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Octavia: The Life of a Roman Matron Between Antony and Augustus

Octavia: The Life of a Roman Matron Between Antony and Augustus

Hardcover

Series: Women in Antiquity

Ancient RomeGeneral Gender StudiesGeneral World History

ISBN10: 0197518931
ISBN13: 9780197518939
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: Mar 13 2026
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.28
Height: 0.81 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
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.

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Severy-Hoven, Beth Andrea

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Ancient Rome