Livia

Born in 59 BC to a senatorial family, Livia Drusilla married Tiberius Claudius Nero and had two sons before divorcing him in 38 BC to marry Octavian, soon to become Augustus. When the Senate granted him the title in 27 BC, she became Rome's first empress and his most trusted advisor, sitting in on confidential discussions and shaping decisions behind closed doors. She built her own machinery of power: a network of indebted officials, a file of rivals' crimes, leverage deployed with precision. Rumours swirled that she'd orchestrated the deaths of Augustus's relatives, including his grandson Agrippa Postumus. After Augustus died in AD 14, her son Tiberius took the throne, but Livia kept her separate court, received Senate delegations, and co-signed imperial orders - he consulted her because he had to, even as he tried to pull away. She died in AD 29; her great-great-grandson Nero would be the last of her line to rule, and Claudius made her a goddess in AD 42.