Ancient Roman historians cast a mixed picture of Livia, viewing her as paragon of the dutiful wife in public and great assistant to her husband in his governing of the Empire, but conniving in making sure nothing would stand in the way of making sure her line, the Claudians, succeeded to the Emperorship after Augustus' death. She is blamed with orchestrating a number of deaths and banishments, and, indeed, it does seem the line of Augustus ran into more than its fair share of hardships to clear the way for Tiberius to take the thrown. | Ancient Roman historians cast a mixed picture of Livia, viewing her as paragon of the dutiful wife in public and great assistant to her husband in his governing of the Empire, but conniving in making sure nothing would stand in the way of making sure her line, the Claudians, succeeded to the Emperorship after Augustus' death. She is blamed with orchestrating a number of deaths and banishments, and, indeed, it does seem the line of Augustus ran into more than its fair share of hardships to clear the way for Tiberius to take the thrown. |