Octavian, to further cement relations of alliance…

October 40 BCE

Octavian, to further cement relations of alliance with Antony, gives his sister, Octavia Minor, in marriage in late 40 BCE.

As the only daughter of her father Gaius Octavius's second marriage to Julius Caesar’s niece Atia Balba Caesonia, Octavia is full sister to Octavian.

Her father, a Roman Governor and Senator, had died in 59 BCE from natural causes.

Her mother had later remarried, to the consul Lucius Marcius Philippus.

Before 54 BCE, her stepfather had arranged for her to marry Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor, a man of consular rank, a member of the influential Claudian family, and a descendent of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, a famous general in the Second Punic War.

In 54, her great uncle Caesar is said to have been anxious for her to divorce her husband so that she could marry Pompey who had just lost his wife Julia (Julius Caesar's daughter, and thus Octavia's cousin once removed).

However, Pompey apparently declined the proposal and Octavia's husband continued to oppose Julius Caesar including in the crucial year of his consulship 50.

Marcellus, a friend of Cicero, had been an initial opponent of Caesar when he invaded Italy, but did not take up arms against his wife's great uncle at the Battle of Pharsalus, and was eventually pardoned by him.

In 47, he was able to intercede with Caesar for his cousin and namesake, also a former consul, then living in exile.

Presumably, Octavia continued to live with her husband from the time of their marriage (she would have been about 15 when they married) to her husband's death when she was about twenty-nine.

They have three children, all born in Italy: Claudia Marcella Major, Claudia Marcella Minor and Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

Marcellus had died in May 40, and, by a Senatorial decree, Octavia in October becomes Mark Antony’s fourth wife.

This marriage, a political union to cement the uneasy alliance between her brother Octavian and Mark Antony, had to be approved by the Senate as Octavia is pregnant with her first husband's child.

(However, Octavia—reportedly a woman of tact and skill—appears to have been a loyal and faithful wife to Antony.

During their marriage, she will bear him two daughters.).

Octavia takes in and rears all of Fulvia's children.

The fate of Fulvia’s daughter, Clodia Pulchra, after her divorce from Octavian is unknown.

The two triumvirs meanwhile agree that Herod, who has fled from Judaea to escape the Parthians and their Jewish allies, should be encouraged to retake the country and become its king.

Antony, accompanied by Octavia, now proceeds home to Athens, where he is enthusiastically greeted and hailed as the New Dionysus, mystic god not only of wine but also of happiness and immortality.