Gaius Octavius

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Head of a statue, possibly Gaius Octavius, around 60 BC Chr., Munich Glyptothek

Gaius Octavius (* probably 101 BC or a little earlier; † 59 or 58 BC in Nola ) was a Roman politician and the father of Emperor Augustus .

Octavius ​​came from a knight family resident in Velitrae , the gens Octavia . Unusually, he held two military tribunals . With the bursary around the year 70 BC Octavius ​​began as the first of his family in a long time (a distant ancestor, Gnaeus Octavius ​​Rufus , had already been quaestor in the 3rd century BC) a senatorial career ( cursus honorum ) , in which he took up the post of aedilis plebis (probably 64 BC at the latest, together with Gaius Toranius) and the function of judge (probably in the following year 63 BC) reached the praetur , which he achieved in 61 BC After being elected with the highest number of votes of any candidate.

In the following two years Octavius ​​was governor of Macedonia . On the way to the provinces he put down a small revolt of survivors of the rebellions of Spartacus and Catiline near Thurii in southern Italy . He then gave his son the victory surname Thurinus . In Macedonia, Octavius ​​successfully waged war against the Thracian Besser and was proclaimed imperator by his army . After his return Octavius ​​wanted to apply for the consulate , but he died on the way back in 59 or 58 BC. In Nola in the same room as his son later.

Octavius, described in the sources as capable and ambitious, was first married to Ancharia , with whom he had the daughter Octavia Maior . From his second marriage (at the latest from 65 BC) with Atia , a niece of Gaius Julius Caesar , the younger daughter Octavia Minor and 63 BC came from. Son Gaius Octavius, who later became Augustus .

swell

C (aius) Octavius ​​C (ai) f (ilius) C (ai) n (epos) C (ai) pr [on (epos)]
father Augusti
tr (ibunus) mil (itum) to q (aestor) aed (ilis) pl (ebis) cum
C (aio) Toranio iudex quaestionum
pr (aetor) proco (n) s (ul) imperator appellatus
ex provincia Macedonia

literature

  • Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton , The magistrates of the Roman republic . Volume 2. American Philological Association, New York 1952, pp. 109, 178, 184, 190.
  • Jürgen Malitz : "O puer qui omnia nomini debes". On Octavian's biography up to the beginning of his inheritance . In: Gymnasium . Volume 111, 2004, pp. 381-409 (on Gaius Octavius: pp. 384-386; PDF; 2.2 MB ).

Remarks

  1. CIL 6, 41023 = Dessau , Inscriptiones Latinae selectae 47, line 7.
  2. On dating: FX Ryan: The quaestorship and aedileship of C. Octavius . In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . Volume 139, 1996, pp. 251-252 ( online, PDF ).
  3. CIL 6, 41023 = Dessau, ILS 47, lines 7-8; Suetonius , Augustus 27, 1 ; Appian , Civil Wars 4, 12 ( English translation ). To identify this Toranius, who was also the tutor of the later Augustus, see Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton , The magistrates of the Roman republic . Volume 3: Supplement . Scholars Press, Atlanta 1986, p. 206. Dating: FX Ryan: The quaestorship and aedileship of C. Octavius . In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. Volume 139, 1996, pp. 252-253
  4. ^ Velleius Paterculus 2, 59, 2 . Cf. Marcus Tullius Cicero , ad Quintum fratrem 1, 1, 21 .
  5. According to the Elogium ( CIL 6, 41023 = ILS 47, line 9) with the title proconsul .
  6. ^ Suetonius, Augustus 3 and 7 .
  7. ^ Suetonius, Augustus 3, 2 .
  8. Cicero later assured that Octavius ​​would have had a good chance of success ( Philippica 3, 15 ).
  9. Velleius Paterculus 2, 59, 2 ; Tacitus , Annales 1, 9, 1 .