Matthew Dennison is a regular contributor to The Times and Country Life. He is also the author of a book about Victorian history:
The Last Princess:
The Devoted Life of
Queen Victoria’s Youngest Daughter
(Hardcover 2007)
(Paperback 2008)
Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia is his first venture into the world of ancient Rome. Sadly, this book is not very successful. I have many arguments when I make this claim. For reasons of space, I can only mention some of them here:
(1) The illustration on the front cover is a detail of a large painting from ca. 1819, which is included in the book as illustration # 20.
The detail is reversed:
On the cover, Livia is looking to the left. But in the original, she is looking to the right!
(2) The text on the back cover presents Livia as the “Second wife of the emperor Augustus.” But this is wrong. Livia was the third wife of Augustus.
The first was Claudia; the second Scribonia. Claudia and Scribonia are both mentioned in the book (page 85), but the author pretends Augustus was merely engaged (and not married) to Claudia, and therefore he thinks she does not count.
But Svetonius says Augustus was married three times, and there is no reason to question his statement.
[Divus Augustus, 62]
(3) Dennison says Livia was born on 30 January 58 BC. He mentions the year
and/or the date no less than seven times.
[pp. 6, 8, 11, 13, 19, 22 & 208]
In one instance (page 8) he even claims:
“the date 30 January can be stated with reasonable certainty.”
But he is wrong.
In 58 BC, when Livia was born, the old republican calendar was still in use, and January had only 29 days. In the Roman Republic, nobody was born on 30 January 58 BC, because this date did not exist. Livia was born on 28 January, and during the first years of her life she celebrated her birthday on that date.
In 45 BC, Gajus Julius Caesar introduced a new calendar – known as the Julian calendar – and January was given two more days.
From 45 BC, Livia celebrated her birthday on 30 January. For Livia almost nothing changed: all her life she celebrated her birthday three days (by Roman inclusive counting) before the first day of February.
Roman inscriptions give the birthday as follows:
a.d. III Kal. Feb.
This abbreviation means three days before the first day of February. In the Julian calendar, this is 30 January. But in the old calendar, this is 28 January.
Obviously, Dennison does not know how the Romans counted the days and how they marked a specific date.
(4) In chapter 3, we are told that Cicero “had departed the city for voluntary exile.” Why did Cicero go into exile in 58 BC? Dennison never answers this question. Here is the answer:
As consul in 63 BC, Cicero had led the attack on Catilina and his allies. Roman citizens were killed without a trial, and this was against the law. Catilina and his conspiracy are mentioned two times (pp. 10 and 60), but there is no connection to Cicero.
I know this is not a book about Cicero and Catilina, but when Dennison introduces Cicero and his exile, I think he should explain why it happened.
(5) In chapter 25, Dennison mentions the episode in which the poet Vergilius (known in English as Virgil) reads from his work The Aeneid to Augustus, Livia and Octavia.
When the poet mentions Marcellus – the son of Octavia, who died very young – Octavia faints.
This moment is the subject of a painting from 1820 (illustration # 21).
Dennison claims it shows:
“Livia catching her milk-white sister-in-law as she falls.”
If you compare the painting with the statement, you will see that the statement is false. We do not see Octavia falling. We do not see Livia catching her.
(6) Dennison often quotes from an ancient author. But when you go to the notes at the end of the book, you will discover that the quote is taken from a modern (a secondary) book and not the ancient (the primary) source.
(7) The author gives conflicting information about the marriage between Tiberius and Vipsania:
On page 145, he places it in 20 BC; but on page 172 we are told it took place in 19 BC.
What is the truth? The fact is we do not know exactly when this marriage took place.
(8) There are many problems with this book. Some are in the details, as explained above.
A general problem is the structure of the book. The 31 chapters of the book follow a chronological line, but within each chapter the story-line often jumps back and forth. This is annoying and confusing.
(9) Perhaps the biggest problem is the way in which Dennison uses ancient sources. He has a special phrase for them:
“If we can believe NN” or “If we can trust NN.” This phrase appears again and again (pp. 69, 72, 79, 87, 92, 104, 127, 137, 144, 161, and 193).
The word “if” means we are asking a question: can we trust this particular source or not? Dennison asks the question, but he never answers it; and he never explains why we should accept or reject a particular source.
When Dennison uses his special phrase, it looks as if he is carefully considering the credibility of a particular source, but this is not the case.
In fact, the special phrase is used to avoid evaluating the credibility of the source.
(10) Throughout the book, Dennison makes suggestions:
He says “We can only speculate…” (pp. 17, 128, 194).
He says it is a “matter for conjecture” (pp. 159, 172, 211).
But there are no certain conclusions.
Was Livia a criminal?
Did she murder members of the imperial family?
When he finally gives his answer - on page 268, which is the very last page - it feels like an anti-climax, because it is so short, just one sentence, in fact just one word, which he says twice:
We want to know if Livia is responsible for horrible crimes? What is his answer? This is what he says:
“… the answer, insofar as trustworthy evidence survives, is no and again no.”
With one sweeping statement all ancient sources regarding Livia as a criminal are rejected.
It is easy to see that Dennison put a lot of effort into this book. But in the world of books, the only thing that really counts is the result, and in this case, the result is simply not good enough.
*****
Empress of Rome:
The Life of Livia
By Matthew Dennison
(Hardcover 2010)
(Paperback 2011)
352 pages
*****
Virgil reading the Aeneid before
Augustus, Livia and Octavia
Painted ca. 1819
by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingress
(1780-1867)
In the painting,
Livia is looking to the right
But in the detail used on the cover of the book,
she is looking to the left!
*****
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