Mothers, Murderers and Mistresses: Empresses of Ancient Rome

Episode Overview

Series in which Professor Catharine Edwards explores the dramatic story of the women who tasted power in the Roman Empire. In the first programme she looks at the remarkable Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus, mother of the emperor Tiberius and a woman whose influence was felt across the Roman world for over 60 years. But as Catharine explains, imperial women who lacked perfect political judgement would end up not as leaders but as victims. Both Augustus's daughter Julia and his granddaughter Agrippina would die miserably in exile.