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Historical person
40–62
Claudia Octavia was the daughter of Claudius and first wife of Nero. Her marriage linked Nero to the Julio-Claudian dynasty, but she was divorced, exiled and executed after Poppaea Sabina became dominant at court.
Octavia was the daughter of Claudius and Messalina and was married to Nero before his accession, strengthening his dynastic position within the Julio-Claudian house. The marriage was unhappy and produced no children. Nero divorced her in 62, accused her of adultery and sent her into exile; popular sympathy for Octavia contributed to protests before she was executed on Pandateria.
In Margaret George’s The Confessions of Young Nero, When Agrippina the Younger returns from exile, she uses marriage, adoption and court influence to make her son Claudius’s heir, placing him in direct rivalry with Britannicus and binding him to Claudius’s daughter Claudia Octavia.
Series
Margaret George’s Nero duology reconstructs the life of Rome’s last Julio-Claudian emperor, beginning with a childhood in which imperial blood makes Nero a target and ending with the collapse of his reign. Told largely through Nero’s own perspective, the series follows his passage through the courts of Caligula…
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