Interceding with Triumvirs

Abstract This chapter follows Octavia after the assassination of her great uncle Caesar. Her brother took up Caesar’s inheritance and name as he wrangled politically with his uncle’s allies and assassins. Octavia and her mother Atia became caught up in Octavian’s military approach on Rome as he sought a consulship; the women sheltered with the Vestals in the first of many interactions with the public priestesses. After Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus formed the Triumvirate, Octavia began to appear more often on the public scene as a relative of one of the period’s strongmen. She helped a peer obtain a pardon for a proscribed man from her brother, and wealthy women appealed to her in protest of a new tax on women’s estates. This period thus sees Octavia bring some traditional activities of Roman matrons onto a larger public stage.