A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

4 OCTAVIA. OCTAVIA.
uacOred', ysvaCdeS. (Plut. Ant. 31.) Nor at first but died in B. C. 23. [MARCELLUS, No. 15.1 Of
did this union disappoint public expectation. By her two daughters by her former husband, one was
the side of Octavia, Antony for a time forgot Cleo- married to M. Agrippa, and subsequently to Julus
patra, and the misunderstandings and jealousies Antonius [MARCELLA], but of the fate of the other
which had again arisen between her brother and daughter we have no information. The descendhusband, and which threatened an open rupture in ants of her two daughters by Antonius succesthe year 36, were removed by her influence and sively ruled the Roman world. The elder of them
intervention. But Antony had by this time married L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, and became
become tired of his wife; a virtuous woman soon the grandmother of the emperor Nero; the younger
palled the sated appetite of such a profligate of them married Drusus, the brother of the
debauchee, and he now longed to enjoy again the emperor Tiberius, and became the mother of the
wanton charms of his former mistress, Cleopatra. emperor Claudius, and the grandmother of the
The war with the Parthians summoned him to the emperor Caligula. [ANTONIA, Nos. 5 and 6.] A
East, to which he went with all the greater complete view of the descendants of Octavia is
pleasure, as in the East he would again meet with given in the stemma on p. 7.
the Egyptian queen. Octavia accompanied him (The authorities for the life of Octavia are
from Italy as far as Corcyra, but upon arriving at collected by Drumann, Geschichte Rowns, vol. v. pp.
that island he sent her back to her brother, under 235-244. The most important passages are:the pretext of not exposing her to the perils and Appian, B. C. v. 64, 67, 93, 95, 138; Dion Cass.
hardships of the war (Dion Cass. xlviii. 54); xlvii. 7, xlviii. 31, 54, xlix. 33, 1. 3, 26, li. 15, liv.
though, according to other authorities, he parted 35; Plut. Ant. 31, 33, 35, 57, 59, 87; Suet. Caes.
with her in Italy. (Plut. Ant. 35; Appian. B. C. 27, Aug. 4, 61.)
v. 95.) On arriving in Asia, Antony soon forgot, One of the most ilnportantpublicbuildings erected
in the arms of Cleopatra, both his wife and the in Rome in the reign of Augustus was called after
Parthians, and thus sullied both his own honour Octavia, and bore the name of Porticus Octaviace.
and that of the Roman arms. Octavia, however, It must be carefully distinguished from the Porticots
resolved to make an effort to regain the lost affec- Octavia, which was built by Cnu. Octavius, who
tions of her husband. In the following year, B. c. commanded the fleet in the war against Perseus,
35, she set out from Italy with reinforcements of king of Macedonia. [OCTAVIUS, No. 3.] The
men and money to assist Antony in his war against former was built by Augustus, in the name of his
Artavasdes, king of Armenia; but Antony re- sister, whence some writers speak of it as the work
solved not to meet the woman whom he had so of the emperor, and others as the work of Octavia.
deeply injured, and accordingly sent her a message, It lay between the Circus Flaminius and the
when she had arrived as far as Athens, requesting theatre of Marcellus, occupying the same site as
her to return home. Octavia obeyed; she was the porticus which was built by Q. Caecilius Megreat-minded enough to send him the money and tellus, after his triumph over Macedonia, in B. c.
troops, and he mean enough to accept them. It is 146 [METELLUS, NO. 5], and enclosing, as the
stated that Octavianus had supplied her with the porticus of Metellus had done, the two temples of
troops because he foresaw the way in which Jupiter Stator and of Juno. The Porticus Octavine
Antony would act, and was anxious to obtain contained a public library, which frequently served
additional grounds to justify him in the impending as a place of meeting for the senate, and is hence
war. On her return to Rome, Octavianus ordered called Cuzria Octavia. The whole suite of buildings
her to leave her husband's house and come and is sometimes termed Octaviae Opera. It contained
reside with him, but she refused to do so, and a vast number of statues, paintings, and other
would not appear as one of the causes of the war; valuable works of art, but they were all destroyed,
she remained in her husband's abode, where she together with the library, by the fire which con
educated Antony's younger son, by Fulvia, with sumed the building in the reign of Titus (Dion
her own children. (Plut. Ant. 53, 54.) But this Cass. lxvi. 24). There is some doubt as to
noble conduct had no effect upon the hardened the time at which Augustus built the Porticus
heart of Antony, who had become the complete Octaviae. It is usually stated, on the authority of
slave of Cleopatra; and when the war broke out Dion Cassius (xlix. 43), that the building was
in B. C. 32, he sent his faithful wife a bill of erected by Octavianus, after the victory over the
divorce. After the death of Antony she still Dalmatians, in B. c. 33; but this appears to be a
remained true to the interests of his children, not- mistake; for Vitruvius, who certainly did not
withstanding the wrongs she had received from write his work so early as this year, still speaks
their father. For Julus, the younger son of (iii. 2. ~ 5, ed. Schneider) of the Porticus Metelli,
Antony, by Fulvia, she obtained the special favour and we learn from Plutarch (JMarc. 30) that the
of Augustus, and she even brought up with ma- dedication at all events of the Porticus did not take
ternal care his children by Cleopatra. She died in place till after the death of M. Marcellus in B. C. 23.
B. C. 11, and was buried in the Julian heroum, (Vell. Pat. i. 11; Dion Cass. xlix. 43; Plut. 1. c.;
where Augustus delivered the funeral oration in Liv. Epit. 138; Suet. A ug. 29; Plin. I. N. xxxvi. 4.
her honour, but separated from the corpse by a s. 5; Festus, p. 178, ed. Milller; Becker, Handhanring. Her funeral was a public one; her
sons-in-law carried her to the grave; but many of
the honours decreed by the senate were declined 0
by the emperor. (Dion Cass. liv. 35; Senec. ad
PolyL. 34.)
Octavia had five children, three by Marcellus, a
son and two dalugllters, and two by Antony, both
daughters. Her son, M. Marcellus, was adopted
by Octavianus, and was destined to be his successor, COIN OF OCTAVIA, THE SISTER OF AUGUSTUS.