Octavia the Elder

Octavia the Elder (born before 69 BC[1] – died after 29 BC), also known as Octavia Major or Octavia Maior (Maior is Latin for the Elder) was the daughter of the Roman governor and senator Gaius Octavius by his first wife, Ancharia. She was also an elder half-sister to Octavia the Younger and Roman Emperor Augustus.[2] Little is known of her life. Plutarch only knows one daughter Octavia of Gaius Octavius and confuses Octavia the Elder with Octavia the Younger.[3]

Marriage and descendants

Octavia the Elder was married to Sextus Appuleius (I). They had one son, who was also named Sextus Appuleius, was ordinary consul in 29 BC with his half-uncle, Augustus.[4] It is postulated that they had a second son, Marcus Appuleius, the consul of 20 BC.[5] Through Sextus Appuleius, the consul, she had a grandson named Sextus Appuleius, consul in AD 14, and a granddaughter Appuleia Varilla. Octavia the Elder's last known descendants were her great-grandson, also named Sextus Appuleius, through her grandson and Fabia Numantina.[6]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Her younger paternal half-sister, Octavia the Younger, was born in 69 BC.
  2. ↑ Suetonius, Life of Augustus 4.1
  3. ↑ Plutarch, Life of Antony 31.1-2 and 87
  4. ↑ Inscriptions from Pergamon 2, 419 = Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes 4, 323 = Wilhelm Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae 462.
  5. ↑ Syme, Ronald, Augustan Aristocracy (1989), p. 37
  6. ↑ Syme, R., Augustan Aristocracy (1989), pp. 316f

References

  • Herzog-Hauser, Gertrud: (Octavia 95). In: Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. XVII 2, col. 1858-1859.
  • Suetonius; Life of Augustus
  • Syme, Ronald; Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford University Press, 1989). ISBN 0-19-814731-7, ISBN 978-0-19-814731-2
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