2020-06-09 Tue

Claudia Octavia was the Empress of Rome. First cousin to Caligula, daughter of Emperor Claudius, and stepsister/wife to Emperor Nero.

She was born in Rome around 39 or 40, shortly before the assassination of Caligula, and her father's subsequent accession to the throne. Her brother, Britannicus, was born soon after, in 41. As a young girl, her father betrothed her to future praetor Lucius Silanus, who was a descendant of Augustus.

In 48, her mother was executed for conspiring to murder her father. Her father remarried his fourth and final wife Agrippina the Younger. She had a son named Nero. Agrippina, through her plotting and manipulating, ended the engagement between Octavia and Lucius Silanus and persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his son and heir, and arranged for Octavia and Nero to marry on 9 June 53.

The above shown Roman coin called Tetradrachm issued from Alexandria. It depicts the laureate head of Nero on its obverse face. While reverse of a coin shows bare head of Claudia Octavia.