Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Comedy: Standup

Natalie Haynes creates stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.

Natalie Haynes takes a fresh look at the ancient world, creating stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics: Series 9: Livia

Livia

Series 9

BBC Radio 4 - Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, Series 9, Livia

First Empress of Rome, faithful wife and influential advisor - or serial killer?

She was the first Empress of Rome, a faithful wife and trusted advisor, so why is Livia still best known as a serial killer?

Livia was the first Empress of Rome, a faithful wife, excellent friend and trusted advisor.  So why is she still best known as a serial killer?

Natalie is joined by guests Dr Emma Southon and Professor Llewelyn Morgan to discuss the life of Livia.  Her marriage to the Emperor Augustus (Octavian) was a love-match.  They were both married to other people when they first met, but that didn't last long, despite the added complication of her pregnancy and existing child.  Before he became Emperor, Octavian was a powerful war lord who got what he wanted.  He wanted Livia.   He adopted her two sons and numerous other children but had none of his own. 

The family was unlucky in losing many members to untimely death, and Livia seems often to have got the blame, however unreasonably.  But Augustus appears to have respected and loved his wife and not to have listened to the rumours.  Their marriage lasted over fifty years, but still she was accused of poisoning him (in a mysterious fig-painting incident) when he died at the ripe old age of seventy six.

Rock star mythologist’ and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. Here she explores key stories from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They might be biographical, topographical, mythological or epic, but they are always hilarious, magical and tragic, mystifying and revelatory. And they tell us more about ourselves now than seems possible of stories from a couple of thousand years ago.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics: Series 9

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Natalie Haynes explores lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics

Series 9

Livia

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4