Octavia

Octavia Minor (c. 69—11 BCE) was the elder sister of the first Roman Emperor Augustus, the fourth wife of his ally and subsequent rival Mark Antony, and ancestor of the emperors Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. Such a genealogy positions her squarely at the center of events as Rome transitioned from Republic to civil war to Empire.

Octavia traces this elite woman’s significant role in a turbulent period of Roman history. It explores the major events of Octavia’s life, including her coming of age in the late Republic, her pivotal role as wife of Mark Antony and sister of Octavian during the triumviral conflicts, and finally her exemplary motherhood in the early years of the Augustan regime.

This book analyses contemporary evidence from coins, statues, poetry, and inscriptions to counterbalance the picture of Octavia and her contemporaries that survives in literary sources indelibly marked by the propaganda of the final war between her brother and her husband, and her brother’s triumphant transformation into the first emperor. Octavia’s life thus reveals changes to the social and political landscape for women and men of the Roman elite—and how these changes came about—as the Republican system disintegrated and a new imperial one emerged.

Author Biography

Beth Andrea Severy-Hoven is Professor of the Classical Mediterranean and Middle East at Macalester College and the author of Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire.