Octavia (play)

Octavia
Octavia
	Sculpture portrait of Claudia Octavia
Written by	Unknown
Original language	Classical Latin
Subject	Divorce of Nero and Octavia
Genre	Fabula praetextata; (Tragedy based on Roman subjects)
Setting	Imperial Rome

Octavia is a Roman tragedy that focuses on three days in the year 62 AD during which Nero divorced and exiled his wife Claudia Octavia and married another (Poppaea Sabina). The play also deals with the irascibility of Nero and his inability to take heed of the philosopher Seneca's advice to rein in his passions.

The play was attributed to Seneca, but modern scholarship generally discredits this, since it contains accurate prophecies of both his and Nero's deaths.^[1] While the play closely resembles Seneca's plays in style, it was probably written some time after Seneca's death in the Flavian period by someone influenced by Seneca and aware of the events of his lifetime.^[2]

^ R Ferri ed., Octavia (2003) p. 5-9
^ H J Rose, A Handbook of Latin Literature (London 1967) p. 375

[1] R Ferri ed., Octavia (2003) p. 5-9

[2] H J Rose, A Handbook of Latin Literature (London 1967) p. 375

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