Aileen Sophie Ernst

Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject area World History - Antiquity, grade: 1,0, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, language: German, abstract: The following employees analyses the marriage of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, to his third wife Livia Drusilla and examines the question of whether this union was an ideal moral and political marriage according to Augustan standards. The aim is to discuss Emperor Augustus' famous marriage policy and to examine whether the radical policy he pursued in public can also be confirmed in his private life with Livia. To this end, Augustus' legislation and his political reforms regarding marriage will first be outlined. Augustus not only arranged privileges for married couples, there was even an obligation to marry for the citizens of Rome, as well as strict deadlines for remarriage if the partner had died. Furthermore, there were severe penalties for adultery and drastic sanctions for unmarried couples. Due to this clear commitment to the institution of marriage, it can be assumed that Emperor Augustus himself had an ideal marriage. Augustus' marriage reforms were only introduced in 18 BC and extended in 9 AD, so he had already been married to Livia for many years and was personally familiar with life as a married man. Before his union with Livia, Augustus had already been married twice. After the special circumstances of the marriage to Livia are examined, the marriage of Augustus and Livia is scrutinised for its moral correctness. Although no children were born from the union, which was the actual aim of a Roman marriage, the couple were married for a full 52 years and were only separated when the emperor died.