Livia Drusilla (I, Claudius)

Livia Drusilla (Siân Phillips) is an evil political manipulator and poisoner from the 1970's TV series I, Claudius. She was the wife of Augustus Caesar (Brian Blessed), the first Emperor of Rome.
[Historical note: Rome had been a republic but Julius Caesar and later his adopted son (who was really his nephew, son of his siter) Augustus changed Rome into a dictatorship with the help of Livia.]
Livia, was brought up in a Patrician (ruling class) Roman family who considered the lesser classes to be beneath them. She doesn’t mind telling the lower-class plebs of Rome that they are scum to their faces. In one scene a crowd of Roman citizens marches on the royal palace carrying torches. Livia tells them to go home that their republic is over. The crowd of republicans responds by throwing rotten fruit in her face. 
Before a fight to the death gladiator fight Livia addresses the gladiators telling them not to be cowardly and beg for their lives or run away from their opponents or worse even to fake their deaths that they are expected to give a good show and die if need be for the audience.
Her one aim in life is to have her son Tiberius (George Baker), become Emperor of Rome, when her husband Augustus Caesar dies.
Tiberius was her son from a previous marriage to Tiberius Claudius Nero. Augustus fell in love with Livia when he first met her. Her husband had been Augustus’s political enemy and had fought against him in the Second Roman Civil War between Augustus and his supporters and Marc Anthony and his supporters. So, Augustus took the wife of his enemy despite the fact that he had pardoned the surviving supporters of Marc Anthony.
Later, Livia had her first husband poisoned for giving her up so easily.
Livia had two children with Tiberius Claudius Nero but no children with Augustus and may not have ever slept with him beyond there early marriage. She knew that Augustus had a great lust for women, and she was able to appease his lust by buying him slave girls from the slave markets of Rome.
Livia’s own personal one true lust was for political power.
Augustus considers her his co-ruler and de facto Queen of Rome. She is very politically wise and had spies and agents all over the Roman Empire. When she is threatened by someone she has them killed. So often kills them herself as she is also the Queen of Poisons.
When she fears Augustus might turn on her, she has him poisoned as well.
Livia is the great-grandmother of Caligula (John Hurt). Both Tiberius and Caligula came to be Emperors of Rome because of the manipulations and murders of Livia. Tiberius was extremely lazy as he had never really had to work for anything and spends most of his time in office vacationing on the Island of Crapi where he entertained himself by swimming with naked children. Tiberius later groomed Caligula to follow in his perverted footsteps.
Caligula was the son of Livia’s grandson Germanicus (the brother of Claudius)(David Robb), who died of his wounds after a battle. Caligula was raised in the palace, partly by Livia, who spoiled him.
Claudius was born with a limp and caught a fever as a child and was made deaf in one ear and he also suffered from a stammer.
Livia: (on Claudius) That child should have been exposed at birth.
Despite all his defects Claudius manages to survive all the murders and poisonings in the royal household and one day become Emperor of Rome. This is prophesised when Claudius was still a child.
Later in life and despite the fact that she can’t stand to look at Claudius, Livia partly befriends him as she is attracted to political power in all forms, including her stammering grandson.
What Livia really wants is for Claudius to make her a god after she dies. The Roman Senate (which still existed even after the Roman Republic was ended) had the power to vote deceased persons into becoming gods.
Livia fears that all the people she had killed will gang up on her in the afterlife. Her son Tiberius, whom she worked so hard to have him become Emperor, hates her and says that he will not make her a god when she dies.
It is prophesied by Livia’s priest that Caligula will be the successor to Tiberius, but despite the fact that she spoiled the little brat rotten Caligula refuses to promises to make her a god. Laughing in her face and mocking her sufferings in the afterlife.
Claudius, who was hated and ignored by most of his family is flattered by the sudden attention from Livia, the most important person in Rome and matriarch of his family. Claudius doesn’t really believe that he will be Emperor, but later when he is made Emperor, he keeps his promises and has Livia voted into becoming a Roman god. 
TRIVIA:
* I, Claudius was a 1976 miniseries based on the books “I, Claudius” (1934) and “Claudius the God” (1935) by British author Robert Graves. The books are based on historical documents from the Roman Empire. Graves spoke and read both Greek and Latin. 
* The “I, Claudius” miniseries was the inspiration for the American prime time television soap opera “Dynasty” (1981-1989).
* Livia was the inspiration for the Joan Collins character Alexis, in the Dynasty series.
* The diminutive "Drusilla" often found in her name suggests that she was a second daughter.
* The patricians (from Latin: patricius) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. They traced their ancestors back to the early founders of Rome, who there themselves refugees from the losing side of the Trojan war and escaped slaves. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, as men from the patrician class were the only people allowed to hold public office.
* The word patrician comes from the Latin word “patres” or "fathers". A more literal translation might be “The Founding Fathers” or Rome.
* The producers originally wanted Charlton Heston to play Claudius.
Category:1970s
Category:Brunette
Category:Callous
Category:Conspirator
Category:Devious
Category:Femme Fatale
Category:Greedy
Category:Humiliated
Category:Lawful Evil
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Indirect
Category:Offscreen Death
Category:Queen
Category:Vengeful
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Would Hurt a Child