Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/18

 family. In consequence of the intermarriages in this family, part of this stemma repeats a portion of the stemroa in Vol, I. p. 430, and also of the stemma of the Drusi given in Vol. I, p. 1076 ; but it is thought better for the sake of clearness to make this repetition. There are a few other persons of the name of Octavii, who were not descended from Cn. Octavius Rufus, or whose descent cannot be traced. Most of them bore cognomens under which they are given, namely, Balbus, Ligur, Marsus, Naso : those who have no cognomens are given under Octavius after the descendants of Cn. Octavius Rufus. OCTAVIA'NUS. [Augustus.] OCTAVIUS. 1. Cn. Octavius Rufus, quaestor about B. c. 230, may be regarded as the founder of the family. [Octavia Gens.] Suetonius calls him Caius ; but this is probably a mistake, as Drumann has remarked, since the name of his eldest son was Cneius, and it was the rule among the Romans for the eldest son to inherit the prae- nomen of his father. (Suet. Aug. 2.)

. Cn. Octavius, son of the preceding, was plebeian aedile in B. c. 206 with Sp. Lucretius, and was with him elected to the praetorship for the following year, b. c. 205. Octavius obtained Sar- dinia as his province, and captured off the island eighty Carthaginian ships of burden. In the fol- lowing year, B. c. 204, he handed over the pro- vince to his successor Tib. Claudius, but his impe- rium was extended for another year, and he was commanded by the senate to keep watch over the coasts in those parts with a fleet of forty ships. Ke was also employed in this year in carrying to the Roman army in Africa supplies of provisions and clothes. Next year. b. c. 203, his command was again prolonged, and the protection of the coasts of Sardinia was again entrusted to him ; and while he was employed, as he had been in the preceding year, in carrying supplies to Africa, he was sur- prised off the coast of Africa by a fearful storm, which destroyed the greater part of his fleet, con- sisting of 200 transport vessels and 30 ships of war. Octavius himself, with the ships of war, ob- tained shelter under the promontory of Apollo. Octavius was present at the battle of Zama,in b,c. 202, and Scipio placed so much confidence in him that he commanded him after the battle to march upon Carthage with the land forces, while he him- self blockaded the harbour with the fleet. In B.C. 201 Octavius returned with part of the fleet to Italy, and handed over to the propraetor, M. Valerius Laevinus, thirty-eight ships for the pro- secution of the war against Philip of Macedon. But he was not long allowed to remain inactive. In B. c. 200 he was sent into Africa as one of the three ambassadors to Carthage, Masinissa, and Verraina, the son of Syphax. In B. c. 194 he was one of the commissioners for founding a colony at Croton in Southern Italy, and two years after- wards, B. c. 192, just before the breaking out of the war with Antiochus the Great, he was sent into Greece in order to support the Roman interests in those parts. (Liv. xxviii. 38, 46, xxix. 13, 36, XXX. 2, 24, 36, xxxi. 3, 11, xxxiv. 45, xxxv. 23, xxxvi. 16.)

. Cn. Octavius, son of No. 2. In the winter of B. c. 170 he was sent into Greece as ambassador, with C. Popillius Laenas, and on his return to Rome in 169, he was elected one of the decemviri sacrorum. He was praetor in b. c, 168, and had as his province the command of the fleet in the war against Perseus. After the defeat of Perseus at Pydna, by the consul Aemilius PauUus, Octavius sailed to Samothrace, where the king had taken refuge. Perseus surrendered himself to Octavius, who thereupon conducted him to the consul at Amphipolis. In the following year, 167, Octavius sailed to Rome with the booty which had been gained in the war, and on the 1st of December, in that year, he obtained the honour of a naval triumph. (Liv. xliii. 17, xliv. 17, 18, 21, 35, xlv. 5, 6, 33 ; Polyb. xxviii. 3, 5 ; Veil. Pat. i. 9 ; Plut. Aemil. Paull. 26 ; Plin. H.N, xxxiv. 3. s. 7; Festus, s. V. Octaviae.) The wealth which Octavius had obtained in Greece enabled him to live in great splendour on his return to Rome. He built a magnificent house on the Palatine, which, according to Cicero {de Of. i. 39), contributed to his election to the consulship, and he also erected a beautiful porticus, which is spoken of below. He was consul with T. Manlius Torquatus in B. c. 1 65, being the first member of his family who obtained this dignity. In b. c. 162 Octavius was sent with two colleagues into Syria, which was in a state of great confusion in conse- quence of the contentions for the guardianship of the young king Antiochus V. ; and the Romans therefore considered it a favourable opportunity for enforcing the terms of the peace made with An- tiochus the Great, by which the Syrian monarchs were prevented from having a fleet and rearing elephants. But this embassy cost Octavius his life, for he was assassinated in the gymnasium at Laodiceia, by a Syrian Greek of the name of Lep- tines, at the instigation, as was supposed, of Lysias, the guardian of the young king. [Leptines.] A statue of Octavius was placed on the rostra at Rome, where it was in the time of Cicero. (Terent. Hecyr. titul. ; Cic. de Fin. i. 7, Philipp. ix. 2 ; Obsequ. 72; Polyb. xxxi. 12, 13, 19—21 ; Ap- pian, Syr. 46 ; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 6. s. 11, who confounds the last embassy of Octavius with a different one : comp. Laenas, No. 5.) The porticus erected by Cn. Octavius was called Porticus Octavia, and must be carefully distin- guished from the Porticus Octaviae., built by Au- gustus in the name of his sister. [Octavia, No. 2.] The former was near the theatre of Pompey, by the Flaminian circus. It contained two rows of columns of the Corinthian order with brazen capi- tals, and was hence also called the Porticus Corinthia. It was rebuilt by Augustus, who allowed it to retain its ancient name, but it appears to have been destroyed, or to have perished in some way, before the time of Pliny, as he speaks of it only from what he had read. (Veil. Pat. ii. 1 ; Festus, s. V. Octaviae ; Plin. //. N. xxxiv. 3. s. 7 ; Monurmntum Ancyranum, p. 32. 1. 43, &c., ed. Franzius, Berol. 1845 ; Miiller, Praefatio ad Festum., p. xxix. ; Becker, fiomisch. Alterthum. vol. i. p. 617.) . Cn. Octavius, son of No. 3, was consul b. c. 128, and was accustomed to speak in the courts of justice. (Cic. de Orat. i. 36.) . M. Octavius, may be, as Drumann has stated, a younger son of No. 3, so far as the time at which he lived is concerned, but no ancient writer speaks of him as his son. It would appear from Obsequens (c. 130) that he bore the surname of Caecina, but the reading is perhaps faulty. He