Gaius Octavius (
fl. 216 BC) was a Roman army officer who was active during the third century BC. He was the son of the
equestrian
The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse".
Horseback riding (or Riding in British English)
Examples of this are:
* Equestrian sports
*Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...
Gaius Octavius and grandson of the
quaestor Gnaeus Octavius Rufus, also the father of
Velitrae's magistrate
Gaius Octavius, grandfather of
praetor
Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...
Gaius Octavius and great-grandfather of
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
(reigning 27 BC - 14 AD). When
Marcus Antonius tried to show his contempt against Augustus, he said that Octavius was a
freedman and rope-maker from
Thurii
Thurii (; grc-gre, Θούριοι, Thoúrioi), called also by some Latin writers Thurium (compare grc-gre, Θούριον in Ptolemy), for a time also Copia and Copiae, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a sho ...
.
[, p. 9][, 2.2]
During the
Second Punic War, Octavius served as
military tribune
A military tribune (Latin ''tribunus militum'', "tribune of the soldiers") was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribune as a stepping stone ...
and participated in the disastrous
battle of Cannae, being one of few survivors. When the
Carthaginians
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
marched into the Roman camp, Octavius and his colleague, tribune
P. Sempronius Tuditanus, managed to cut their way through the enemy and arrived safely in
Canusium
Canosa di Puglia, generally known simply as Canosa ( nap, label= Canosino, Canaus), is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia, southern Italy. It is located between Bari and Foggia, on the northwestern edge of the ...
. He served in
Sicilia
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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(modern
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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) under the praetor
Lucius Aemilius Papus in 205 BC, but it is unknown whether he took part in some other expedition.
See also
*
Octavia (gens)
References
Bibliography
*
*
3rd-century BC Romans
Octavii Rufi
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