Claudia Octavia was the daughter of the Emperor Claudius and Valeria Messalina.
24 Facts About Claudia Octavia
2.
Claudia Octavia became his wife, in a marriage between the two which was arranged by Agrippina.
3.
Claudia Octavia was the elder of two children of Claudius and his third wife, Valeria Messalina.
4.
Claudia Octavia had older half-siblings through her father's earlier marriages.
5.
Claudia Octavia had a half-brother, Claudius Drusus, through Claudius's first marriage to Plautia Urgulanilla, although Drusus died before she was born.
6.
Claudia Octavia was born in Rome around 39 or 40 during the reign of her cousin Caligula.
7.
Claudia Octavia had Octavia's fiance Silanus publicly accused of incest with his sister; he was forced to resign from his position of praetor and commit suicide.
8.
Claudia Octavia then had Octavia betrothed to Nero, who was additionally made an heir to Claudius.
9.
Tacitus reports that by this point, Claudia Octavia "had learned to hide her griefs, her affections, her every emotion".
10.
Claudia Octavia was well-liked by the Roman populace, but her marriage to Nero was loveless and unhappy.
11.
Claudia Octavia positioned Nero's marriage to her as the source of his legitimacy as emperor, telling Nero that he would need to "give her back her dowry".
12.
Nero divorced Claudia Octavia, claiming that his lack of an heir was due to her sterility.
13.
One of the new praetorian prefects, Ofonius Tigellinus, questioned Claudia Octavia's maidservants, including Pythias, under torture in order to corroborate this charge, but was largely unsuccessful.
14.
Statues of Claudia Octavia were carried through the streets, while those of Poppaea were pulled down or damaged.
15.
Poppaea argued for harsher treatment of Claudia Octavia, claiming that the protesters were simply Claudia Octavia's clients and servants and did not really represent what the Roman populace thought.
16.
Claudia Octavia suggested that any husband found for Octavia could be a threat to his position.
17.
Nero accused Claudia Octavia of covering up this adultery with an abortion, even though his initial basis for divorce was a claim that she was sterile.
18.
Claudia Octavia was exiled to the small island of Pandateria, where Julia the Elder, Agrippina the Elder, and Julia Livilla had all previously been exiled.
19.
Claudia Octavia's veins were cut in an attempt to simulate suicide, but when that took longer than expected, she was brought into a room full of hot steam to suffocate.
20.
Claudia Octavia's head was cut off and brought back to Poppaea.
21.
The Claudia Octavia was likely an influence on some of these works, although to what extent is unclear.
22.
Claudia Octavia appears in works including Handel's lost opera Nero, Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'incoronazione di Poppea, Reinhard Keiser's opera Claudia Octavia, Vittorio Alfieri's tragedy Ottavia, and Johann Caspar Aiblinger's ballet La morte di Nerone.
23.
Claudia Octavia is the subject of the massive German novel Die Romische Claudia Octavia by Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and a character in Robert Graves's novel Claudius the God and the television series I, Claudius.
24.
Claudia Octavia is the main character of the historical biographical novel Octavia: A Tale of Ancient Rome by Seymour van Santvoord.