Messalina, along with her husband and friends in the Imperial administration led a period of repression to suppress the threat of revolts. Oh also she slept with everyone. But also the politics. Shockingly, this policy was destined to bite her in the behind.
Messalina became Empress of Rome after the assassination of Caligula and his family, and quickly secured her position by giving birth to a son. But she had rivals that needed to be moved on.
Somewhere deep in the recesses of the world there is a list of the world's crappiest husbands. Caligula is on that list, and four women: Junia Claudilla, Livia Orestilla, Lollia Paulina and Milonia Caesonia were about to find that out.
The reign of Tiberius is most frequently described as being one of cruelty, depravity and neglect, but in actual fact, there was one elderly woman who was helping to keep it all together. Livia had quite a lot on her hands in her final years of life.
As Augustus final years, Livia took steps to make sure her son Tiberius took the throne.
Augustus's reign was overshadowed by his inability to secure the succession and problems within his own family. Heir after heir fell by the wayside. But was there a snake in the grass?
Audio credit: "What Shall We Do About Claudius" I, Claudius, BBC, 1976
Livia was the first Empress of Rome, and few others would exert so much influence.
By marrying Octavian, Livia had married a hugely powerful man - but he was not yet the Emperor. To win control of the Empire, he needed to vilify Antony and Cleopatra - and he used his wife and sister to do it.
SHOWNOTES
Born into one of Rome's most noble families, Livia was married to a man below her station and who made terrible decisions - but she would soon catch the eye of the most powerful man in Rome.
The Roman Republic had managed to squash all its enemies - but then it turn in on itself. How did it happen? And who were the women in the centre of the action
Ancient Rome was a highly patriarchal place - but did it mean to be a woman in that society? How were they viewed at the time? And what happened when they tried to become powerful?
Women make up half of the world's population, and yet history books often consign them to the sidelines. They are dismissed as merely the wives of powerful men; babymakers and nothing more. Yet women have been the driving force behind history for millennia, from female Pharoahs, warrior princesses and pirates, to the revolutionaries who sought to topple the male-dominated political systems of their day. From host of the popular 'Queens of England Podcast', The Other Half tells the forgotten and ignored stories of the most powerful and influential women in history.
