A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Octavia, daughter of Claudius
OCTAVIA,
Daughter of Claudius, Emperor of Rome, and Messalina, was betrothed to Silanus; but through the intrigues of Agrippina, the neice and fourth wife of Claudius, she was married, when only fifteen, to the Emperor Nero. This wretched tyrant soon divorced her to marry Poppæa, who had her banished to Campania. She was recalled by the people; but Poppæa, resolved on her ruin, caused her to be again banished to an island. There she was ordered to kill herself by opening her veins. She died at the age of twenty. Her head was cut off and carried to Poppæa. To great personal charms, Octavia added modesty, sweetness, beneficence, purity of manners, talents, and irreproachable conduct; and the people in Rome mourned her loss with the greatest grief. She died about the year 56.