Octavia Minor

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Bust of Octavia (right) on a coin minted in Ephesus

Octavia Minor ("Octavia the Younger", also called Octavia for short , * around 69 BC in Nola ; † 11 BC ) was an older sister of the Roman emperor Augustus and the fourth wife of the Roman general and triumvir Marcus Antonius . Due to her virtue, kindness, loyalty to her husband and non-interference in politics, she was considered to be one of the best-known noble models for the traditional Roman ideas of the role of matrons , which should be limited to their task as mother and housewife.

Life

ancestry

Octavia was the only daughter of Gaius Octavius by his second wife Atia , the niece of the famous Roman general Gaius Iulius Caesar . To distinguish her from her older half-sister Octavia Maior , she is called Octavia Minor (the younger one) in modern research. Octavius, who later became Emperor Augustus, was her younger (full) brother. From the statement of the ancient biographer Plutarch that the mistress of Mark Antony, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra , Octavia neither surpassed beauty nor youth, it is inferred that the two women are approximately equal in age. Since Cleopatra's presumed date of birth (early 69 BC) is known, a similar date is assumed for Octavia.

Marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus

Octavia was married to Gaius Claudius Marcellus (consul 50 BC) by her stepfather Lucius Marcius Philippus . In any case, the marriage began before 54 BC. Closed, because it was soon threatened with dissolution when Iulia , the daughter of Caesar, who was married to the triumvir Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus , died that year. The later dictator then wanted to renew the relationship with his rival and betroth his great-niece Octavia to Pompey, who, however, did not agree.

From the marriage of Marcellus and Octavia three came from the late 1940s BC. Children born in the 4th century BC: a son named Marcus Claudius Marcellus and two daughters, both named Claudia Marcella and called Claudia Marcella the elder and Claudia Marcella the younger to distinguish them. The latter daughter was not born until after the death of her father.

As 43 BC BC Octavian and his triumvirate colleagues had numerous opponents entered in proscription lists, Octavia stood up for the outlaws with her brother and helped the wife of a Titus Vinius to achieve her husband's amnesty in a dramatic way.

Marriage to Mark Antony

Early 40 BC Octavia was widowed at the age of about 30 years. Her brother, who loved her dearly, engaged her with special permission from the Senate before the end of the legally prescribed ten-month mourning period in October 40 BC. With the triumvir Marcus Antonius , who was a good ten years older than Octavia. The wedding took place in Rome at the end of the year with great pomp. This marriage served to reinforce the Treaty of Brundisium concluded between the triumvirs , which awarded Antonius the east and Octavian the west of the Roman Empire and was intended to improve their tense relationship. The army celebrated the marriage of Antony and Octavia in hope of the beginning of a new era of peace. When Antony from the end of 39 BC While in Athens he had coins minted with his and Octavia's portraits. After Fulvia , the previous wife of Antonius, who has since died, Octavia was only the second Roman woman whose image appeared on coins. Your name was not mentioned on these coins.

Octavia, characterized as lovable, beautiful and cultured, was contrasted by ancient authors as a prime example of a virtuous Roman Cleopatra who only cares about the household, who received an unflattering rating for it. Antony had had an affair with the Egyptian queen the previous year (41 BC); but now Octavia was to develop into her opponent and temporarily ousted Antony's favor. Although her marriage to Antonius initially came about for purely political purposes, she always seems to have been loyal to her husband. A leading follower of her brother, Gaius Maecenas , praised her beautiful, natural hair.

When Octavian and Antonius in the summer of 39 BC BC wanted to settle their armed conflict with Sextus Pompeius through the Treaty of Misenum , as part of this agreement the three-year-old son of Octavias from his first marriage, Marcellus, was betrothed to a daughter of Sextus Pompeius, but the peace was soon broken again and the engagement as a result resolved.

In August or September 39 BC Octavia gave birth to a daughter Antonia , who is differentiated from her sister of the same name, who was born later, by the addition "the elder" (Latin maior ). When Antonius at the end of 39 BC When he set off for Greece in the 3rd century BC, his wife accompanied him with her newborn daughter. The couple spent the winter of 39/38 BC. Happy in Athens. The citizens of the city paid Octavia numerous honors, celebrated Antonius as the new Dionysus and married him in a "heavenly wedding" with Athena, ie Octavia, who was equated with the city goddess. But Antonius, with sarcastic humor, demanded 1000 talents from the Athenians as a "dowry".

The episode of the scrawling of a statue of Octavia with the teasing that Antonius had two wives probably belongs to the time of this stay in Athens - apparently an allusion to his earlier love affair with Cleopatra. Perhaps people were acting here on behalf of the Egyptian queen, who probably did not want to lose her connection with Antonius entirely.

Presumably Octavia stayed during the year 38 BC. In Athens, while Antony replaced the legate Publius Ventidius Bassus , who had become successful in fighting the Parthians in Asia , but achieved little and returned to Greece at the end of the year. The tensions between Octavia's brother and husband had meanwhile increased again. Octavia contributed significantly to a renewed agreement of the warring triumvirs in the Treaty of Taranto at the beginning of 37 BC. Chr. At. As a personal favor, she asked her husband to give Octavian more ships than agreed for the fight against Sextus Pompey, while her brother should send Antonius a thousand additional soldiers as bodyguards. The agreement concluded in Taranto was also to be confirmed by two marriages. On the one hand, Octavian's two-year-old daughter Iulia was engaged to Marcus Antonius Antyllus , the almost ten-year-old son of Antonius from his marriage to Fulvia, and on the other hand, the older Antonia was engaged to Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 16 BC). But the first marriage project never materialized, the second only after the suicide of Antony and Cleopatra. Octavia's prominent role in bringing about the final reconciliation of the triumvirs is also indicated on the coins that Antonius then had minted in his half of the empire, because here either Octavia's head or her head and that of her husband appear opposite each other or the heads of Antonius and Octavian opposite that of Octavia. For the first time, portraits facing each other in profile were depicted in this way on Roman coins, perhaps following the example of Hellenistic rulers who wanted to emphasize the harmony of their marriage with this form of representation.

When Antonius in the summer of 37 BC When he set off for the east again, he sent Octavia, who was pregnant with another daughter, Antonia the Younger , back to her brother in Korkyra , allegedly because he did not want to expose her to the rigors of a sea voyage to Asia Minor. The historian Christoph Schäfer believes that Antonius sent his wife home so that she could continue to campaign for a good relationship between the triumvirs with her brother, but admits that when he took this step, Antonius might also think of Cleopatra, with whom he immediately renewed his relationship . It is controversial in research whether and, if so, when he married the Egyptian queen. According to Roman law he could not enter into a new legal marriage until his formal divorce from Octavia (32 BC).

After Antony 36 BC BC had suffered a devastating defeat against the Parthians, Octavia traveled in early 35 BC. In agreement with her brother from Rome to the east to bring her husband elite troops (2000 legionnaires), war material and money as support. At that time Antony was in Syria with Cleopatra. Allegedly only because of the influence of his lover, who is said to have prevented him from returning to Octavia by pretending to be undying love, crying fits and damage to her health, Antonius sent his wife, who was waiting in Athens, the notification that he would gladly accept the reinforcements, but she himself would again should travel home. It is unclear whether Antonius immediately wrote to his wife urging her to turn back, or whether he wrote her in a first letter to wait in Athens, since he was on a campaign, and only instructed her in a second letter to return to Rome. When assessing Antonius' behavior it must be taken into account that the mistrust between the triumvirs had existed for a long time and had been intensified by Octavian's failure to keep his triumvirate colleague's promise to send 20,000 soldiers reinforcements for the Parthian campaign, so that Antonius now has them only two years later sent 2,000 legionnaires had to appear minor and he was therefore no longer interested in further cooperation. On the other hand, through his relationship with Cleopatra, he was able to exhaust the resources of Egypt, while Octavian, increasingly powerful and aggressive after his final victory over Sextus Pompey, closed those of the West to him. Perhaps out of these considerations and not only out of love, Antonius decided in favor of Cleopatra and against Octavia, but also accepted the open break with Octavian, who had foreseen this behavior of his brother-in-law and apparently wanted it.

Octavian used the treatment of his sister, who was popular in Rome, to arouse indignation against Antony. He wanted her to move out of her husband's house in Rome. But Octavia stayed and asked her brother not to use her as a reason for the looming war between the triumvirs. She cared not only for her own children of Antonius, but also for those from his marriage to Fulvia. She received all friends of Antonius who came to her with wishes or worries and even represented their interests with her brother. But it was precisely with this impeccable behavior that she unintentionally harmed Antonius, since he was resented in Rome for his behavior towards his loyal and popular wife.

At Octavian's request, his sister Octavia and his wife Livia were given birth in 35 BC. BC - probably by a Senate resolution - granted some privileges. The two ladies were no longer under legal guardianship - as is usually the case with women - they enjoyed the right of inviolability , which among Roman women only vestals were entitled to, and were honored by setting up their statues.

When the preparations of the triumvirs for the final war for rule in the Roman Empire were in full swing and Cleopatra demanded the same honors from the Athenians that they had once paid to Octavia during their stay with Antonius in the Greek metropolis, the Egyptian queen was able to May or June 32 BC Finally succeeded in getting her lover to send the letter of divorce to his wife in Rome and to have it thrown out of his house. Only then did Octavia leave her ex-husband's home crying. This humiliation of his wife cost Antonius a lot of sympathy in Italy and so Octavian was able to secure all the more support for his last campaign against his former triumvirate colleague.

Next life

From now on Octavia withdrew completely and remained unmarried from then on. After Octavian's victory over his rival and the ensuing double suicide of Antony and Cleopatra (30 BC), the new ruler had Antyllus' eldest son executed. All of Antony's other children, including Cleopatra's, were raised by Octavia in Rome.

The two daughters of Antonius and Octavia were allowed to inherit part of their father's property. Through her marriage to Domitius Ahenobarbus (see above), Antonia the Elder became the grandmother of the future emperor Nero . Antonia the Younger married Nero Claudius Drusus , a stepson of Augustus, and thus became Nero's great-grandmother. From Octavia's daughters from her first marriage, the older Marcella Augustus' confidante married Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and after the separation of this marriage Iullus Antonius , the younger son of Antonius from his marriage to Fulvia. The younger Marcella was first married to Paullus Aemilius Lepidus (probably the suffect consul from 34 BC), then to Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus Appianus (consul 12 BC). Octavia's only son, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, married Augustus' daughter Iulia and was considered a possible successor to the emperor until he died in 23 BC. Died surprisingly. Octavia could never get over the early death of her son and is said to have been jealous of all mothers. This was primarily true of Augustus' wife, Livia, whose sons benefited most from the death of young Marcellus. According to a well-known anecdote, Octavia passed out when the famous poet Virgil read the verses about her son from the sixth book of his Aeneid .

In honor of his sister Augustus had after 27 BC The portico of Octavia , a famous building in Rome, was built on the site of the Porticus Metelli . Octavia donated libraries in the portico dedicated to her. The building writer Vitruvius owed her that Augustus found a lasting interest in him shortly after the Battle of Actium (31 BC). Octavia also socialized with philosophers, for example with Nestor, a member of the Platonic Academy, whom she made the educator of her son Marcellus, and with the stoic Athenodoros of Tarsus , who dedicated a work to her. A man pretended to be Octavia's son; because of his weak nature, another child was put in his place. As a punishment, this man had to row on the galleys.

Death and burial

Octavia died in great seclusion in 11 or 10 BC. At the age of almost 60 years. After she was laid out in the temple of the deified Julius, Augustus, who was very grieving for her, gave her funeral speech on a platform in front of the Caesar temple, then her son-in-law Drusus on the platform opposite. A state mourning was declared and Octavia's sons-in-law carried their bier to the Augustus mausoleum , where she was buried at the side of her son Marcellus. Some of the honors proposed for her by the Senate were not accepted by her brother.

reception

In 1906, the German astronomer Max Wolf named the asteroid 598 after Octavia Minor.

literature

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Octavia Minor  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Suetonius , Augustus 4, 1.
  2. ^ Plutarch , Antonius 57.
  3. ↑ Suetonius, Caesar 27, 1.
  4. ↑ Suetonius, Augustus 63, 1; Plutarch, Antonius 87; among others
  5. ^ Cassius Dio 47, 7, 4f. ; see. Appian , Civil Wars 4, 44 ; Suetonius, Augustus 27, 2 .
  6. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 31; Suetonius, Augustus 4, 1.
  7. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 31; Appian, Civil Wars 5, 64, and 66; Cassius Dio 48, 31, 3.
  8. ↑ A gold coin ( aureus ): RRC, No. 533 a and b; two cistophores: RPC 1, No. 2201-2202.
  9. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 5, 73.
  10. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 33; Appian, Civil Wars 5, 76.
  11. ↑ Cassius Dio 48, 39, 2; Seneca the Elder , suasoriae 1, 6.
  12. ↑ Seneca, suasoriae 1, 6.
  13. ^ So J. Brambach: Cleopatra . 1996, p. 232.
  14. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 34.
  15. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 35; Appian, Civil Wars 5, 93ff .; Cassius Dio 48, 54, 1ff.
  16. ↑ Suetonius, Augustus 63, 2; Suetonius, Nero 5.1 ; Plutarch, Antonius 87, 6; Cassius Dio 48, 54, 4; 51, 15, 5.
  17. ^ Catalog of Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum , II, pp. 507f. and 510-519.
  18. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 36; Cassius Dio 48, 54, 5.
  19. ↑ C. Schäfer, Cleopatra . 2006, p. 148f.
  20. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 53; Cassius Dio 49, 33, 3f.
  21. ↑ The latter view is represented by M. Grant, Kleopatra , 1998, pp. 213f. and C. Schäfer, Kleopatra , 2006, p. 166f.
  22. ^ M. Clauss: Cleopatra . 1995, p. 61ff .; C. Schäfer: Cleopatra . 2006, p. 166ff.
  23. ^ Plutarch, Antonius 54, 1ff.
  24. ↑ Cassius Dio 49, 38, 1.
  25. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 57, 4f .; Cassius Dio 50, 3, 2; 50, 26, 2; Livy , periochae 132; Eutropius 7, 6, 1; Orosius 6, 19, 4; Eusebius of Caesarea , Chronicle 2, 140 ed. Schoene.
  26. ^ Plutarch, Antonius 87; Cassius Dio 51, 15, 5.
  27. ^ Plutarch, Antonius 87; Suetonius, Nero 5.
  28. ^ Plutarch, Antonius 87.
  29. ^ Plutarch, Antonius 87; Suetonius, Augustus 63, 1; Velleius Paterculus 2, 106; Tacitus , Annals 4, 44.
  30. ^ Plutarch, Antonius 87; Plutarch, Marcellus 30; Suetonius, Augustus 63, 1; Cassius Dio 53, 27, 5; 53, 30, 4f .; among others
  31. ↑ Seneca , dialogi 6, 2, 3.
  32. ↑ Servius , Aeneis 6, 861; Aelius Donatus , Life of Virgil 32.
  33. ↑ Vitruvius 1, pref. 2.
  34. ↑ Strabon 14, 5, 14, p. 675
  35. ^ Plutarch, Poplicola 17.
  36. ↑ Valerius Maximus 9:15 , 2.
  37. ↑ Cassius Dio 54, 35, 4; see. Livy, periochae 140; Seneca, dialogi 11, 15, 3; Suetonius, Augustus 61 (with the indication that Octavia died in Augustus' 54th year, i.e. 10 or 9 BC).
  38. ↑ Epitaph for mother and son: CIL 6, 40356 = AE 1928, 88 .
  39. ^ Cassius Dio 54, 35, 4f.
personal data
SURNAME Octavia Minor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman woman, wife of Mark Antony
DATE OF BIRTH around 69 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Nola
DATE OF DEATH 11 v. Chr.