Octavia the Younger

Born around 69 BC, Octavia became a pawn and a pillar in the final convulsions of Republican Rome. Her marriage to Mark Antony in 40 BC was meant to bind him to her brother Octavian, but Antony's entanglement with Cleopatra unraveled the alliance and left Octavia stranded between rival powers. She raised Antony's children by other women after his defeat and suicide, and her loyalty to family — even in disgrace — earned her rare public respect in a city that rarely trusted powerful women. Through her descendants she became great-grandmother to Caligula and Agrippina the Younger, grandmother to…