Our first season is set during the reign of Gaius, Caesar Augustus – but it’s told through the incredible true story of his wife Livia Drusilla, who re-wrote the rules of what a girl could expect out of life and rose to be the most powerful woman in the world.

We open on the eve of Livia’s first wedding and follow her through her exile and return to Rome, determined to regain everything that was stolen from her. Which she does, brilliantly, by marrying the man who stole it. But she makes a lifelong enemy of the woman she displaces, Scribonia, who is never far from Livia because she bears Gaius a child – Julia – just after the divorce.

By the age of thirty, Livia has got back her property, her status and a whole lot more. But her beloved father has died fighting for the Republic – against Gaius, who is now her husband.
Livia soon discovers that it’s not enough to take power, you must be able to hang onto it when everyone else wants it too. And, like anyone else, you want to leave a legacy.