Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/664

650 who had seen the latter, as Octavia was infinitely her superior in virtue, wisdom and beauty.

Cleopatra herself, whatever good opinion she might entertain of her own charms, yet dreaded those of Octavia; and therefore had recourse to all possible artifices to prevent her from coming near him. She assured him it would be impossible for her to live if he should abandon her. She represented to him, that it was enough for Octavia to be his lawful wife, whilst she (Cleopatra, queen of so mighty a nation) was content to be called his concubine, which she would yet submit to, provided he did not plunge her into despair by his absence; and, to prevent so fatal a stroke, she attended him at his last overthrow at Actium; though, when she had accompanied him as far as Ephesus, Antony's friends advised him to send her back to Egypt: but she, fearing lest Octavia should once more reconcile her brother with her husband, bribed a man, who persuaded Antony to take her along with him whithersoever he might go.

After Antony's death, 731, fortune seemed to flatter Octavia with the utmost felicity she could expect or desire. The son she had by her first husband was now about twelve years of age, a most accomplished youth, of a chearful disposition, and fine genius. When he was of a proper age, Augustus married him to his own daughter, and considered him as the presumptive heir of the empire. However Octavia had armed herself with fortitude under all the injurious treatment of Antony, yet the loss of this son was infinitely heavier and more insupportable. She sunk under it, and remained ever after inconsolable. Seneca tells us, that she would not allow any body to offer her the least consolation, nor could be prevailed with to take the least diversion. Her whole