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Livia

first Roman empress as consort to Augustus, as well as mother of emperor Tiberius

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ469701
Source-derived summary

Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC –

AD 29) was Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julia gens in AD 14.

Livia was the daughter of senator Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus and his wife Alfidia. She married Tiberius Claudius Nero around 43 BC, and they had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus. In 38 BC, she divorced Tiberius Claudius Nero and married the political leader Octavian. The Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus in 27 BC, effectively making him emperor. In her role as Roman empress, Livia served as an influential confidante to her husband and was rumoured to have been responsible for the deaths of several of his relatives, including his grandson Agrippa Postumus.

After Augustus died in AD 14, Tiberius was elevated, and Livia continued to exert political influence as the mother of the emperor until her death in AD 29. She was grandmother of the emperor Claudius, great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, and great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero. Livia was deified by Claudius in AD 42, bestowing her the title Diva Augusta.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Livia” as first Roman empress as consort to Augustus, as well as mother of emperor Tiberius. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Livia, first and Roman.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 197-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The authority record carries competing date values—-0059-01-30, -0058-09-28—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Livia, first and Roman providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Livia”, the useful work is to connect “first Roman empress as consort to Augustus, as well as mother of emperor Tiberius” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q469701. VIAF identifies the subject as 23674250. The Library of Congress control number is n87931349. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Livia primary sources, Livia archive and Livia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Livia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.