September 27, 2002

Rehabilitating Livia

By SCOTT MCLEMEE

By focusing on the biases of ancient historians, a scholar provides an antidote to old views of Roman rulers

For anyone who saw the BBC series I, Claudius, the image of Livia will be forever linked with the elegant and darkly humorous performance by Siân Phillips, the Welsh actress. The wife of Augustus Caesar, and mother of his successor Tiberius, the manipulative Roman matron spun an intricate web of intrigue, shaping the course of the empire from behind the scenes. Like some

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