Childhood Octavia was born around 69 BC. Full sister to
Augustus, Octavia was the only daughter born of
Gaius Octavius' second marriage to
Atia, niece of
Julius Caesar. Octavia was born in
Nola, present-day
Italy; her father, a Roman governor and senator, died in 59 BC from natural causes. Her mother later remarried, to the consul
Lucius Marcius Philippus. Octavia spent much of her childhood travelling with her parents. Marcius was in charge of educating Octavia and her brother Octavian, later known as Augustus.
First marriage Some time before 54 BC, her stepfather arranged for her to marry
Gaius Claudius Marcellus. He was a member of the influential plebeian branch of the
Claudian family and descended from
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, a famous general in the
Second Punic War. In 54 BC, Octavia's great-uncle Julius Caesar is said to have been anxious for her to divorce her husband so that she could marry
Pompey, who had just lost his wife
Julia (Caesar's daughter, and thus Octavia's cousin once removed). The couple did not want to get a divorce, so instead and married
Cornelia Metella. Thus, Octavia's husband continued to oppose Julius Caesar, including in the crucial year of his consulship, 50 BC. Civil war broke out when Caesar invaded Italy from Gaul in 49 BC. All three were born in Italy. However, according to the anonymous
Περὶ τοῦ καισαρείου γένους Octavia bore Marcellus four sons and four daughters. Her husband Marcellus died in May 40 BC.
Second marriage By a
Senatorial decree, Octavia married
Mark Antony in October 40 BC, as his fourth wife (his third wife
Fulvia having died shortly before). This marriage had to be approved by the Senate, as she was pregnant with her first husband's child, and was a politically motivated attempt to cement the uneasy alliance between her brother Octavian and
Mark Antony; however, Octavia does appear to have been a loyal and faithful wife to Antony. Between 40 and 36 BC, she travelled with Antony to various provinces and lived with him in his
Athenian mansion. There she raised her children by Marcellus as well as Antony's two sons;
Antyllus and
Iullus, as well as the two daughters of her marriage to Antony,
Antonia Major and
Antonia Minor who were born there. During this period, she became the first (or second) Roman woman to have coins minted bearing her image; only Antony's previous wife Fulvia may have pre-empted her.
Breakdown The alliance was severely tested by Antony's abandonment of Octavia and their children in favor of his former lover Queen
Cleopatra VII of Egypt (Antony and Cleopatra had met in 41 BC, an interaction that resulted in Cleopatra bearing twins,
Alexander Helios, a boy, and
Cleopatra Selene, a girl). After 36 BC, Octavia returned to Rome with the daughters of her second marriage. On several occasions she acted as a political advisor and negotiator between her husband and brother. For example, in the spring of 37 BC, while pregnant with her daughter Antonia Minor, she was considered essential to an arms deal held at Tarentum, in which Antony and Augustus agreed to aid each other in their Parthian and Sicilian campaigns. She had won over her brother's advisers Agrippa and Maecenas and convinced him to renew their alliance. She was hailed as a "marvel of womankind". In 35 BC, after Antony suffered a disastrous campaign in Parthia, she brought fresh troops, provisions, and funds to Athens. There Antony had left a letter for her, instructing her to go no further. Mark Antony divorced Octavia in late 33 BC. In 33, Antony sent men to eject her from his house in Rome. She became sole caretaker of their children, except for Antyllus who was already with his father in the East. After Antony's suicide in 30 BC, her brother executed Antyllus but allowed Octavia to raise Antony's younger son Iullus by Fulvia as well as his children by Cleopatra (the two sons
Alexander Helios and
Ptolemy Philadelphus, and one daughter,
Cleopatra Selene II).
Later life In 35 BC, Augustus accorded a number of honours and privileges to Octavia, and also to his wife,
Liviapreviously unheard of for women in Rome. They were granted
sacrosanctitas, meaning it was illegal to verbally insult them. Previously, this had only been granted to tribunes. Livia and Octavia were made immune from
tutela, the male guardianship which all women in Rome except for the
Vestal Virgins were required to have. This meant they could freely manage their own finances. Finally, they were the first women in Rome to have statues and portraits displayed en masse in public places. Previously, only one woman, Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, had been part of the public statues displayed in Rome. In Augustus' rebuilding of Rome as a city of marble, Octavia was featured. In all her representations, she wore the "nodus" hairstyle, which at the time was considered conservative and dignified, and worn by women from many classes. Augustus adored, but never adopted, her son
Marcellus. When Marcellus died of illness in 23 BC unexpectedly, Augustus was thunderstruck and Octavia disconsolate almost beyond recovery.
Aelius Donatus, in his Life of Vergil, states that
Virgil recited three whole books [of his
Aeneid] for Augustus: the second, fourth, and sixth—this last out of his well-known affection for Octavia, who (being present at the recitation) is said to have fainted at the lines about her son, "... You shall be Marcellus" [
Aen. 6.884]. Revived only with difficulty, she sent Virgil ten thousand
sesterces for each of the verses." She may have never fully recovered from the death of her son, and retired from public life, except on important occasions. The major source that Octavia never recovered is
Seneca (
De Consolatione ad Marciam, II.) but Seneca may wish to show off his rhetorical skill with hyperbole, rather than adhere to fact. Some dispute Seneca's version, as Octavia publicly opened the Library of Marcellus, dedicated in his memory, while her brother completed the building of
Marcellus's theatre in his honor. Undoubtedly Octavia attended both ceremonies, as well as the Ara Pacis ceremony to welcome her brother's return in 13BC from the provinces. She was also consulted in regard to, and in some versions advised, that Augustus's daughter
Julia marry
Agrippa after her mourning for Marcellus ended. Agrippa had to divorce Octavia's daughter
Claudia Marcella Major in order to marry Julia, so Augustus wanted Octavia's endorsement very much.
Death . Octavia died of natural causes. Suetonius says she died in Augustus' 54th year, thus 11 BC with Roman inclusive counting. Her funeral was a public one, with her sons-in-law (Drusus, Ahenobarbus, Iullus Antonius, and possibly Paullus Aemillius Lepidus) carrying her to the grave in the Mausoleum of Augustus. Drusus delivered one funeral oration from the rostra and Augustus gave her the highest posthumous honors (building the Gate of Octavia and
Porticus Octaviae in her memory). Augustus also had the Roman senate declare his sister to be a goddess. Augustus declined some other honors decreed to her by the senate, for reasons unknown. ==Issue==