Editing Livia (section)

== Reign of Tiberius ==
[[File:KunsthistorischesMuseumCameeLivia.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Sardonyx]] [[Cameo (carving)|cameo]] of Livia with the bust of the Divus Augustus (Vienna)]]
Augustus died on 19 August AD 14, being [[Roman imperial cult|deified]] by the [[Roman senate|senate]] shortly afterward. In his will, he left one third of his property to Livia, and the other two thirds to [[Tiberius]]. In the will, he also adopted her into the [[Julia gens|Julian family]] and granted her the honorific title of ''[[List of Augustae|Augusta]]''. These dispositions permitted Livia to maintain her status and power after her husband's death, under the new name of '''Julia Augusta'''. Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that rumours persisted that Augustus was poisoned by Livia, but these are mainly dismissed as malicious fabrications spread by political enemies of the dynasty. The most famous of these rumors was that Livia, unable to poison his food in the kitchens because Augustus insisted on only eating [[ficus carica|figs]] picked fresh from his garden, smeared each fruit with poison while still on the tree to preempt him.<ref>{{cite book| title=Roman History 54.30| author=Cassius Dio}}</ref> In Imperial times, a variety of fig cultivated in Roman gardens was called the ''Liviana'', perhaps because of her reputed horticultural abilities, or as a [[tongue-in-cheek]] reference to this rumor.<ref>{{cite book| title=Confronting the Classics| author=Mary Beard| year=2014| page=131}}</ref>

[[File:Livia y Tiberio M.A.N. 01.JPG|thumb|upright|320px|Livia and her son Tiberius, AD 14–19, from [[Paestum]], [[National Archaeological Museum (Madrid)|National Archaeological Museum of Spain]], Madrid]]
For some time, Livia and her son [[Tiberius]], the new emperor, appeared to get along with each other. Speaking against her became treason in AD 20, and in AD 24 he granted his mother a theater seat among the [[Vestal Virgin]]s. Livia exercised unofficial but very real power in Rome. Eventually, Tiberius became resentful of his mother's political status, particularly against the idea that it was she who had given him the throne. At the beginning of his reign Tiberius vetoed the unprecedented title ''Mater Patriae'' ("Mother of the Fatherland") that the Senate wished to bestow upon her, in the same manner in which Augustus had been named ''[[Pater Patriae]]'' ("Father of the Fatherland")<ref name = Hurley/> (Tiberius also consistently refused the title of ''Pater Patriae'' for himself).

[[File:Livia Drusila - Paestum (M.A.N. Madrid) 01.jpg|thumb|140px|Livia Drusilla statue, from [[Paestum]]]]
The historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio depict an overweening, even domineering dowager, ready to interfere in Tiberius’ decisions. The most notable instances were the cases of [[Urgulania]], grandmother of Claudius's first wife [[Plautia Urgulanilla]], who correctly assumed that her friendship with the empress placed her above the law;<ref name = Cassius57.12>Cassius Dio, 57.12</ref><ref>Tacitus, 2.34</ref> and [[Munatia Plancina]], suspected of murdering [[Germanicus]] and saved at Livia's entreaty.<ref>Tacitus, 3.17</ref> (Plancina committed suicide in AD 33 after being accused again of murder after Livia's death.) A notice from AD 22 records that Julia Augusta (Livia) dedicated a statue to Augustus in the center of Rome, placing her own name even before that of Tiberius.

Ancient historians give as a reason for Tiberius' retirement to [[Capri]] his inability to endure his mother any longer.<ref name = Cassius57.12/><ref>Tacitus, 4.57</ref> Until AD 22 there had, according to Tacitus, been "a genuine harmony between mother and son, or a hatred well concealed;"<ref name = Tacitus3.64>Tacitus, 3.6eirca4</ref> Dio tells us that at the time of his accession already Tiberius heartily loathed her.<ref>Cassius Dio, 57.3.3</ref>