Annelise Freisenbruch - First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars

Like their modern counterparts, the first ladies of Rome were moulded to meet the political requirements of their emperors, be they fathers, husbands, brothers or lovers. But the women proved to be liabilities as well as assets Augustus daughter Julia was accused of affairs with at least 5 men, Claudius wife Messalina was a murderous tease who cuckolded and humiliated her elderly husband, while Fausta tried to seduce her own stepson and engineered his execution before being boiled to death as a punishment.

In The First Ladies of Rome Annelise Freisenbruch unveils the characters whose identities were to reverberate through the ages, from the virtuous consort, the sexually voracious schemer and the savvy political operator, to the flighty bluestocking, the religious icon and the romantic heroine. Using a rich spectrum of literary, artistic, archaeological and epigraphic evidence, this book uncovers for the first time the kaleidoscopic story of some of the most intriguing women in history, and the vivid and complex role of the empresses as political players on Romes great stage.

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Epub ISBN 9781446499061

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Published by Vintage 2011

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Copyright Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

Annelise Freisenbruch has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Jonathan Cape

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780099523932

For my parents

Annelise Freisenbruch was born in 1977 in Paget, Bermuda, and moved to the UK at the age of eight. She studied Classics to postgraduate level at Newnham College, Cambridge, receiving a PhD in 2004. For five of the last ten years, she has taught Classics at The Leys school in Cambridge. During that time, she has also worked as a research assistant on a number of popular books and films about the ancient world, and as a research officer exploring the interface between the arts and the law, at the Kings College Research Centre in Cambridge. She now lives in Dorset, where she teaches Latin. The First Ladies of Rome is her first book.

. Livia supervising the making of clothes (reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of the University of Cambridge Library)

. Sin Phillips in I, Claudius (copyright BBC)

. Gardenscapes from Livias villa at Prima Porta ( photo SCALA. 2010. Photo Scala, Florence courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali)

. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Livia, Octavia and Augustus (Muses Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library)

. Bust of Octavia ( Deutsches Archologisches Institut, Rom. Photo: Felbermeyer, Neg. D-DAI-Rom 1940.1170)

. Coin featuring Mark Antony and Cleopatra (The Trustees of the British Museum)

. Coin featuring Julia, Gaius and Lucius (bpk/Mnzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

. The Wilton House Antonia (Harvard Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Fund in Memory of John Randolph Coleman III, Harvard Class of 1964 and the David M. Robinson Fund, 1972.306. 2005 The Estate of David Smith/Licensed by VAGA, NY. Photo: Michael A. Nedzweski President and Fellows of Harvard College)

. Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus ( photo SCALA 2010. Yale University Art Gallery/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence)

. Still from Fellinis Roma (source: BFI)

. Frontispiece from La Donna Delinquente ( British Library Board 8416.h.13)

. The Gemma Claudia (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria/The Bridgeman Art Library)

. Agrippina Minor crowning Nero (New York University Excavations at Aphrodisias)

. Nero with his mothers corpse (British Library, London, UK/ British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/The Bridgeman Art Library)

. Relief depicting delivery of a baby ( photo SCALA. Ostia Antica, Museo Ostiense. 2010)

. Ivory doll (Roma, Musei Capitolini. Archivio Fotografico dei Musei Capitolini)

. Jewellery (The Trustees of the British Museum)

. Fayum mummy-portrait (The Trustees of the British Museum)

. Ivory comb (The Trustees of the British Museum)

. Bust of Livia ( Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen)

. Bust of Agrippina Maior (Roma, Musei Capitolini. Archivio Fotografico dei Musei Capitolini)

. Bust of Flavian woman (courtesy of the San Antonio Museum of Art)

. Bust of Plotina ( Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma)

. Bust of Julia Mamaea (Louvre, Paris, France/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library)

. Front cover of Agrippas Daughter by Howard Fast (reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of the University of Cambridge Library)

. Apotheosis of Antoninus Pius and Annia Galeria Faustina ( photo SCALA. Vatican, Courtyard of the Corazze. 2010. Photo Scala, Florence)

. Berlin tondo of Septimius Severus, Julia Domna and their two sons (Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany/The Bridgeman Art Library)

. Paolo Veroneses The Dream of St Helena ( National Gallery, London)

. Helenas discovery of the True Cross ( British Library Board Add.30038, f.237)

. Sarcophagus of St Helena (Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy/Alinari/The Bridgeman Art Library)

. Stilicho, Serena and Eucherius (Basilica di San Giovanni Battista, Monza, Italy/The Bridgeman Art Library)

. Coin featuring Pulcheria (The Trustees of the British Museum)

. Galla Placidia praying to St John the Evangelist (Ravenna, Biblioteca Classense, cod. 406, n.138, ord. B, lettra O)

. Mausoleum of Galla Placidia ( photo SCALA. Ravenna, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. 2010. Photo Scala, Florence)