Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia [Hardcover]

'Dennison excels at exploring the iconography of Livia… his analysis is exemplary… Balanced, scholarly and yet accessible, this is very good history indeed.' Country Life.

'A fine biography of Rome's first Empress, who is now embedded in the public consciousness as portrayed by Robert Graves and Sian Phillips. The author reassesses that sensational version with commonsense and sympathy. He has produced a scholarly but highly accessible book about the woman who - through chance, dress, behaviour and her own undeniable determination - was able to make the Empire her own.' Lindsey Davis.

'A powerful new life of Livia... refreshingly free of cant' The Herald.

'[This] book is something of a triumph... Dennison knows the boundaries between story-telling and history, and sensibly restricts himself to asking the appropriate questions... That is the way to bring Livia to life, and Dennison does it tactfully and well.' The Tablet.

'Dennison's entertainingly brisk biography comes gallantly to the rescue of a lady whose finger-prints have been found, or planted, on the scene of all manner of suspicious deaths.' --The Spectator.

'For the wife of a Caesar, opportunities were often hard to distinguish from pitfalls. No one better illustrates this than the subject of Matthew Dennison's learned, engrossing and pacey new biography... Dennison combines a healthy scepticism towards his sources with an alertness to all that made the career of his heroine authentically remarkable... His achievement, in this consistently entertaining biography, is to remind us that a politician with a clever and supportive wife is a fortunate man indeed.' Tom Holland, Mail on Sunday.

'Matthew Dennison's rich and compelling account challenges the accepted version of Augustus's wife as the viper in the nest... What emerges is a broader and thoroughly compelling account of the beginning of the Julio-Claudian dynasty as it seized and maintained power for itself and the empire. Dennison possesses the magical ability to make us see that the Romans were like us. They laughed at new money, sniggered over sexual misdemeanours, bore petty grudges. They had laws, baths, literature and a disciplined army. And yet they were almost unimaginably different. Dennison recreates ancient Rome and the mindset of its inhabitants as an alien world. It is a city conveyed through the senses, beginning with a marvelous account of the birth of a child into an elite family against a background of smoke, sacrifice, and the melting wax of ancestral masks.' Financial Times.

'Dennison excels at exploring the iconography of Livia his analysis is exemplary Balanced, scholarly and yet accessible, this is very good history indeed.' Country Life. 'A fine biography of Rome's first Empress, who is now embedded in the public consciousness as portrayed by Robert Graves and Sian Phillips. The author reassesses that sensational version with commonsense and sympathy. He has produced a scholarly but highly accessible book about the woman who - through chance, dress, behaviour and her own undeniable determination - was able to make the Empire her own.' Lindsey Davis. 'A powerful new life of Livia... refreshingly free of cant' The Herald. '[This] book is something of a triumph... Dennison knows the boundaries between story-telling and history, and sensibly restricts himself to asking the appropriate questions... That is the way to bring Livia to life, and Dennison does it tactfully and well.' The Tablet. 'Dennison's entertainingly brisk biography comes gallantly to the rescue of a lady whose finger-prints have been found, or planted, on the scene of all manner of suspicious deaths.' --The Spectator. 'For the wife of a Caesar, opportunities were often hard to distinguish from pitfalls. No one better illustrates this than the subject of Matthew Dennison's learned, engrossing and pacey new biography... Dennison combines a healthy scepticism towards his sources with an alertness to all that made the career of his heroine authentically remarkable... His achievement, in this consistently entertaining biography, is to remind us that a politician with a clever and supportive wife is a fortunate man indeed.' Tom Holland, Mail on Sunday. 'Matthew Dennison's rich and compelling account challenges the accepted version of Augustus's wife as the viper in the nest... What emerges is a broader and thoroughly compelling account of the beginning of the Julio-Claudian dynasty as it seized and maintained power for itself and the empire. Dennison possesses the magical ability to make us see that the Romans were like us. They laughed at new money, sniggered over sexual misdemeanours, bore petty grudges. They had laws, baths, literature and a disciplined army. And yet they were almost unimaginably different. Dennison recreates ancient Rome and the mindset of its inhabitants as an alien world. It is a city conveyed through the senses, beginning with a marvelous account of the birth of a child into an elite family against a background of smoke, sacrifice, and the melting wax of ancestral masks.' Financial Times.

Empress of Rome is a brand-new biography of one of the most fascinating, perplexing and powerful figures of the ancient world: the empress Livia. Second wife of the emperor Augustus and the mother of his successor Tiberius, Livia has been vilified by posterity (most notably by Tacitus and Robert Graves) as the quintessence of the scheming Roman matriarch, poisoning her relatives one by one to smooth her son's path to the imperial throne. In this elegant and rigorously researched biography, Matthew Dennison rescues the historical Livia from this crudely drawn caricature of the popular imagination. He depicts a complex, courageous and richly gifted woman whose true crime was not was not murder but the exercise of power, and who, in a male-dominated society, had the energy to create for herself both a prominent public profile and a significant sphere of political influence.

Second wife of the emperor Augustus, mother of his successor Tiberius, grandmother of Claudius and great grandmother of Caligula, the empress Livia lived close to the centre of Roman political power for eight turbulent decades. Her life spanned the years of Rome's transformation from Republic to Empire, and witnessed both its triumphs under the rule of Augustus and its lapse into instability under his dysfunctional successor. Livia was given the honorific title Augusta in her husband's will, and was posthumously deified by the emperor Claudius - but posterity would prove less respectful. The Roman historian Tacitus anathematized her as 'malevolent', and a 'feminine bully', and inspired Robert Graves's celebrated twentieth-century depiction of Livia in I, Claudius as the quintessence of the scheming matriarch, poisoning her relatives one by one to smooth her son's path to the imperial throne. In this rigorously researched biography, Matthew Dennison weighs the evidence found in contemporary sources to present a more nuanced assessment. Livia's true 'crime', he reveals, was not murder but the exercise of power. In a society so assertively male that is historians avoided mentioning women save as exemplars of outstanding virtue or vice, Livia was unusual in creating for herself a public profile and a sphere of influence. The wife of one emperor, she became the mother of his successor after a series of unforeseeable deaths. In the early years of Tiberius's reign she was acknowledged by several sources as almost his equal in power. But any power she exercised was circumscribed. She confined her visible sphere of influence to acceptable, traditionally female areas. That she won public plaudits for her contribution to Roman life was in itself enough to condemn her - not only in the eyes of contemporaries but also those of influential later writers. Empress of Rome rescues the historical Livia from the crude caricature of popular myth to paint an elegant and richly textured portrait. The Livia who emerges from Matthew Dennison's magisterial account is a complex, courageous and gifted woman, and one of the most fascinating and perplexing figures of the ancient world.

Second wife of the emperor Augustus, mother of his successor Tiberius, grandmother of Claudius and great-grandmother of Caligula, the empress LIvia lived through the years of Rome's transformation from Republic to Empire. She would witness both its triumphs under the rule of Augustus and its lapse into instability under his dysfunctional successor. Posterity has not been kind to her. The Roman historian Tacitus condemned her as 'malevolent', and a 'feminine bully', and inspired Robert Graves's depiction of Livia in I, Claudius as the quintessence of the scheming matriarch, poisoning her relatives one by one to smooth her son's path to the imperial throne. In this rigorously researched biography, Matthew Dennison presents more nuanced assessment. Livia's true 'crime', he reveals, was not murder but the exercise of power. In a society so assertively male that is historians avoided mentioning women save as exemplars of outstanding virtue or vice, Livia was unusual in creating for herself a public profile and a sphere of influence. Empress of Rome rescues the historical Livia from the crude caricature of popular myth to paint a magisterial portrait of a complex, courageous and gifted woman - one of the most fascinating and perplexing figures of the ancient world. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Matthew Dennison is the author of 'The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter' (2007). A journalist, he contributes to The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator and Country Life. He is married and lives in London and North Wales.