Servilia
Spouse(s)Quintus Servilius Caepio
Marcus Porcius Cato
ChildrenServilia
Servilia Minor
Gnaeus Servilius Caepio
Porcia
Cato the Younger
Parents

Livia Drusa (c. 120 BC – c. 92 BC) was a Roman matron. She was the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus, consul in 112 BC, and sister of Marcus Livius Drusus, tribune of the plebs in 91 BC. She was the mother of Cato the Younger, and grandmother of Marcus Junius Brutus, through her oldest daughter Servilia.

Life and family

Livia's father died in 108 BC, and she passed into the care of her brother, the younger Livius Drusus. About 106, Drusus arranged for her to marry his friend, Quintus Servilius Caepio.[1] They had three children:

Livia and Caepio must have divorced about 98 BC, for reasons not stated by any ancient historian;[ii] but Pliny the Elder reports that Caepio and Drusus had fallen out over the sale of a ring for which each was bidding at auction.[7][8][9] Livia then married Marcus Porcius Cato, a grandson of Cato the Elder.[10] They had two children:

Cato and Livia both died in the late 90s BC, and their children were raised in the household of Livia's brother, Marcus Livius Drusus.[15]

Family

In fiction

Livia Drusa appears as a major character in the first two books of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. In The First Man in Rome, her brother coerces her into marrying Caepio, whom she dislikes. In The Grass Crown, McCullough depicts Livia's relationship with Cato as having begun before her divorce from Caepio and makes Caepio's youngest son (his only son and heir, in this fictional account) the natural son of Cato.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This rumour is not credited by historians, since Caesar was only fifteen years old when Brutus was born.
  2. ^ At one time it was commonly believed that Caepio was Livia's second husband, as he survived her. But from chronology, Manutius demonstrated that Caepio must have been her first husband, since her daughter, Servilia, was the mother of Brutus, who was born in 85 BC, and must therefore have been several years older than her half-brother, the younger Cato, who was born in 95. However, no ancient source explicitly states that Livia and Caepio were divorced.

References

  1. ^ Stegmann, "Livia".
  2. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Brutus", 2, 5, "The Life of Caesar", 62, "The Life of Cato the Younger", 24.
  3. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Lucullus", 38, "The Life of Cato the Younger, 24, 54.
  4. ^ Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. iv, p. 174.
  5. ^ Marshall, Bruce A. (1987). "The Engagement of Faustus Sulla and Pompeia". Ancient Society. 18: 98. doi:10.2143/AS.18.0.2011358. JSTOR 44034973.
  6. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Cato the Younger", 8, 11.
  7. ^ Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, xxxiii. 1. s. 6.
  8. ^ Livy, Epitome, lxxiii.
  9. ^ Manutius, Ad Ciceronis de Finibus, iii. 2.
  10. ^ Gabba, Republican Rome, p. 134.
  11. ^ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, ix. 3, xiii. 37, 48.
  12. ^ Plutarch, "The Life of Cato the Younger", 1, 41.
  13. ^ Cicero, Brutus, 62, Pro Milone, 7.
  14. ^ Valerius Maximus, iii. 1. § 2.
  15. ^ a b Plutarch, "The Life of Cato the Younger", i. 2.
  16. ^ Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus, 80.
  17. ^ Livy, Epitome, 114.
  18. ^ Sallust, Bellum Catilinae, 54.

Bibliography

Categories