The royal wedding in England was a big and lavish affair! Congrats to the royal couple! In honor of the royal couple, today’s post will feature some famous, or should I say notorious royal couples of ancient Rome.

The first honor goes to Emperor Augustus and to his wife, Empress Livia Drusilla. They were the first royal couple of the Roman Empire. The way they got together was scandalous, even for the standards of ancient Rome. Livia was six months pregnant with her second child when Octavian (Augustus’s name at the time) persuaded Livia’s then husband Tiberius Claudius Nero, to divorce her. Three days after she gave birth to her second child, Augustus and Livia got married. They did not wait the traditional waiting period to get married, which says a lot about Augustus’s state of mind at the time.

Augustus and Livia were epitomized as the ideal couple in ancient Rome, but they had a strange arrangement. Augustus would have casual flings with other girls and if you believe the rumors, boys as well. Livia did not seem to mind, as long as her power as the Empress was not challenged. There is even one ancient historian who alleges she choose the girls for Augustus’s pleasure. I guess this arrangement worked for them, because they were married for fifty-one years!

I guess the third time’s a charm, because Livia was the third wife of Augustus and likewise Julia Domna was the third wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. The two got along very well, and in many ways the two had a unique partnership. When Severus was away in battle, Julia would secretly rule the Empire in his stead. He apparently trusted her because although there were accusations against her chastity, he did not divorce her.

This next couple is probably one of the most notorious royal couples in ancient Rome. It’s kind of hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to Emperor Nero and Empress Poppaea, but one thing is for sure, and that is that they had a tempestuous marriage. When Poppaea was first pregnant with Nero’s child, he was still married to his wife, Claudia Octavia. Technically, that meant that Poppaea was his mistress. Of course, once he divorced Octavia, he married Poppaea.

Their first child died in infancy, but Poppaea was soon pregnant with their second child. Unfortunately, the second child never came to term, and Poppaea also died in the process. Ancient sources attribute Poppaea and the child’s death as being caused by Nero kicking her in the abdomen. However, it may have been that Poppaea died by complications from childbirth. Whatever may be the truth, Nero was deeply affected by her death. He was terribly despondent and spent money on a grand funeral in her memory.