Octavia of The Julii - Comparison To The Historical Octavia Thurina Minor

Comparison To The Historical Octavia Thurina Minor

The historical Octavia Minor's first husband was Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor, and she bore him three children, Marcellus, Claudia Marcella Major and Claudia Marcella Minor; the Octavia in Rome is married to a nobleman named Glabius, with whom she has no children. In reality, it was Julius Caesar who wanted her to marry Pompey, not Atia, and Octavia was widowed four years after Caesar's assassination, not before, as depicted in the series. As an Octavia she would have been considered a member of the Octavii Rufi, and not a 'woman of the Julii' as she identifies in the series. However, as the great-niece of Caesar she would have politically been considered a Caesarian, and would have owed much of her status to her position in Caesar's extended family.

There is no historical evidence to suggest that Octavia had sexual relationships with Servilia Caepionis (basis for the character Servilia of the Junii), Pompey, her brother Octavian or Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, as is dramatised in the series. The real Octavia was celebrated as the model Roman matron in the early Empire, and was buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus.

Octavia Minor did marry Mark Antony, but was pregnant with her third child by her first husband at the time. When Antony left Rome, he actually settled in Athens, Greece, and not Egypt; Octavia went with him, and she and Antony later had two daughters, Antonia Major and Antonia Minor. Historically, Antony had met Cleopatra and fathered their twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, before marrying Octavia. He did eventually leave his wife in Greece and reunite with Cleopatra in Egypt; he and Cleopatra later had a third child, Ptolemy Philadelphus.