Gnaeus Octavius (fl. 133–126 BC) was a politician of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

. He was

praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

c. 131 BC and

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in 128 BC, but his life is mostly unknown apart from a few inscriptions and an anecdote from

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

Family background

Octavius belonged to the

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...

'' Octavia, which had emerged in the middle of the 3rd century BC. Its first attested member was a Gaius Octavius Rufus, whose two sons founded the two branches of the gens, but the second one, to which later belonged

Octavian Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...

(the future first Roman emperor Augustus), received much less honours during the Republic. The elder branch shows a constant progression in the ''

cursus honorum The , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'; ) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The comprised a mixture of ...

'': Octavius's great-grandfather Gnaeus Octavius was aedile curule, his grandfather Gnaeus Octavius was praetor in 205, and his father Gnaeus Octavius was

in 165. The latter had an impressive career, which mostly took place in the

Greek East Greek East and Latin West are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world and of medieval Christendom, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the ''lingua franca'' (Greece, Anatolia, the southern Balkans, t ...

. He notably captured the last

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia * Mac ...

king

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...

in 168 and received a triumph as a result. He was murdered in 162 while on a mission in Laodicea in Syria. Octavius had a younger brother named

Marcus Octavius Marcus Octavius was a name used for men among the gens Octavia (gens), Octavia. Marcus was one of the four chief Roman naming conventions, praenomina used by the Octavii, the other three being Gaius Octavius (disambiguation), Gaius, Gnaeus Octavius ...

, who is only known as

tribune of the plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune () was the first office of the Roman Republic, Roman state that was open to the plebs, plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the pow ...

in 133. That year, he attempted to veto the social program of his colleague

Tiberius Gracchus Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (; 163 – 133 BC) was a Roman politician best known for his agrarian reform law entailing the transfer of land from the Roman state and wealthy landowners to poorer citizens. He had also served in the ...

Career

According to the '' lex Villia'', consuls had to be former praetors and there had to be an interval of two years between magistracies. Since Octavius was consul in 128, his praetorship took place in 131 or closely before. Octavius was probably praetor at the beginning of the war against Aristonicus, a claimant to the throne of

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; ), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north s ...

. The last king of Pergamon,

Attalus III Attalus III () Philometor Euergetes ( – 133 BC) was the last Attalid king of Pergamon, ruling from 138 BC to 133 BC. Biography Attalus III was the son of king Eumenes II and his queen Stratonice of Pergamon, and he was the nephew of A ...

(r. 138–133) had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in 133, but his half-brother Aristonicus revolted in 133 and tried to maintain the independence of Pergamon. Octavius's involvement in the war is known thanks to an inscription found on the island of

Delos Delos (; ; ''Dêlos'', ''Dâlos''), is a small Greek island near Mykonos, close to the centre of the Cyclades archipelago. Though only in area, it is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. ...

, which was initially thought to refer to the Gnaeus Octavius who was consul in 87, but reassigned to Octavius by

Ernst Badian Ernst Badian (8 August 1925 – 1 February 2011) was an Austrian-born classical scholar who served as a professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1998. Early life and education Badian was born in Vienna in 1925 and in 1938 fled the Nazis wit ...

.Badian, "The Consuls", pp. 405, 406. His praetorian command of the fleet in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

was the same as his father during the

Third Macedonian War The Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC) was a war fought between the Roman Republic and King Perseus of Macedon. In 179 BC, King Philip V of Macedon died and was succeeded by his ambitious son Perseus. He was anti-Roman and stirred anti-Roman fe ...

in 168. Octavius was elected consul in 128 alongside the other plebeian Titus Annius Rufus. Nothing is known on their consulship. Octavius is mentioned during a trial by

in his dialogue ''

De oratore ''De Oratore'' (''On the Orator'') is a dialogue written by Cicero in 55 BC. It is set in 91 BC, when Lucius Licinius Crassus dies, just before the Social War and the civil war between Marius and Sulla, during which Marcus Antonius, the oth ...

''. Marcus Licinius Crassus Agelastus is described as the praetor, and therefore judge of the trial, dated from 126. In this civil case, a ward accused his guardian of having mismanaged his affairs; Octavius was the lawyer of the guardian, while the ward's lawyer was Marcus Plautius Hypsaeus, later consul in 125. Cicero tells that Octavius's and Hypsaeus's introductory speeches were so bad that Crassus mocked them. The jurist and consul in 133, Publius Mucius Scaevola was also a member of the jury.

Descendants

The consul of 87, Gnaeus Octavius is often mentioned as Octavius's elder son, but Ernst Badian rejected this filiation, as he showed that this Gnaeus Octavius's father was more likely named Quintus. Scholars writing after Badian mostly agree with him, but they are unable to connect the consul of 87 with the other members of the family.Konrad, ''Plutarch's'' Sertorius, p. 62. Badian notes that Octavius still had a son named Gnaeus, but he did not leave any mark in history, or perhaps died young. Octavius's first attested son was

Lucius Octavius Lucius Octavius (c. 11674 BC) was a Roman politician who was elected Roman consul, consul in 75 BC. Biography A member of the plebeian Octavia (gens), gens Octavia, and the son of Gnaeus Octavius (consul 87 BC), Lucius Octavius was elected praeto ...

, consul in 75. A second known son was

; as tribune of the plebs between 99 and 85, he repealed the law of

Gaius Gracchus Gaius Sempronius Gracchus ( – 121 BC) was a reformist Roman politician and soldier who lived during the 2nd century BC. He is most famous for his tribunate for the years 123 and 122 BC, in which he proposed a wide set of laws, i ...

that had established the grain dole. Lucius and Marcus Octavius, as well as the consul of 87, all supported conservative (also described as ''Optimate'') politics at the beginning of the first century BC.Konrad, ''Plutarch's'' Sertorius, pp. 62, 63.

References

Bibliography

Ancient sources

, ''

.''

Modern sources

* Michael C. Alexander, ''Trials in the Late Roman Republic, 149 BC to 50 BC'', University of Toronto Press, 1990, . *

, ''Studies in Greek and Roman History'', Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1968. * ——,
The Consuls, 179-49 BC
, ''Chiron'', 20, 1990, pp. 371–414. * T. Corey Brennan, ''The Praetorship in the Roman Republic'', Oxford University Press, 2000, * T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association, 1951–1952. * Jean-Christophe Couvenhes & Henri-Louis Fernoux, ''Les Cités grecques et la guerre en Asie mineure à l’époque hellénistique'', Tours, Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, 2018. p. 32 (note 4). *

August Pauly August Friedrich von Pauly (; ; 9 May 1796, in Benningen am Neckar – 2 May 1845, in Stuttgart) was a German educator and classical philologist. From 1813 to 1818 he studied at the University of Tübingen, then furthered his education at Heide ...

Georg Wissowa Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau. Education and career Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresl ...

Elimar Klebs Elimar Klebs (15 October 1852 – 16 May 1918) was a German historian of ancient history. He was the brother of botanist Georg Klebs. Biography Klebs was born in Braunsberg (Braniewo), Prussia. He studied in Berlin under Theodor Mommsen ...

Friedrich Münzer Friedrich Münzer (22 April 1868 – 20 October 1942) was a German classical scholar noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles. He d ...

, Franz Miltner, ''et alii'', ''

Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft The Pauly encyclopedias or the Pauly-Wissowa family of encyclopedias, are a set of related encyclopedias on Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman classical studies, topics and scholarship. The first of these, or (1839–1852), was begun by compiler A ...

'' (abbreviated ''RE''), J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1894–1980. * Leena Pietilä-Castrén,
New Men and Greek War Booty in the 2nd Century BC
, ''Arctos, Acta Philologica Fennica'', XVI, 1982, pp. 121–144. * ——,
The ancestry and career of Cn. Octavius, COS 165 BC
, ''Arctos, Acta Philologica Fennica'', vol. XVIII, 1984, pp. 75–92. * O. Tellegen,
Roman Law and Rhetoric
, ''Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire'', tome 84, fasc. 1, 2006, pp. 59–75. * David Wardle, ''Suetonius, Life of Augustus'', Oxford University Press, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Octavius, Gnaeus Ancient Roman generals 2nd-century BC Roman consuls Octavii Rufi Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown