Claudia Octavia

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Claudia Octavia

Claudia Octavia (Classical Latin

Classical Latin

Classical Latin is the form of the Latin used by the ancient Rome in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Its use spanned the Golden Age of Latin literature—broadly the 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD—possibly extending to the Silver Age—broadly the 1st and 2nd centuries....
: CLAVDIA•OCTAVIA) (Late 39 or early 40-9 June 62) was a Roman Empress, stepsister and first wife to Roman Emperor Nero

Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
.

via was the only daughter of Roman Emperor Claudius

Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54....
by his third marriage to his second cousin and Roman Empress Valeria Messalina. She was named in honor of her great-grandmother, Octavia Minor

Octavia Minor

Octavia Minor , also known as Octavia the Younger or simply Octavia, was the sister of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus , half sister of Octavia Major, and fourth wife of Mark Antony....
, the elder sister of Emperor Augustus.

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Encyclopedia

Claudia Octavia (Classical Latin

Classical Latin

Nero

Life

Family

Octavia was the only daughter of Roman Emperor Claudius

Claudius

Octavia Minor

Claudia Antonia

Claudia Antonia was the daughter of the later Roman Emperor Claudius from his second marriage to Aelia Paetina. Until 37, she was raised by her paternal grandmother Antonia Minor ....
and her full sibling was Britannicus

Britannicus

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus was the son of the Roman Empire Claudius and his third wife Valeria Messalina. He became the heir-designate of the empire at his birth, less than a month into his father's reign....
.

Early life

She was born in Rome. As a young girl, her father betrothed her to future praetor

Praetor

Praetor was a Title#Titles_for_heads_of_state granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected Magistratus assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period....
Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus

Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus

In the 1st century, lived two noblemen uncle and nephew, that shared the name Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus who were two descendants of Roman Emperor Augustus....
, who was a descendant of Augustus.

Rise of Nero

Octavia's mother was executed in 48, for conspiring to murder her father. Claudius later remarried her paternal first cousin and his own niece Agrippina the Younger

Agrippina the Younger

Julia Agrippina; known as Agrippina Minor , was a great granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, great niece and adoptive granddaughter of Emperor Tiberius, sister to Emperor Caligula, wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Emperor Nero....
. Agrippina the Younger had a son from her first marriage, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (future Emperor Nero).

Agrippina the Younger, through her plotting and manipulating, ended the engagement between Octavia and Lucius Silanus and persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his son and heir and arranged for Octavia and Nero to marry on 9 June 53.

Life as Empress

Claudius died on 13 October 54 and Nero acceded to the throne, possibly poisoning Octavia's full brother Britannicus in early 55 in order to do so. Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
states that from this moment Octavia became very unhappy, but learned to hide her affections and feelings around her husband. Octavia was caught up between the power struggles between Nero and his mother, which concluded when Nero murdered his mother in March 59.

Although she was admired as empress by the Roman citizen body, the marriage was unhappy. Octavia was an ‘aristocratic and virtuous wife' (in Tacitus's words), whereas Nero hated her and grew bored with her (according to both Tacitus and Suetonius

Suetonius

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies on the battles of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled On the Life of the Caesars....
), trying on several occasions to strangle her (according to Suetonius) and having affairs with a freedwoman called Claudia Acte

Claudia Acte

Claudia Acte was a freedman of ancient Rome who became a mistress of the emperor Nero. She came from Asia Minor and might have become a slave of the Emperor Claudius, following his expansion of the Roman Empire into Lycia and Pamphylia; or she might have been purchased later, by Octavia, Claudius' daughter....
and then with Poppaea Sabina

Poppaea Sabina

Poppaea Sabina was a Roman Empress and second wife of the Roman Emperor Nero. The historians of Classical antiquity describe her as a beautiful woman who used intrigues to become empress....
. He excused this treatment of her when at one point his friends showed their concerns about it. When Poppaea became pregnant with Nero's child, Nero divorced Octavia, claiming she was barren, and married Poppaea twelve days after the divorce.

Banishment and Death

Nero and Poppaea then banished Octavia to the island of Pandateria (modern Ventotene

Ventotene

Ventotene is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Campania, Italy. It is the remains of an ancient volcano, and is part of the Pontine Islands....
) on a false charge of adultery. When Octavia complained at this treatment, her maids were tortured to death.

Octavia's banishment became so unpopular that the citizens of Rome protested loudly, openly parading through the streets with statues of Octavia decked with flowers and calling for her return. Nero (badly frightened) nearly agreed to remarry Octavia, but Poppaea intervened and forced him instead to sign Octavia's death warrant.

A few days later, Octavia was bound and her veins were opened in a traditional Roman suicide ritual. Her terror was so great that the flow of blood was retarded and so she was suffocated in an exceedingly hot vapor bath. Octavia’s head was cut off and sent to Poppaea. Her death brought much sorrow to Rome. According to Suetonius, years later Nero would have nightmares about his mother and Octavia.

In later Fiction

The events of the divorce are dramatised in Octavia by Seneca the Younger

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
and, more recently, in Handel's lost opera Nero, Octavia (opera, 1705) by Keiser

Keiser

Keiser may refer to:*Keiser, Arkansas*Keiser, Oregon, part of the Salem-Keiser metroplex*Reinhard Keiser, a composer...
, and Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi , was an Italian composer, viol, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the music of the Renaissance music to that of the Baroque music....
's L'incoronazione di Poppea. Octavia is a character in the novel and television series I Claudius and Claudius the God.

Sources

Suetonius - The Twelve Caesars - Claudius and Nero.
Tacitus - The Annals of Imperial Rome.