LYVIA. Livilla, c. 13 B.C.-A.D. 31, was the daughter of Antonia and Drusus, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero. She married Drusus, son of the emperor Tiberius, and in A.D. 23 murdered him at the instigation of Sejanus, captain of the Imperial Guard. When Sejanus asked Tiberius for permission to marry Livilla in A.D. 25, Tiberius refused. Eight years later, Tiberius learned that Livilla had poisoned Drusus, and he ordered her execution (Suetonius, Tiberius LXII; The Deified Claudius I; Tacitus, Annals IV.iii-ix). Walter Map says that Livilla killed her husband because she hated him very much, Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum philosophum ne uxorem ducat, IV.3 (c. 1180-1183).
Lyvia is a wicked wife who kills her husband, WBP 747-749. [Alisoun3: Jankyn2: Valerie]
Chaucer uses the shortened form, probably for metrical reasons. It appears once initially, WBP 750, and once in medial position, WBP 747. Skeat (V: 311) points out that the name is Luna, sometimes Lima, in manuscripts of Map's Dissuasio. Either form could be confused with Livia.