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A review by difficultwomanreads
Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia by Matthew Dennison
3.0
Livia's always held a certain fascination for me. She's a fairly obscure figure among non-history-buffs. (Versus Cleopatra. Everyone knows about Cleopatra.) Yet during her era, no other woman held the sort of precedence that she did. Praised for her beauty--praised, at the time, for her matronly virtues--she would go down in history as a wicked stepmother sort of figure, a scheming matriarch who makes men's penises shrivel up at the sound of her name. (No, seriously. Is it any surprise that "I, Claudius", the work that would make Livia infamous, was written by a man?) So imagine my happiness and surprise at finding a whole biography just about Livia. How did it turn out? Eh. Results were mixed.
The Good
Matthew Dennison very clearly appreciates his subject. He places great care in small but helpful details, like the color of Livia's wedding veil and certain omens that she put great store in. There's a slight, but not overpowering, feminist edge to his work. Personally, I believe that when attempting to rehabilitate a defamed woman's image, it's always helpful to approach the subject with a feminist eye. Dennison doesn't attempt to modernize Livia in any way, but attempts to understand her motivations from the perspective of a woman in her day and age. I particularly commend a male historian for being able to do this effectively, as I tend to find them a little lacking in that department.
At the same time, Dennison is careful to keep from projecting his ideas and viewpoints onto Livia. He keeps strictly to the facts. Very rarely does he do the thing that many biographers are criticized for: assume. He only draws conclusions when he absolutely must.
Dennison also manages to give us an effective look at Augustus, who I found myself liking a lot more than I expected. (I'm an Antony and Cleopatra fan. We tend to look at Augustus with a bit of disdain. Man didn't know how to party.) He's remarkably human in Dennison's hands, perhaps moreso than his wife.
The Bad
Unfortunately, there's a reason why Livia biographies are so hard to find. Ancient sources are very difficult to uncover--particularly accurate ancient sources. Dennison, again, never wants to draw his own conclusions--not even when they're reasonable. That accounts for the book's slim pagecount.
There just isn't that much Livia in a book about Livia. I can understand a lot of material on Augustus and Tiberius, as they were huge parts of her life. But sometimes I felt like I was reading a biography on the vs. Livia, particularly in the case of Tiberius. Extremely noticeable in this regard were entire pages going on about people who weren't even that important to Livia.
Often Dennison was forced to go on tangents about women who would have been Livia's contemporaries. He would have to draw his conclusions about how Livia "may" have had similar experiences. I couldn't help but feel that this issue could have been handled more deftly--in a way that more directly related to the subject.
The Ugly
Livia is a remarkably fascinating woman. So I must credit the book's tendency to stray from its focus with why it sometimes ventured into boring territory.
The Verdict
Nothing overly amazing or groundbreaking here. However, "Empress of Rome" is interesting and helpful. If you want to learn more about Livia and are going into it knowing little to nothing, I recommend it. If you're an expert or a history buff, you might want to skim it and otherwise look elsewhere.
The Good
Matthew Dennison very clearly appreciates his subject. He places great care in small but helpful details, like the color of Livia's wedding veil and certain omens that she put great store in. There's a slight, but not overpowering, feminist edge to his work. Personally, I believe that when attempting to rehabilitate a defamed woman's image, it's always helpful to approach the subject with a feminist eye. Dennison doesn't attempt to modernize Livia in any way, but attempts to understand her motivations from the perspective of a woman in her day and age. I particularly commend a male historian for being able to do this effectively, as I tend to find them a little lacking in that department.
At the same time, Dennison is careful to keep from projecting his ideas and viewpoints onto Livia. He keeps strictly to the facts. Very rarely does he do the thing that many biographers are criticized for: assume. He only draws conclusions when he absolutely must.
Dennison also manages to give us an effective look at Augustus, who I found myself liking a lot more than I expected. (I'm an Antony and Cleopatra fan. We tend to look at Augustus with a bit of disdain. Man didn't know how to party.) He's remarkably human in Dennison's hands, perhaps moreso than his wife.
The Bad
Unfortunately, there's a reason why Livia biographies are so hard to find. Ancient sources are very difficult to uncover--particularly accurate ancient sources. Dennison, again, never wants to draw his own conclusions--not even when they're reasonable. That accounts for the book's slim pagecount.
There just isn't that much Livia in a book about Livia. I can understand a lot of material on Augustus and Tiberius, as they were huge parts of her life. But sometimes I felt like I was reading a biography on the vs. Livia, particularly in the case of Tiberius. Extremely noticeable in this regard were entire pages going on about people who weren't even that important to Livia.
Often Dennison was forced to go on tangents about women who would have been Livia's contemporaries. He would have to draw his conclusions about how Livia "may" have had similar experiences. I couldn't help but feel that this issue could have been handled more deftly--in a way that more directly related to the subject.
The Ugly
Livia is a remarkably fascinating woman. So I must credit the book's tendency to stray from its focus with why it sometimes ventured into boring territory.
The Verdict
Nothing overly amazing or groundbreaking here. However, "Empress of Rome" is interesting and helpful. If you want to learn more about Livia and are going into it knowing little to nothing, I recommend it. If you're an expert or a history buff, you might want to skim it and otherwise look elsewhere.