COURT OF THE ROMAN LADIES.
(Numbers commencing on the right.)
93. Livia Drusilla. Roman Empress.
[Born B.C. 56-54. Died A.D. 29.]
Married to Tiberius Claudius Nero, a Roman general; but her beauty captivating the Triumvir Octavian, afterwards Augustus, her divorce was effected, and she became the Triumvir’s wife. A consummate actress, full of craft and dissimulation, possessing great knowledge of the world, and, by an affected purity of life, maintaining to the last her influence over the mind of Augustus. She successfully intrigued for the succession in favour of Tiberius, her son by her first marriage, and, it is said, removed by poison the grandsons of Augustus, who stood in the way of her own offspring. Tiberius became Emperor, and repaid the service by base ingratitude. He removed his mother from all share in the government, declined all intercourse with her, refused to see her when she was dying, and rejoiced, in open show, at her death.
94*. Domna—Julia (Pia Felix Augusta). Roman Empress.
[Born at Emesa, in Syria, about A.D. 170. Died A.D. 217.]