Livia Ocellina was the second wife of
Gaius Sulpicius Galba and the stepmother of the
Roman Emperor Galba.
Biography
Her father was a Lucius Livius Ocella.
According to
Suetonius she was:
:a very rich and beautiful woman, who however is thought to have sought marriage with
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Gaius Sulpicius Galbahim because of his high rank, and the more eagerly when, in response to her frequent advances, he took off his robe in private and showed her his deformity, so as not to seem to deceive her by concealing it.
Galba was raised by her and took on the name Lucius Livius Ocella (rather than his birth name of Servius Sulpicius Galba) during the period prior to his assumption of the purple.
Research
There has been speculation that she was a relative of Roman empress
Livia Drusilla
Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC – 28 September AD 29) was a Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Roman emperor, Emperor Augustus Caesar. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal Adoption in ancient Rome, adoption into the J ...
.
Ronald Syme
Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...
has expressed that he does not believe that to be true.
See also
*
List of Roman women
The list below includes Roman women who were notable for their family connections, or their sons or husbands, or their own actions. In the earlier periods, women came to the attention of (later) historians either as poisoners of their husbands ( ...
References
1st-century Roman women
Livii
Galba
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