Introduction

Abstract This chapter summarizes the scope of the book as the experiences of Octavia Minor within the transition from the Roman Republic to the regime of the first emperor, Augustus. The focus on one person with specific gender, class, and status privileges and constraints, moments of access and restrictions of agency, who sometimes allied with her powerful brother but was not always in agreement with him, pushes against a scholarly trend of attributing all changes in this period to Augustus. Emphasis is also placed on the challenges presented by our surviving sources, most of which were written in hindsight to explain why Octavia’s brother won the last civil war against her husband. The introduction highlights the value of coins in contrast, since they provide a contemporary and unadulterated view of how powerful individuals wanted to be portrayed.