Roman History, 48.44

Cassius Dio  translated by Earnest Cary

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44She was the daughter of Livius Drusus, who had been among those proscribed on the tablet and had committed suicide after the defeat in Macedonia, and the wife of Nero, whom she had accompanied in his flight, as has been related. And it seems that she was in the sixth month with child by him. 2At any rate, when Caesar was in doubt and enquired of the pontifices whether it was permissible to wed her while pregnant, they answered that if there was any doubt whether conception had taken place the marriage should be put off, but if this was admitted, there was nothing to prevent its taking place immediately. Perhaps they really found this among the ordinances of the forefathers, but certainly they would have said so, even had they not found it. 3Her husband himself gave the woman in marriage just as a father would; and the following incident occurred at the marriage feast. One of the prattling boys, such as the women keep about them for their amusement, naked as a rule, on seeing Livia reclining in one place with Caesar, and Nero in another with a man, went up to her and said: “What are you doing here, mistress? For your husband,” pointing him out, “is reclining over there.” 4So much then, for this. Later, when the woman was now living with Caesar, she gave birth to Claudius Drusus Nero. Caesar both acknowledged him and sent him to his real father, making this entry in his memoranda: “Caesar returned to its father Nero the child borne by Livia, his wife.” 5Nero died not long afterward and left Caesar himself as guardian to this boy and to Tiberius. Now the populace gossiped a great deal about this and said, among other things, “The lucky have children in three months”; and this saying passed into a proverb.

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