An enemy of Octavian, before he was his stepson’s namesake
Tiberius Claudius Nero was a Roman senator who fought on the losing side of the civil wars, first for Pompey’s cause and then, after Caesar’s assassination, in support of Antonius and against the young Octavian during the Perusine War. Following the general reconciliation among the warring factions, he returned to Rome with his wife Livia and their infant son, the future emperor Tiberius.
Divorce, and an unusually gracious exit
Around 38 BCE, Octavian, having fallen for the already-pregnant Livia, pressured Nero into divorcing her so that Octavian could marry her himself. Ancient sources record that Nero not only agreed but personally gave Livia away at her wedding to Octavian, as a father would — a striking accommodation to the political realities of the new regime.
Death, and a son raised by his rival
Nero died in 33 BCE. His elder son Tiberius, then a boy, delivered the funeral oration; his younger son, Drusus the Elder, was afterward raised in Augustus’s own household alongside his mother Livia. No surviving portrait is confidently identified as Tiberius Claudius Nero.
Historical sources
Suetonius, Tiberius 4; 6
Nero’s career, the divorce, and his sons’ upbringing.
Cassius Dio, Roman History 48.44
The circumstances of Octavian’s marriage to Livia.