Interview with Matthew Dennison
Mar 22, 2011
Lindsay Powell conducted for us the following interview with Mathew Dennison author of the recently reviewed book, Livia, Empress of Rome: A Biography
UNRV: Thanks for giving us this interview. First, congratulations on your book, Livia, Empress of Rome. Your first biography was an account of the life of Queen Victoria`s ninth and last child, Princess Beatrice, and of their extraordinary relationship. What attracted you to Livia, a personality from 1,800 years earlier?
MATTHEW DENNISON:At first glance the subjects of ‘The Last Princess’ and ‘Livia, Empress ofRome’ appear widely divergent. Closer inspection shows that both are concerned with the nature of power, in particular access to power and the exercise of power. Both Livia and Princess Beatrice occupied positions close to the centre of power…
…read the full interview with Mathew Dennison
She may have been instrumental in the banishment of Augustus daughter Julia…Livia was the wife of the first Roman emperor mother of the second and deified by her grandson the Emperor …Reference .. Livia Drusilla was the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudius note the Claudian the gens that had produced and the colorful among others and Alfidia daughter of M. Livia married Tiberius Claudius Nero her cousin when she was 15 or 16 — around the time of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.