OCTAVIA. (1.) Octavia, daughter of Caius Octavius, praetor, 61 b.c., and sister of the emperor Augustus, was married to C. Marcellus, one of the bitterest enemies of Julius Caesar. In 41 her husband died, and she was married immediately to Antony, with the design of securing peace between her brother and her new husband. Her beauty and her high character are praised in the warmest terms by all authorities, and at first Antony devoted himself to her, and seemed to have forgotten his jealousy of her brother and his old love for Cleopatra. But his affection for his wife was not strong enough to counterbalance the feelings that weighed against it. In the year 36 he went off to the Parthian war and to meet Cleopatra, and, when in the following year Octavia brought out troops and money to him, he refused to see her and bade her go back to Rome. She sent the money to him and returned to his house, where she educated his son by a former wife along with her own children. In 32 Antony formally divorced her, but she always protected his children, even those of Cleopatra. She died 11 b.c., and was buried with the highest honours by the state. (2.) Octavia, daughter of the emperor Claudius, was married in her twelfth year to Nero (⅛.v.). A Latin tragedy on her fate is attributed, though wrongly, to Seneca.