Octavia the Younger
69 BC – 11 BC · Generation II · Julio-Claudian
Octavia (69 BC – 11 BC). Married Mark Antony around 40 BC; the marriage was dissolved in 33 BC. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Augustus’s sister, married to Antony to seal a truce that did not hold. Born at Nola to Gaius Octavius and Atia, Caesar’s niece, she was educated under the eye of her stepfather Lucius Marcius Philippus. Her first husband, Gaius Claudius Marcellus, gave her three surviving children, among them the Marcellus whom Augustus later cherished; he died in 40 BC, and she was still carrying his child when the Senate sanctioned her marriage to Antony. In Athens she raised his sons by Fulvia alongside her own, bore Antonia Major and Antonia Minor, and in 37 BC helped broker the Tarentum pact between husband and brother. Turned out of Antony’s Roman house in 33 BC, she later brought up his surviving children, including those by Cleopatra. The death of Marcellus in 23 BC grieved her deeply. At her public funeral in 11 BC her sons-in-law bore her to the Mausoleum of Augustus, and the Senate declared her a goddess.
Place in the family
- Octavia the Younger was a sister of Augustus Caesar.
- Octavia the Younger was the elder of 2 children of Gaius Octavius of Velitrae and Atia Balba recorded in this archive.
- The archive records 8 of her descendants, across 4 generations.
One of 17 people of Julio-Claudian (85 BC–68) in this archive. Rome’s first imperial family: the Julii and the Claudii joined by marriage and adoption, Augustus to Nero.
Parents
- Gaius Octavius of Velitrae (100 BC – 59 BC)
- Atia Balba (85 BC – 43 BC)
Siblings
- Augustus Caesar (63 BC – 14)
Partners
- Married Mark Antony the Triumvir (83 BC – 30 BC) in 40 BC; the marriage was dissolved in 33 BC — one child together
Children
- Antonia Minor (36 BC – 37)
Life
- 69 BC — Born
- 40 BC — Married Mark Antony
- 33 BC — Parted from Mark Antony
- 11 BC — Died