![]() The material culture associated with Octavia will also be studied. Though large portions of Octavia’s life are not examined by the classical sources, this thesis will turn to the people with whom Octavia was connected, her mother, step-father, husbands, and brother, as well as her female contemporaries with whom she was compared, Fulvia and Cleopatra, in an effort to more fully examine the entirety of Octavia’s life. Through attentive handling of androcentric classical sources, this study will carefully seek to rehabilitate Octavia as an astute, rather than “good” woman. Removing this “good” stereotype will allow for an examination of Octavia’s role in transforming the moral example of a Roman woman from the Republic to the Empire. This thesis seeks to divest Octavia of her “good girl” reputation, as has been done by other scholars for many “bad girls” of antiquity, such as Cleopatra and Livia. ![]() Her portrayal as a “good” exempla in the written classical sources obscures Octavia’s agency. These could perhaps be better satisfied in the medium of the documentary, and we can fully expect such treatments to appear in connection with the bimillennium of his death on 19th August 2014.Īs a “good girl,” Octavia Minor, older sister to Octavian née Augustus, has been understudied as a historical figure of the Late Roman Republic. Audience responses suggest that it was only a partial success, but Augustus’ story still offers ample opportunities for exploring modern concerns such as the crafting of political personas or the relationship between security and civil liberties. ![]() Making strong claims to historical accuracy, Imperium: Augustus builds on approaches already established in biographical novels, but also deploys characteristically filmic devices such as the flashback to help create a compelling drama. This paper examines the narrative strategies used in this production and their degree of success in making the story of Octavian / Augustus palatable to contemporary western audiences. Nonetheless, a popular appetite for screen portrayals of Roman history in the early 21st century has kept producers and screenwriters returning to his story, and one TV mini-series, Imperium: Augustus (2003), has now offered the first ever screen biopic of this contradictory character. Instead, in the 20th century, Octavian / Augustus appeared most frequently on screen as a secondary character in the stories of others – particularly as a villainous foil to Antony and Cleopatra – while only a handful of novelists attempted a fuller biographical approach. Lacking the moral complexity of Julius Caesar’s story, or the prurient thrills offered by proper ‘bad’ emperors, this narrative has rarely been tackled in full by western story-tellers. ![]() Reduced to its basic elements, it is the tale of a man who overthrew the Roman Republic and installed himself as an absolute monarch, yet enjoyed widespread contemporary acclaim and died peacefully in his bed. The story of Octavian / Augustus’ life follows a rather problematic narrative trajectory. ![]()
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