Octavia the Younger (; – 11 BC) was the elder sister of the first Roman emperor (Augustus, also known as Octavian), the half-sister of Octavia the Elder, and the fourth wife of Mark Antony. She was also the great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger (who was empress during the reign of Claudius), maternal grandmother of Claudius and his brother Germanicus, and paternal great-grandmother and maternal great-great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero.
Life 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.Suetonius, Augustus 4.1 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 Pompey declined the proposalSuetonius, Caesar 27.1 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.
Marcellus, a friend of Cicero, was an initial opponent of Julius Caesar when Caesar invaded Italy, but did not take up arms against his wife's great uncle at the Battle of Pharsalus, and was eventually pardoned by him. In 47 BC he was able to intercede with Caesar for his cousin and namesake, also a former consul, then living in exile. Presumably, Octavia continued to live with her husband from the time of their marriage (she would have been between 12 and 15 when they married) to her husband's death. They had three surviving children: Claudia Marcella Major, Claudia Marcella Minor and Marcus Claudius Marcellus.Suetonius, Augustus 63.1; Plutarch, Antony 87 All three were born in Italy. However, according to the anonymous Περὶ τοῦ καισαρείου γένους Octavia bore Marcellus four sons and four daughters.Spyridon Lambros, Ἀνέκδοτον ἀπόσπασμα συγγραΦῆς περὶ τοῦ Καισαρείου γένους, Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων 1 (1904), p. 148 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.Plutarch, Antony 31; Appian, Civil Wars 5.64 and 5.66; Cassius Dio, Roman History 48.31.3 Between 40 and 36 BC, she travelled with Antony to various provinces and lived with him in his Athenian mansion.Plutarch, Antony 33; Appian, Civil Wars 5.76 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.Goldsworthy, Adrian (2014) Augustus, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 156: "Octavia appeared alongside her husband on coins - the first woman to appear on Roman currency".
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.So at the treaty of Taranto in 37 BC: Plutarch, Antony 35; Appian, Civil Wars 5.93-95; Cassius Dio, Roman History 48.54 For example, in early 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, Octavia brought fresh troops, provisions, and funds to Athens. There Antony had left a letter for her, instructing her to go no further.Plutarch, Antony 53; Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.33.3-4. See also a modern source, Antony divorced Octavia in late 33 BC.Plutarch, Antony 57.4-5; Cassius Dio, Roman History 50.3.2 In 33, he sent men to eject her from his house in Rome. She became sole caretaker of their children,Plutarch, Antony 87; Cassius Dio, Roman History 51.15.5 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 (Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus).
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.Suet. Div. Aug. 61. A Roman child is 1 year old until its 365th day, when it becomes 2. Thus Augustus' 54th year = 10 BC, since he was born in 63. Note that Dio 54.35.4-5 is not datable. 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).Dio 54.35.5 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 Children with Marcellus Octavia and her first husband had one son and two daughters who survived to adulthood.
Marcus Claudius Marcellus Claudia Marcella Major Claudia Marcella Minor
Children with Mark Antony Octavia and Mark Antony had two surviving daughters by their marriage (her second, his fourth), and both were the ancestors of later Roman emperors.
Antonia Major: grandmother to Emperor Nero. Antonia Minor: mother to Emperor Claudius, grandmother to Emperor Caligula, and great-grandmother to Emperor Nero.
Descendants Three Roman emperors, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, were amongst the most famous of her descendants.
Octavia the Younger Marcus Claudius Marcellus (42 BC – 23 BC), no issue Claudia Marcella Major (born 41 BC) Vipsania Marcella Major Vipsania Marcella Minor Iullus Antonius (? – ?), issue unknown Lucius Antonius (20 BC – AD 25), issue unknown Iulla Antonia (? – ?), issue unknown Claudia Marcella Minor (born 40 BC) Paullus Aemilius Regulus (? – ?), issue unknown Claudia Pulchra (14 BC–26) Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus (11 BC – 20/21) Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (? – ?), possibly son of Aurelius Messalinus Valeria Messalina (17 AD or 20 AD – 48 AD) Claudia Octavia (39 AD or 40 AD – 62 AD), no issue Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus (41 AD – 55 AD), no issue Valeria Messallia (c. 10 BC – ?) Lucius Vipstanus Poplicola (c. 10 – after 59) Gaius Valerius Poplicola (? – ?), issue unknown Gaius Vipstanus Messalla GallusSyme, Ronald. The Augustan Aristocracy (1986), pg. 242 (c. 10 BC – after 60) Lucius Vipstanus Messalla (c. 45 – c. 80) Lucius Vipstanus Messalla (c. 75 – after 115), according to some authors, this man may be one of Saint Melania's ancestors.Mennen, Inge. Power and Status in the Roman Empire, AD 193-284 (2011), pg. 123-124-125-127.Settipani, Christian. Continuité gentilice et continuité sénatoriale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale (2000), pgs. 227-228-229.Potter, David S., The Roman Empire at Bay: AD 180-395 (2004), pg. 389Schlitz, Carl. "St. Melania (the Younger)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 15 Mar. 2013 Antonia Major (39 BC – before 25 AD) Domitia Lepida the Elder (c. 19 BC – 59 AD) Quintus Haterius Antoninus (? – ?) Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (17 BC – 40 AD) Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus) (37 AD – 68 AD) Claudia Augusta (January 63 AD – April 63 AD), died young Domitia Lepida the Younger (10 BC – 54 AD) Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (same man as above), possibly son of Aurelius Messalinus or Valerius Barbatus (same man as above) Valeria Messalina (same woman as above) See her line above