# Alfidia

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**Alfidia** was the mother of Rome's first empress, [Livia](/source/Livia). She is mistakenly called *Aufidia* by [Suetonius](/source/Suetonius), and this was assumed to be her name for centuries, but inscriptions found show that her name was the rare nomen Alfidia.

## Biography

It was once thought that she was a daughter of [Roman Magistrate](/source/Roman_Magistrates) [Marcus Aufidius Lurco](/source/Marcus_Aufidius_Lurco). In actuality, her name was *[Alfidia](/source/Alfidia_gens)*, a [nomen](/source/Nomen_(Roman_name)) which was quite rare.[1]

She married the future [praetor](/source/Praetor), [Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus](/source/Marcus_Livius_Drusus_Claudianus). They had at least one child: a daughter [Livia](/source/Livia) Drusilla (59 BC-29 AD). Her husband also adopted [Marcus Livius Drusus Libo](/source/Marcus_Livius_Drusus_Libo), who served as a Roman consul. Livia was to become the first Roman Empress and third wife of the first [Roman Emperor](/source/Roman_Emperor) [Augustus](/source/Augustus). Alfidia would be the maternal grandmother to [Roman emperor](/source/Roman_emperor) [Tiberius](/source/Tiberius) Claudius Nero and Roman General [Nero Claudius Drusus](/source/Nero_Claudius_Drusus). The Roman emperors [Caligula](/source/Caligula), [Claudius](/source/Claudius) and [Nero](/source/Nero) were her direct descendants.

## Cultural depictions

[Deborah Moore](/source/Deborah_Moore) appears as [Alfidia](/source/Alfidia_(Rome_character)), the mother of a fictionalized Livia, in two 2007 episodes of the [HBO](/source/HBO)/[BBC](/source/BBC) series *[Rome](/source/Rome_(TV_series))*. In *[A Necessary Fiction](/source/A_Necessary_Fiction)*, she is present when a married Livia catches the eye of young [Octavian](/source/Gaius_Octavian_(Rome_character)), and both women are pleased when he insists that Livia divorce her current husband to marry him. Later, in *[De Patre Vostro](/source/De_Patre_Vostro_(About_Your_Father))*, Alfidia lightly questions Octavian's sister [Octavia](/source/Octavia_of_the_Julii)'s loyalty to her family at dinner, and is present when Octavian's mother [Atia of the Julii](/source/Atia_of_the_Julii) has an altercation with daughter-in-law Livia.

## See also

- [Aufidia gens](/source/Aufidia_gens)

## References

1. Sivan, Hagith (2018). *Jewish Childhood in the Roman World*. illustrated ed. Cambridge University Press. p. 319. ISBN 9781107090170.

## Sources

- [Suetonius](/source/Suetonius), The Twelve Caesars, Tiberius and Caligula

## External links

- [Livia: Wife of Augustus](https://web.archive.org/web/20081022215537/http://www.roman-emperors.org/livia.htm), Roman-Emperors.org

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alfidia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfidia) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfidia?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.