Livia and the womanhood of Rome

See how Fortune has raised you high, and commanded you to occupy a place of great honour; so, Livia, bear up that load. You draw our eyes and ears to you, we notice all your actions, and the word of a princeps , once spoken, cannot be concealed. Stay upright, rise above your woes, keep your spirit unbroken – in so far as you can. Our search for models of virtue, certainly, will be better when you take on the rôle of first lady ( Romana princeps ). These words were written by a Roman eques just after he had taken part in the funeral of Livia's son Drusus in 9 B.C.; they derive from a poem known conventionally as the Epicedion Drusi or Consolatio ad Liviam . Drusus, consul in that year, had died of an illness on campaign east of the Rhine; for his successes against the Germans he had been about to receive various honours at Rome, including a triumph. Among these one of the more outstanding was the banquet for the principal women of the city which his mother and step-sister (Julia, Augustus' daughter by Livia) were to give in his honour; a celebration which they had previously organized for Drusus' brother Tiberius, to commemorate the pacification of Pannonia.