Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/20

 was the colleague of Tib. Gracchus in the tribunate of the plebs, b. c. 133, and opposed his tribunitian veto to the passing of the agrarian law. The his- tory of his opposition, and the way in which he was in consequence deposed from his office by Tib. Gracchus, are fully detailed in the life of the latter. [Vol. 11. p. 292, a.] Octavius is naturally either praised or blamed according to the different views entertained by persons of the laws of Gracchus. Cicero (Brut. 25) calls Octavius civis in rebus op- timis constantissimus, and praises him for his skill in speaking. We learn from Plutarch that Octa- vius was a personal friend of Gracchus, and that it was with considerable reluctance that the nobles persuaded him to oppose his friend, but to this course he was probably also prompted by possessing a large tract of public land. Plutarch likewise adds that though Octavius and Gracchus opposed one another with great earnestness and rivalry, yet they are said never to have uttered a disparaging word against one another. (Plut. Tib. Gracch. 10.) Dion Cassius, on the contrary, says {Fragm. 87, ed. Reimarus) that Octavius opposed Gracchus of his own accord, through jealousy springing from their relationship to one another : and that they were related in some way may also be inferred from another passage of Plutarch (C*. Gracch. 4), from which we learn that C. Gracchus dropped a measure directed against Octavius at the request of his mother Octavia. . Cn. Octavius, son of No. 4. He was one of the staunch supporters of the aristocratical party, which was perhaps the reason that he failed in ob- taining the aedileship. (Cic. pro Plane. 21.) He was consul in B. c. 87 with L. Cornelius Cinna, the year after the consulship of Sulla and the banish- ment of Marius and his leading partisans. Sulla was now absent in Greece, engaged in the war against Mithridates, and upon Octavius, therefore, devolved the support of the interests of his party. Immediately after Sulla's departure from Italy, Cinna attempted to obtain the power for the Ma- rian party by incorporating the new Italian citizens among the thirty-five tribes. Octavius offered the most vehement resistance, and, in the contentions which ensued, he displayed an amount of eloquence for which previously credit had not been given him. (Cic. Brut. 47.) But from words the two parties soon came to blows. A dreadful conflict took place in the forum, and Cinna was driven out of the city with great slaughter. The senate fol- lowed up their victory by depriving Cinna of his consulship, and appointing L. Cornelius Merula in his stead. But Cinna soon collected a considerable army, with which he marched against Rome, and Marius, as soon as he heard of these changes, re- turned from Africa and levied some troops, with which he likewise proceeded against the city. The soldiers of Octavius seem to have had no confidence in their general, and therefore offered to place themselves under the command of Metellus Pius, who had been summoned to Rome by the senate. [Metellus, No. 19.] But when Metellus re- fused to take the command, and numbers of the soldiers therefore deserted to the enemy, the senate had no other course left them but submission. Metellus fled from the city, and the friends of Oc- tavius begged him to do the same ; but, trusting to the promises of Marius and Cinna, and still more to the assurances of the diviners, that he would suffer no harm, he remained in Rome, de- daring that being consul he would not abandon his country. Accordingly, when the troops of Marius and Cinna began to march into the city, he sta- tioned himself on the Janiculum, with the soldiers that still remained faithful to him, and there, seated on his curule throne, was killed by Censorinus, who had been sent for that purpose by the victo- rious party. His head was cut off and suspended on the rostra. This is the account of Appian, but the manner of his death is related somewhat diffe- rently by Plutarch. Octavius seems, upon the whole, to have been an upright man, but he was very superstitious, slow in action and in council, and did not possess remarkable abilities of any kind. (Appian, B. C. i. 64, 68—71 ; Plut. Mar. 41, 42 ; Val. Max. i. 6. § 10 ; Dion Cass. Fragm. 117, 118, ed. Reimarus ; Liv. Epit. 79,80 ; Flor. iii. 21. § 9 ; Cic. in Cat. iii. 10, de Harunp. Resp. 24, Philipp. xiii. 1, xiv. 8, Tuscvl. v. 19, pro Sest. 36, de Di^nn. i. 2, de Nat. Deor. ii. 5.) . M. Octavius, described by Cicero as Cn. f., must be the younger son of No. 4. In his tribu- nate of the plebs, the year of which is not stated, he brought forward a law for raising the price at which corn was sold to the people by the Frumen- taria lex of C. Gracchus, since it was found that the treasury was quite drained by the law of Grac- chus. Cicero attributes the enactment of the law to the influence and eloquence of Octavius, al- though he adds that he was, properly speaking, not an orator. (Cic. de Off. ii. 21, Brut. 62.) This M. Octavius should be carefully distinguished from the M. Octavius who was the colleague of Tib. Gracchus. [See No. 5.] . L. Octavius Cn. f. Cn. n. {Fasti Capit.), the son of No. 6, was consul B. c. 75 with C. Au- relius Cotta. He died in B. c. 74, as proconsul of Cilicia, and was succeeded in the command of the province by L. Lucullus. (Cic. Vei-r. i. 50, iii. 7 ; Obsequ. 121 ; Plut. Lucull. 6.) Many writers confound this L, Octavius with L. Octavius Balbus, the jurist. [Balbus, p. 458.] . Cn. Octavius M. f. Cn. n. (Fasti Capit. son of No. 7, was consul b. c. 76, with C. Scri- bonius Curio. He is described as a man of a mild temper, although he was a martyr to the gout, in consequence of which he appears to have lost the use of his feet. As an orator he was of little account. (Cic. Brut. 60, 62, de Fin. ii. 28 ; Sail. Hist. ii. p. 205, ed. Gerl. min. ; Obseq. 121.) . M. Octavius Cn. f. M. n. (Cic. ad Fam. viii. 2. § 2), the son of No. 9. He was a friend of Ap. Claudius Pulcher, consul B. c. 54, and accom- panied the latter into Cilicia, but left the province before Claudius in order to become a candidate for the aedileship. He was curule aedile B.c. 50 along with M. Caelius ; and as both of them were friends of Cicero, they begged the orator, as he was then in Cilicia, to send them panthers for the games they had to exhibit. (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 4, ad Att. v. 21, vi. 1. § 21.) On the breaking out of the civil war in B. c. 49, Octavius, true to the here- ditary principles of his family, espoused the aris- tocratical party. He was appointed, along with L. Scribonius Libo, to the command of the Libur- nian and Achaean fleets, serving as legate to M. Bibulus, who had the supreme command of the Pompeian fleet. He and Libo did good service to the cause ; they defeated Dolabella on the Illyrian coast, and compelled C. Antonius to surrender at the island of Coricta (Caes. B. C. iii. 5 ; Dion Cass,