Octavius

Octāvĭus, i, m.; Octāvĭa, ae, f.,

• the name of a Roman gens, Suet. Aug. 1 sq.; cf. Drumann, History of Rome, vol. iv. p. 218 sq.
• • • 1 C. Octavius, the father of the emperor Augustus, Cic. Att. 2, 1, 12; id. Phil. 3, 6, 15.—
    • 2 Cn. Octavius, the first consul of this gens, Cic. Off. 1, 39, 138.—
    • 3 M. Octavius Caecina, a tribune of the people, Cic. N. D. 1, 38, 106.—
    • 4 Rarely of the emperor Augustus, Juv. 8, 242.—
    • 5 In the fem., Octavia, the name of the two sisters of the emperor Augustus, Suet. Aug. 4; 63; Tac. A. 4, 44.—
    • 6 Octavia was also the name of the daughter of the emperor Claudius and Messalina, Suet. Claud. 27; id. Ner. 7.—
    • 7 Octaviae Porticus, two halls in Rome, Vell. 1, 11; 2, 1; Suet. Aug. 29; Paul. ex Fest. p. 178 Müll.—Hence,
• II Octāvĭānus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to an Octavius, Octavian: Octaviano bello, i.e. in the war of the consul Cn. Octavius with Cinna, Cic. Div. 1, 2, 4: milites, of M. Octavius, who fought for Pompey, Caes. B. C. 3, 9.—Esp., subst.: Octāvĭānus, i, m., a surname of the emperor Augustus, who was adopted out of the gens Octavia into the gens Julia, Cic. Fam. 12, 25, 4; Tac. A. 13, 6; Aur. Vict. Vir. Ill. 79, 1; id. Caes. 1, 2.

Octāvius, a, um, Name einer röm. gens, aus der am bekanntesten der spätere Kaiser Augustus. – Adi. oktavisch, gens, Suet. – Dav. Octāviānus, a, um, oktavianisch, Caes.: bellum, des Cn. Oktavius mit Cinna, Cic. – bes. subst., Octāviānus, Beiname des aus der gens Octavia in die gens Iulia adoptierten späteren Kaisers Augustus, Cic. u.a.

Octāvĭus, (9) ĭī, m. , nom dʼune famille romaine : Cic. Phil. 3, 15 ; Off. 1, 138 ; Nat. 1, 106 || not^t , Octave [plus tard lʼempereur Auguste] : Juv. 8, 242 || -vĭus, a, um, dʼOctave : Suet. Aug. 29 || -vĭānus, a, um, Octavien, dʼOctavius : Cic. Div. 1, 4 ; Cæs. C. 3, 9 || Octāvĭānus, ī, m. , surnom donné (après passage par adoption de la gens Octavia dans la gens Julia ) à celui qui sera lʼempereur Auguste : Cic. Fam. 12, 25, 4 ; Tac. Ann. 13, 6.

Octavius Balbus

See below.

Octavius

1. Cn. Octavius Rufus, quaestor about B. C. 230, may be regarded as the founder of the family. [Octavia Gens.] Suetonius calls him Caius but this is probably a mistake, as Drumann has remarked, since the name of his eldest son was Cneius, and it was the rule among the Romans for the eldest son to inherit the praenomen of his father. (Suet. Aug. 2.)

Octavius

2. Cn. Octavius, son of the preceding, was plebeian aedile in B. C. 206 with Sp. Lucretius, and was with him elected to the praetorship for the following year, B. C. 205. Octavius obtained Sardinia as his province, and captured off the island eighty Carthaginian ships of burden. In the following year, B. C. 204, he handed over the province to his successor Tib. Claudius, but his imperium was extended for another year, and he was commanded by the senate to keep watch over the coasts in those parts with a fleet of forty ships. He was also employed in this year in carrying to the Roman army in Africa supplies of provisions and clothes. Next year. B. C. 203, his command was again prolonged, and the protection of the coasts of Sardinia was again entrusted to him; and while he was employed, as he had been in the preceding year, in carrying supplies to Africa, he was surprised off the coast of Africa by a fearful storm, which destroyed the> greater part of his fleet, consisting of 200 transport vessels and 30 ships of war. Octavius himself, with the ships of war, obtained shelter under the promontory of Apollo. Octavius was present at the battle of Zama, in B. C. 202, and Scipio placed so much confidence in him that he commanded him after the battle to march upon Carthage with the land forces, while he himself blockaded the harbour with the fleet. In B. C. 201 Octavius returned with part of the fleet to Italy, and handed over to the propraetor, M. Valerius Laevinus, thirty-eight ships for the prosecution of the war against Philip of Macedon. But he was not long allowed to remain inactive. In B. C. 200 he was sent into Africa as one of the three ambassadors to Carthage, Masinissa, and Vermina, the son of Syphax. In B. C. 194 he was one of the commissioners for founding a colony at Croton in Southern Italy, land two years afterwards, B. C. 192, just before the breaking out of the war with Antiochus the Great, he was sent into Greece in order to support the Roman interests in those parts. (Liv. 28.38, 46. 29.13, 36, 30.2, 24, 36, 31.3, 11, 34.45, 35.23, 36.16.)

Octavius

3. Cn. Octavius, son of No. 2. In the winter of B. C. 170 he was sent into Greece as ambassador, with C. Popillius Laenas, and on his return to Rome in 169, he was elected one of the decemviri sacrorum. He was practor ill B. C. 168, and had as his province the command of the fleet in the war against Perseus. After the defeat of Perseus at Pydna, by the consul Aemilius Paullus, Octavius sailed to Samothrace, where the king had taken refuge. Perseus surrendered himself to Octavius, who thereupon conducted him to the consul at Amphipolis. In the following year, 167, Octavius sailed to Rome with the booty which had been gained in the war, and on the 1st of December, in that year, he obtained the honour of a naval triumph. (Liv. 43.17, 44.17, 18, 21, 35, 45.5, 6, 33; Plb. 28.3, 5; Vell. 1.9 ; Plut. Aemili. Paull. 26; Plin. Nat. 34.3. s. 7 ; Festus, s. v. Octaviae.)

The wealth which Octavius had obtained in Greece enabled him to live in great splendour on his return to Rome. He built a magnificent house on the Palatine, which, according to Cicero (de Off. 1.39), contributed to his election to the consulship, and he also erected a beautiful porticus, which is spoken of below. He was consul with T. Manlius Torquatus in B. C. 165, being the first member of his family who obtained this dignity. In B. C. 162 Octavius was sent with two colleagues into Syria, which was in a state of great confusion in consequence of the contentions for the guardianship of the young king Antiochus V.; and the Romans therefore considered it a favourable opportunity for enforcing the terms of the peace made with Antiochus the Great, by which the Syrian monarchs were prevented from having a fleet and rearing elephants. But this embassy cost Octavius his life, for he was assassiated in the gymnasium at Laodiceia, by a Syrian Greek of the name of Leptines, at the instigation, as was supposed, of Lysias, the guardian of the young king. [Leptines.] A statue of Octavius was placed on the rostra at Rome, where it was in the time of Cicero. (Terent. Hecyr. titul.; Cic. de Fin. 1.7, Philipp. 9.2 ; Obsequ. 72; Plb. 31.12, 13, 19_21; Appian, App. Syr. 46; Plin. Nat. 34.6. s. 11, who confounds the last embassy of Octavius with a different one : comp. [Laenas, No. 5].)

The porticus erected by Cn. Octavius was called Porticus Octavia, and must be carefully distinguished from the Porticus Octaviae, built by Augustus in the name of his sister. [Octavia, No. 2.] The former was near the theatre of Pompey, by the Flaminian circus. It contained two rows of columns of the Corinthian order with brazen capitals, and was hence also called the Porticus Corinthia. It was rebuilt by Augustus, who allowed it to retain its ancient name, but it appears to have been destroyed, or to have perished in some way, before the time of Pliny, as he speaks of it only from what he had read. (Vell. 2.1; Festus, s. v. Octaviae ; Plin. Nat. 34.3. s. 7; Monumentum Ancyranum, p. 32. 1. 43, &c., ed. Franzius, Berol. 1845; Müller, Praefatio ad Festum, p. xxix.; Becker, Römisch. Alterthüm. vol. i. p. 617.)

Octavius

4. Cn. Octavius, son of No. 3, was consul B. C. 128, and was accustomed to speak in the courts of justice. (Cic. de Orat. 1.36.)

Octavius

5. M. Octavius, may be, as Drumann has stated, a younger son of No. 3, so far as the time at which he lived is concerned, but no ancient writer speaks of him as his son. It would appear from Obsequens (100.130) that he bore the surname of Caecina. but the reading is nerhans faulty. He was the colleague of Tib. Gracchus in the tribunate of the plebs, B. C. 133, and opposed his tribunitian veto to the passing of the agrarian law. The history of his opposition, and the way in which he was in consequence deposed from his office by Tib. Gracchus, are fully detailed in the life of the latter. [Vol. II. p. 292a.] Octavius is naturally either praised or blamed according to the different views entertained by persons of the laws of Gracchus. Cicero (Cic. Brut. 25) calls Octavius civis in rebus optimis constantissimus, and praises him for his skill in speaking. We learn from Plutarch that Octavius was a personal friend of Gracchus, and that it was with considerable reluctance that the nobles persuaded him to oppose his friend, but to this course he was probably also prompted by possessing a large tract of public land. Plutarch likewise adds that though Octavius and Gracchus opposed one another with great earnestness and rivalry, yet they are said never to have uttered a disparaging word against one another. (Plut. TG 10.) Dio Cassius, on the contrary, says (Fragm. 87, ed. Reimarus) that Octavius opposed Gracchus of his own accord, through jealousy springing from their relationship to one another : and that they were related in some way may also be inferred from another passage of Plutarch (C. Gracch. 4), from which we learn that C. Gracchus dropped a measure directed against Octavius at the request of his mother Octavia.

Octavius

6. Cn. Octavius, son of No. 4. He was one of the staunch supporters of the aristocratical party, which was perhaps the reason that he failed in obtaining the aedileship. (Cic. pro Planc. 21.) He was consul in B. C. 87 with L. Cornelius Cinna, the year after the consulship of Sulla and the banishment of Marius and his leading partisans. Sulla was now absent in Greece, engaged in the war against Mithridates, and upon Octavius, therefore, devolved the support of the interests of his party. Immediately after Sulla's departure from Italy, Cinna attempted to obtain the power for the Marian party by incorporating the new Italian citizens among the thirty-five tribes. Octavius offered the most vehement resistance, and, in the contentions which ensued, he displayed all amount of eloquence for which previously credit had not been given him. (Cic. Brut. 47.) But from words the two parties soon came to blows. A dreadful conflict took place in the forum, and Cinna was driven out of the city with great slaughter. The senate followed up their victory by depriving Cinna of his consulship, and appointing L. Cornelius Merula in his stead. But Cinna soon collected a considerable army, with which he marched against Rome, and Marius, as soon as he heard of these changes, returned from Africa and levied some troops, with which he likewise proceeded against the city. The soldiers of Octavius seem to have had no confidence in their general, and therefore offered to place themselves under the command of Metellus Pius, who had been summoned to Rome by the senate. [Metellus, No. 19.] But when Metellus refused to take the command, and numbers of the soldiers therefore deserted to the enemy, the senate had no other course left them but submission. Metellus fled from the city, and the friends of Octavius begged him to do the same; but, trusting to the promises of Marius and Cinna, and still more to the assurances of the diviners, that he would suffer no harm, he remained in Rome, declaring that being consul he would not abandon his country. Accordingly, when the troops of Marius and Cinna began to march into the city, he stationed himself on the Janiculum, with the soldiers that still remained faithful to him, and there, seated on his curule throne, was killed by Censorinus, who had been sent for that purpose by the victorious party. His head was cut off and suspended on the rostra. This is the account of Appian, but the manner of his death is related somewhat differently by Plutarch. Octavius seems, upon the whole, to have been all upright man, but he was very superstitious, slow in action and in council, and did not possess remarkable abilities of any kind. (Appian, App. BC 1.64, 68_71; Plut. Mar. 41, 42; V. Max. 1.6.10; Dio Cass. Fragm. 117, 118, ed. Reimarus; Liv. Epit. 79,80; Flor. 3.21.9; Cic. in Cat. 3.10, de Harasp. Resp. 24, Philipp. 13.1, 14.8, Tuscul. 5.19, pro Sest. 36, de Divin. 1.2, de Nat. Deor. 2.5.)

Octavius

7. M. Octavius, described by Cicero as Cn. f., must be the younger son of No. 4. In his tribunate of the plebs, the year of which is not stated, he brought forward a law for raising the price at which corn was sold to the people by the Frumentaria lex of C. Gracchus, since it was found that the treasury was quite drained by the law of Gracchus. Cicero attributes the enactment of the law to the influence and eloquence of Octavius, although he adds that he was, properly speaking, not an orator. (Cic. de Off. 2.21, Brut. 62.) This M. Octavius should be carefully distinguished from the M. Octavius who was the colleague of Tib. Gracchus. [See No. 5.]

Octavius

8. L. Octavius CN. F. CN. N. (Fasti Capit.), the son of No. 6, was consul B. C. 75 with C. Aurelius Cotta. He died in B. C. 74, as proconsul of Cilicia, and was succeeded in the command of the province by L. Lucullus. (Cic. Ver. 1.50, 3.7 ; Obsequ. 121; Plut. Luc. 6.) Many writers confound this L. Octavius with L. Octavius Balbus, the jurist. [Balbus, p. 458.]

Octavius

9. Cn. Octavius Cn. N., M. F. (Fasti Capit.), son of No. 7, was consul B. C. 76, with C. Scribonius Curio. He is described as a man of a mild temper, although he was a martyr to the gout, in consequence of which he appears to have lost the use of his feet. As an orator he was of little account. (Cic. Brut. 60, 62, de Fin. 2.28; Sall. Hist. ii. p. 205, ed. Gerl. min.; Obseq. 121.)

Octavius

10. M. Octavius Cn. F. M. N. (Cic. Fam. 8.2.2), the son of No. 9. He was a friend of Ap. Claudius Pulcher, consul B. C. 54, and accompanied the latter into Cilicia, but left the province before Claudius in order to become a candidate for the aedileship. He was curule aedile B. C. 50 along with M. Caelius; and as both of them were friends of Cicero, they begged the orator, as he was then in Cilicia, to send them panthers for the games they had to exhibit. (Cic. ad Fam. 3.4, ad Att. 5.21, 6.1.21.) On the breaking out of the civil war in B. C. 49, Octavius, true to the hereditary principles of his family, espoused the aristocratical party. He was appointed, along with L. Scribonius Libo, to the command of the Liburnian and Achaean fleets, serving as legate to M. Bibulus, who had the supreme command of the Pompeian fleet. He and Libo did good service to the cause; they defeated Dolabella on the illyrian coast, and compelled C. Antonius to surrender at the island of Coricta (Caes. Civ. 3.5; Dio Cass. 41.40; Floras, 4.2.31; Oros. 6.15.) Octavius afterwards proceeded to attack the town of Salonae in Dalmatia, but was repulsed with considerable loss, and thereupon joined Pompey at Dyrrhachium. After the battle of Pharsalia, Octavius, who still possessed a considerable fleet, set sail for Illyricum with the hope of securing it for the Pompeian party. At first he met with great success, and defeated Gabinius, who had been sent by Caesar into Illyricum with reinforcements for the army, which was already there ; but he was soon afterwards driven out of the country (B. C. 47) by Cornificius and Vatinius, and compelled to fly to Africa, where the Pompeian party were making a stand. (Hirt, B. Alex. 42-46 ; D. C. 42.11.) After the battle of Thapsus (B. C. 46), Octavius was in the neighbourhood of Utica in command of two legions, and claimed to have the supreme command with Cato. (Plut. Cat. min. 65.) He is not mentioned again till the battle of Actium (B. C. 31), when he commanded along with M. Insteius the middle of Antony's fleet. (Plut. Ant. 65.)

Octavius

11. C. Octavius, the younger son of No. 1, and the ancestor of Augustus, remained a simple Roman eques, without attempting to rise any higher in the state. (Suet. Aug. 2; Vell. 2.59.)

Octavius

12. C. Octavius, son of the preceding, and great-grandfather of Augustus, lived in the time of the second Punic war, in which he served as tribune of the soldiers. He was present at the fatal battle of Cannae (B. C. 216), and was one of the few who survived the engagement. When the Carthaginians were forcing into the lesser Roman camp, Octavius and another tribune, Sempronius Tuditanus, cut their way through the enemy, with a few soldiers, and arrived in safety at Canusium. (Frontin. Strat. 4.5.7; comp. Liv. 22.52.) Octavius also served in Sicily under the praetor L. Aemilius Papus (B. C. 205), but what part he took in the other campaigns in the war is not mentioned. When M. Antonius wished to throw contempt upon Augustus, he called this C. Octavius a freedman and a rope-maker (restio), but whether he or his family ever had any thing to do with a manufactory of ropes, is quite uncertain. (Suet. Aug. 2.)

Octavius

13. C. Octavius, son of the preceding, and grandfather of Augustus, lived quietly at his villa at Velitrae, content with the municipal honours of his native town, and not aspiring to the dignities of the Roman state. He possessed considerable property, which he probably augmented by money-lending, since Antonius and Cassius Parmensis called Augustus the grandson of a banker or money-lender. (Suet. Aug. 2, 4, 6.)

Octavius

14. C. Octavius, son of the preceding and father of Augustus, was likewise said by the enemies of Augustus to have been a money-lender, and to have been employed in the Campus Martius as one of the agents for bribing the electors. But there is probably no truth in these reports. The riches left him by his father enabled him, without difficulty, to obtain the public offices at Rome, although he was the first of his family who had aspired to them. We learn from an inscription, which is given below, that he was successively tribune of the soldiers twice, quaestor, plebeian aedile with C. Toranius, judex quaestionum, and praetor. Of his history up to the time of his praetorship we have no further information; we are only told that he filled the previous dignities with great credit to himself and obtained a reputation for integrity, ability, and uprightness. Velleis Paterculus characterizes him (2.59) as gravis, sanctus, innocens, and dives, and adds that the estimation in which he was held gained for him, in marriage, Atia, the daughter of Julia, who was the sister of Julius Caesar. Thus, although a novus homo, he was chosen first praetor in B. C. 61, and discharged the duties of his office in so admirable a manner that Cicero recommends him as a model to his brother Quintus. (Cic. ad Qu. F. 1.1. 7.) In the following year he succeeded C. Antonius in the government of Macedonia, with the title of proconsul, and on his way to his province he cut to pieces, in the Thurine district, in consequence of orders front the senate, a body of runaway slaves, who had been gathered together for Catiline, and had previously belonged to the army of Spartacus. He administered the affairs of his province with equal integrity and energy. The manner in which he treated the provincials was again recommended by Cicero as an example to his brother Quintus. He routed the Bessi and some other Thracian tribes, who had disturbed the peace of the province, and received in consequence the title of imperator from his troops. He returned to Italy at the latter end of B. C. 59, in full expectations of being elected to the consulship, but he died suddenly at the beginning of the following year, B. C. 58, at Nola, in Campania, in the very same room in which Augustus afterwards breathed his last. Octavius was married twice, first to Ancharity, by whom he had one daughter [Ancharia], and secondly to Atia, by whom he had a daughter and a son [Atia]. His second wife, and his three children, survived him. (Suet. Aug. 3, 4; Nicol. Damasc. Vit. August. 100.2, ed. Orelli; Vell. 2.59; Cic. Att. 2.1, ad Qu. F. 1.1.7, 2.2.7, Philipp. 3.6; Tac. Ann. 1.9.) The following is the inscription which has been above referred to :--C. OCTAVIVS. C. F. C. N. C. P. R(VFVS). PATER AVGVSTI. TR. MIL. BIS. Q. AED. PL. CVM. C.TORANIO. IVDEX QVAESTIONVM. PR. PROCOS. IMPERATOR APPELLATVS EX PROVINCIA MACEDONIA.

Octavius

15. Octavia, the elder daughter of No. 14, by Ancharia. [Octavia, No. 1.]

Octavius

16. Octavia, the younger daughter of No. 14, by Atia. [Octavia, No. 2.]

Octavius

17. C. Octavius, the son of No. 14, by Atia, was subsequently called C. Julius Caesar Octavianus, in consequence of his adoption by his greatuncle, C. Julius Caesar. The senate, at a later period, conferred upon him the title of Augustus, under which name his life is given. [Augustus.]

Octavius

18. Cn. Octavius Rufus, quaestor, B. C. 107, was sent into Africa with pay for the army of Marius, and returned to Rome, accompanied by the ambassadors, whom Bocchus sent to the senate. (Sal. Jug. 104.) The cognomen in most of the MSS. of Sallust is Ruso, for which, however, we ought probably to read Rufus, as the former cognomen is unknown in the Octavia gens. From the fact that this Cn. Octavius filled the office of quaestor, it is not impossible that he may be the same Cn. Octavius, who was consul B. C. 87. [See above, No. 6.]

Octavius

19. L. Octavius, a legate of Pompey in the war against the pirates, B. C. 67, was sent by Pompey into Crete to receive the submission of the Cretan towns, and to supersede Q. Metellus Creticus in the command of the island. (D. C. 36.1, 2; Plut. Pomp. 29.) For further details see Metellus, No. 23, p. 1064.

Octavius

20. L. Octavius, detected in adultery by C. Memmius, and punished by him. (V. Max. 6.1.13.)

Octavius

21. P. Octavius, a noted epicure in the reign of Tiberius, who outbid even Apicius in the sum which he gave for a mullet that Tiberius had ordered to be sold. (Senec. Epist. 95.)

Octavius

22. Octavius Graecinus, one of the generals of Sertorius, in Spain, distinguished himself in the first battle fought between Pompey and Sertorius, near the town of Lauron, B. C. 76. He afterwards joined the conspiracy of M. Perperna, by which Sertorius perished, B. C. 72. (Frontin. Strat. 2.5.31; Plut. Sert. 26.)

Octavius

23. M. Octavius Laenas Curtianus, one of the distinguished men who supplicated the judges on behalf of M. Scaurus, B. C. 54. (Ascon. in Scaur. p. 29, ed. Orelli.)

Octavius

24. C. Octavius Laenas, curator of the aquaeducts in Rome, in the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula from A. D. 34 to A. D. 38. (Frontin. Aquaed. § 102.)

Octavius

25. Ser. Octavius Laenas Pontianus, consul with M. Antonius Rufinus, in the reign of Hadrian, A. D. 131. (Fasti.)

Octavius

26. Octavius Rufus was a friend of the younger Pliny, who addresses two letters to him, in which he presses Octavius to publish the poems he had composed. (Plin. Ep. 1.7, 2.10. ) In another letter (9.38) Pliny praises a work of one Rufus, who may, perhaps, be the same as this Octavius Rufus.

Octa'vius Fronto

[Fronto.]

Octa'vius Here'nnius

[Herennius].

Octa'vius Horatia'nus

[Priscianus, Theodorus.)

Octa'vius Laenas

[Octavius, No. 22, 23.]

Octa'vius Lampa'dio

[Lampadio.]

Octa'vius Mami'lius

[Mamilius.]

Octa'vius Sagitta

[Sagitta.]

Octavius

(1) Nepos, Cn., Roman praetor B.C. 168, and appointed to the command of the fleet against Perseus. He pursued this monarch, after his defeat by Aemilius Paulus, to the island of Samothrace, and there obtained his surrender. For this he was rewarded with a naval triumph. In B.C. 165 he was consul with M. Torquatus. Having been sent, three years after this, into Syria, at the head of a deputation to act as guardians to the young king, Antiochus Eupator, he was assassinated by order, as was supposed, of Lysias, a relative of the previous monarch, who claimed the regency during the minority of Antiochus. The arrogant and haughty conduct of Octavius appears to have hastened his fate. The Senate, however, erected a statue to his memory.

(2) Cn., was consul B.C. 87, along with Cinna. Being himself attached to the party of Sulla , and having the support of the Senate, he drove his colleague out of the city. Marius, however, having returned this same year and re-entered Rome with Cinna , Octavius was put to death.

(3) Gaius, the father of Augustus, was praetor B.C. 61, and distinguished himself by the correctness and justice of his decisions. After his praetorship he was appointed governor of Macedonia, and defeated the Ressi and other Thracian tribes, for which he received from his soldiers the title of Imperator. He died at Nola, on his return from his province. Octavius married Atia, the sister of Iulius Caesar, and had by this union Octavius (afterwards Augustus) and Octavia, the wife of Antonius.

(4) The name of the emperor Augustus before his adoption by Iulius Caesar. See Augustus.