I will always wonder-especially as he suffered from ill health and escaped death from this and other causes numerous times-if Octavian believed he was not only a divi filius, son of a god-but that he was also especially favored in his destiny by the gods? Octavian showed a very methodical and patient approach to political matters. Two important things should be restated about the way he practiced politics: 1) He was cautious by nature and temperment and avoided acting impulsively. 2) He showed an unrelenting hatred to anyone who crossed him, not necessarily those that were in his way but those who had intentionally set out to do him harm out of their own hatred or ambition. Octavian was no boy-child who would have his fifteen minutes of fame and be swept from the gaming board. At the tender age of twenty-three he had earned his right to sit at the table with older, tougher, more experienced men, but we must ask once again-were these men wiser than Octavian? Unfortunately there is not much information about Octavian's personal life, especially in his youth. The historical facts we do have about this area fall into two groups: 1) Dynastic marriages. 2) Stories and propaganda circulated by his enemies. The heir to Julius Caesar was considered the greatest catch in Rome. Because of the way Roman society was structured, both in republican and imperial times, it was important for Octavian to marry into as high a noble family as he could, in spite of the fact that he was connected with the very ancient Julii clan. This is because Octavian himself came only from a provincial family that was well to do, but only of equestrian status. The equites or knights were the affluent middle class. They occupied a level below that of the nobility and members of the Senate. This class would, however, often overlap socially with the others. Sometime in 43 BC, Octavian married the daughter of Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, a member of Rome's most ancient nobility. This marriage only lasted a few months because Mark Antony and Octavian didn't trust each other and agreed it would be better to seal their alliance with a familial bond. Antony's wife Fulvia had a daughter by her first husband. This girl was just barely of marriageable age and too young for intercourse, but girls in ancient Rome were considered old enough to be married at about twelve and boys at fourteen. Husband and wife had to have reached puberty. Children could be betrothed in marriage as long as they understood what it was about, Roman thinking on the being at age seven-although we might disagree these days!
More about Octavian's sexual life (outside of marriage) was bandied about by his enemies. In those times Romans often went on about the sexual idiosyncrasies of their opponents, to the point of being expected to produce bawdy verse. Octavian was well up to this task as these lines attributed to him (very likely authentic) about the reasons for Fulvia's political subversion: "Because Antony fucks Glaphyra (a current mistress), Fulvia is determined to punish me by making me fuck her in turn. I fuck Fulvia? What if Manius [a freedman of Fulvia] begged me to sodomize him, would I do it? I think not, if I were in my right mind, "Either fuck me or fight," says she. Ah but my cock is dearer to me than life itself. Let the trumpets sound." Accusations of homosexuality were probably inspired by his attractive but rather boyish appearance. Sextus Pompeius was one who accused Octavian of being an effeminate homosexual-a "queen." Lucius Antonius (another enemy obviously) said that Octavian sold himself to Aulus Hirtius, the consul who died at Mutina in 43 BC, during the last campaign of the civil war. The same campaign that led to Julius Caesar's victory at Munda. This wouldn't have been very long before Caesar returned to Italy and wrote his will. Perhaps to add that little detail that always seems to help lend truth to some accusations; Lucius claimed that Octavian used to soften the hair on his legs by singeing it with hot walnut shells! Octavian, perhaps because of his pretty boy looks rather than any actual history; for he truly seems to have only slept with women or preferred women greatly over men, had a reputation for sleeping with men. Even though he was likely one-hundred percent heterosexual the following incident will show how wide his reputation had spread.
This incident happened during a theater performance. An actor came onstage during a play, representing Cybele, the Great Mother. As he played a tambourine, another actor exclaimed, "Look how the queen's finger beats the drum!" In Latin the same phrase can also mean, "Look how the queen's finger sways the world!" The audience assumed this was a reference to Octavian, who was sitting with them in the theater, and they happily burst into applause. Antony was preparing to go to war against the Parthians in the spring of 40 BC. At this time he learned that Perusia had fallen and that Fulvia had been forced to flee Italy. Subsequently Fulvia met Antony in Athens. Here he gave her a severe dressing down and blamed her for the situation at Perusia. It is not known what Fulvia said in reply, but she became very ill after the couple traveled to Sicyon, a port on the Gulf of Corinth. Also not known is from what illness she suffered from but Appian believes she harmed herself and made her condition worse. Antony's mother Julia had fled Italy and went to Sicily due to concerns for her own safety. She visited her son in Sicyon and told him that Sextus Pompeius was willing to ally himself with Mark Antony against Octavian. Antony's reply to Sextus was discrete. He would regard Sextus as an ally if he went to war with Octavian, if not he would try to repair relations between them. Then with all of these events going on in the background, Octavian did something that was a violation of the terms of agreement between the triumvirs.
I hope to have the next article here soon. I have been working a lot on this information lately but have no idea how many posts it will translate into. The image is a Roman mosaic picturing dogs. After I get all of the information I have down -perhaps on some of these articles I will try to come up with an image better pertaining to the post. I spend a ridiculous amount of time looking for just the right image and still can't usually seem to find what I want, so for awhile all I promise is that the images will have some relation to Rome:-)Thanks for your thoughtful and intelligent comments and be well to anyone stopping by!
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