Matthew Dennison's Empress Of Livia is an unprecedented biography of one of the most intriguing figures of the early Roman empire.
Empress Livia, the second wife of the emperor Augustus, has long been pegged as a scheming, power-crazed murderess, who poisoned her relatives in order to clear the path to the throne for her son, Tiberius. Here, Denison paints a markedly different picture of this fascinating woman.
With eloquence and meticulous detail, Dennison reveals the empress as a complex, courageous and enormosly gifted individual who had the power and intelligence to overcome adversity in a male-dominated society, cultivating a prominent public profile and strong political influence.