ABSTRACT
His attitude to the founding couple, Augustus and Livia, is instructive. So little did he belong to the Julian family that he had to appropriate the cognomen of ‘Caesar’, to which he was entitled neither by birth nor by adopton. But the acid test is supplied by his paternal grandmother, Livia. In 42 she was deified, thus giving her the recognition that neither the previous Claudian ruler, Tiberius, nor Caligula had seen fit to accord her. She was also given a statue in Augustus’ temple (again the shared
honour signifying the co-founder), the sacrifices were entrusted to the Vestals, women were ordered to use her name in oaths, and she received games and the parading of her image.4 These honours, impressive at first glance, were much more modest than those that had been decreed for Diva Drusilla.5 Moreover, the motive was more immediate political need than piety. Claudius did not have access to the title of ‘Son of a god’ that would have given a certain Julian continuity to his assumption of the throne. It is unlikely that he declared himself Augustus’ grandson;6 autoadoption would have to wait for Septimius Severus. But Divae Nepos, ‘Grandson of a goddess’ who happened to be a cofounder, would do almost as well, if given wide enough exposure. Hence her appearance on his coins, the first Diva to be so honoured.7 But after that Diva Augusta receded into the background. There is no trace of the protection of her divinity by the criminal law, as there had been for Divus Augustus and Diva Drusilla.8 At long last Livia had ceased to matter politically.
