One major problem that the tricky old reptile never entirely solved, however, was the system of succession. It is clear enough that he intended his power to be hereditary, but he and his long-standing wife Livia had no children together, and a sequence of chosen heirs died at inconveniently early ages. Eventually Augustus was forced to fall back on Tiberius, Livia’s son by her first husband, who in 14 Ce became emperor (hence the title ‘Julio-Claudian’ now given to this first Roman dynasty, reflecting its mixed descent from the ‘Julian’ family of Augustus and the ‘Claudian’ family of
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