Livia

Caitlin C. Gillespie is the Helaine and Alvin Allen Chair in Literature and assistant professor in the Department of Classical Studies at Brandeis University. She is the author of Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain. She lives in Cambridge, MA.

“A lively and exceptionally well-informed reassessment of a figure who has too often been distorted by stereotype. Gillespie compellingly restores Augustus’s wife as his political partner, who was crucial to the formation of the ‘imperial house’ that would endure for centuries.”—T. Corey Brennan, author of The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome’s Most Dangerous Political Symbol“This vibrant book gives us not just Livia the icon but Livia the person. Gillespie skillfully weaves together Livia’s many successes with the challenges she faced as a woman living in turbulent times.”—Josiah Osgood, author of Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome“Caitlin Gillespie has produced a sympathetic, plausible portrait of Livia, wife of the first Roman emperor, Augustus. Hedged in by her class and by her family’s history, she gradually invented a successful public persona that enabled her to exercise considerable political power and yet embody traditional female virtues.”—Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, author of Eurydice and the Birth of Macedonian Power