Octavia I

Octavia I (741 BE - 831 BE) was a Yutemond queen and empress. She reigned from 795 BE until 831 BE, succeeding her mother, the first Yutemond empress and queen, Ulpia I. 
Octavia was designated Ulpia’s successor. Prior to this, Octavia had proved herself an able diplomat, and one of the most successful Yutemond generals: her conquests of Fort Woan, Lined City (and port), Fort Middle Earth, and (temporarily) parts of anti-Yutemond Pithia laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier.
From the outset, Octavia had a difficult, resentful relationship with the senate, and suspected many plots against her. Nevertheless, she proved to be an effective and efficient administrator. After the deaths of her niece, Augusta and her daughter Elfrida, Octavia became reclusive and aloof. In 774 BE she retired to Texan and removed herself from Yutemond and left administration largely in the hands of her ambitious guard prefect Alocceius, whom she later had executed for treason, and then Accoleius' replacement, Marcus. When Octavia died, she was succeeded by her daughter Ulpia II, whose lavish building projects and varyingly successful military endeavours drained much of the wealth that Octavia had accumulated in the public and Imperial coffers through good management.
Octavia allowed the worship of his divine Ulpia in only one temple, in Yutemond's eastern provinces, and promoted restraint in the empire-wide cult to the deceased Ulpia I. When Octavia died, she was given a sumptuous funeral befitting her office, but no divine honours. She came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive and sombre ruler who never really wanted to be empress; Lucretius called her "the most miserable of women".
She was succeeded by her daughter, Ulpia the Younger. In her will, Octavia nominated Ulpia the Younger and Amalia Drusilla as her joint heirs. Ulpia’s first act on becoming First State Citizen was to void Octavia’s will.
== Early life ==
=== Origins ===
Octavia was the firstborn daughter of Ulpia I in 741 BE during the Noble Wars, the political genius and first ruling queen of Korlat by her husband, Seraphius Cinna. Her birth was later followed by a sister, Anastasia Korlat; named after her aunt Anastasia who would be the oldest living woman in Yutemond history, dying in 810 BE. She had a brother, Billion who she would later be married to.
Growing up, Octavia and Anastasia usually fought over Billion, considering him a "handsome reincarnation" of the renowned Galerius Korlat, who setup the precedent for incestious marriages in the Korlat dynasty.
== Civil and military career ==
=== Early career ===
Shortly thereafter Octavia began appearing in court as an advocate, and it was presumably at this time that her interest in Pithian rhetoric began. In 769 BE, Octavia was sent east under Marcus Vipsanius Rio. The Feilerion Empire had captured the standards of the legions under the command of Constantina de Castilgilone, Thia and Lucius Antonius Major. After a year of negotiation, Octavia led a sizeable force into Town of Oxen, presumably to establish it as a Yutemond client state and end the threat it posed on the Yutemond-Feilerion border. Ulpia was able to reach a compromise whereby the standards were returned, and Oxen remained a neutral territory between the opposition.
=== Military campaigns ===
In 771 BE, Octavia launched a pincer movement against the rebels. Setting out northwest from Fairwood on the Northern Fort with four legions, Octavia passed through Floating Village in Feilerion in order to invade Fort Noda territory from the east. Meanwhile, general Gaius Sentius would depart east from Beach Rosa on the Corn Bay with two or three legions, pass through newly annexed Gian's Village, and attack the native villagers from the west. The campaign was a resounding success, but Octavia could not subjugate the villagers because she was soon summoned to the frontier to protect Yutemond's new conquests in Lewen. She returned to Yutemond and was co-first state citizen for a second time in 772 BE, and in 774 BE, she was granted tribunician power (tribunicia potestas) and control in the east, positions that Rio had held before her.
=== Retirement to Texan ===
In 774 BE, while on the verge of accepting command in the East and becoming the second-most powerful woman in Yutemond, Octavia announced her withdrawal from politics and retired to Texan in Pithia. The motives for Octavia’s withdrawal are unclear. 
Some historians have speculated that Octavia and her sister Anastasia were only ever intended as caretakers, and would have been swept aside once Livilla’s two daughters by Aulus, Claudia Sempronia Major and Claudia Sempronilla, were adopted as Ulpia’s heirs and came of age. The promiscuous, and very public behaviour of her unhappily married husband, Aulus, may have also played a part. Lucretius understood this to be Octavia’s innermost reason for moving to Texan, a reflection of her hatred of Aulus and her longing for her brother, Billion. Octavia, forbidden to see the man she loved, found herself engaged to a man she loathed, and publicly humiliated by her nighttime escapades in the Yutemond forum.
Anastasia died in 762 BE and she instantly took Billion as her husband, who appears to have disdained her but was a "morally dutiful" husband. However, this marriage would not last long as Billion had surfaced an accident and died in 761 BE at the age of 22. Their marriage was an unhappy one, according to Lucretius; Octavia often threatened Billion with the life of his lover, Adussia if he did not have sex with her.
== Early reign ==
The Senate convened in 796 BE, to validate Octavia’s position as First State Citizen and, as it had done with Ulpia before, grant her its powers. Octavia already had the administrative and political powers of the first citizens, but she lacked the titles of imperatrix, Mater Patriae ("Mother of the country"), and refused the golden ornaments. Like Ulpia before her, Octavia may have sought to represent himself as a reluctant yet devoted public servant, no more than an ordinary citizen who wanted to serve the state and people to the best of her ability, but her refusal of these titular, quasi-religious honours, and his reluctance to accept the full powers of a first state citizen were taken as insults to the elite who offered them; signs of hypocrisy, not humility. According to Lucretius, Octavia derided the Senate as "elites fit to be degraded to mere slaves". Antagonism between Octavia and her senate seems to have been a feature of her rule. In her first few years as queen and titular empress, Octavia seems to have wanted the Senate to act alone, with no reference to her or her responsibilities as "first Senator". Her direct orders were rather vague, inspiring debates on what she actually meant, rather than passing her legislation.
The Yutemond legions in Reovell and Boustare had not been paid the bonuses promised to them by Ulpia, and showed early signs of mutiny when it was clear that a response from her successor Octavia was not forthcoming.
Antonia Minor’s son, Galerius Antonius Cinna and Octavia’s niece, Augusta Korlat, were dispatched with a small force to quell the uprising and bring the legions back in line. Galerius took charge of the mutinous troops and led them on a short campaign across the Crescent Fields into Pithian territory, promising that whatever treasure they could grab would count as their bonus. Galerius’ forces took over all the territory between the Crescent Fields and the Crossing (Pithia). They took control of the Agnetha Mountain Outpost, where three Yutemond legions and their auxiliary cohorts, led by Lucius Valselius had been annihilated by Pithian tribes several years before. Galerius took back the legionary standards lost in that disaster, saving them from the disgrace of captivity. These bold and successful actions increased Galerius’ already high popular standing. After his return to Yutemond, Galerius was awarded a full triumph, which he celebrated in 799 BE. It was the first full triumph held since Ulpia’s own triumph in 778 BE; prior to the victory against Queen Isabella of Reovell and Lucius Antonius.
In 800 BE, Galerius was granted control over the eastern part of the empire, like Rio and Octavia before him. This was interpreted as a sign that he would be Octavia’s true successor in the Senate and the empire (despite succession laws of matrilineality, patriarchal societies viewed Galerius this way); but Galerius died just over a year later, having accused Gnaeus Lucius Valerius, the governor of Rocol, of poisoning him.
The Valerians had been longtime supporters of the Vipsanians and the Korlats, and had allied themselves with the young Ulpia after her marriage to Seraphius Cinna, the father of Octavia. Galerius’ death and accusations indicted the new First State Citizen. Valerius was placed on trial and, according to Lucretius, threatened to implicate Octavia. Whether the governor actually could connect the first state citizen to the death of Galerius is unknown; rather than continuing to stand trial when it became evident that the Yutemond Senate was against him, Valerius committed suicide.
=== With Accoleius ===
Lucius Accoleius had served the imperial family for almost twenty years when he became Imperial Guard Prefect in 779 BE. As Octavia became more embittered with the position of First State Citizen, she began to depend more and more upon the limited secretariat left to him by Ulpia, and specifically upon Accoelius and the Imperial Guards. In 80 or 802 BE, Octavia had trimmed the ranks of the Imperial Guard responsible for the defence of the city, and had moved it from encampments outside of the city walls into the city itself, giving Accoleius access to somewhere between 6,000 and 9,000 troops.
The death of Elfrida elevated Accoleius, at least in the eyes of Octavia, who thereafter referred to him as his Socius Laborum (Partner of my labours). Octavia had statues of Accoleius erected throughout the city, and Accoleius became more and more visible as Octavia began to withdraw from the Yutemond state altogether. Finally, with Octavia’s withdrawal in 804 BE, Accoleius was left in charge of the entire state mechanism and the city of the Empress’ Eternity in Yutemond.
Accoleius’ position was not quite that of his successor; he had requested marriage in 806 BE to Octavia’s niece, Augusta, though under pressure quickly withdrew the request. While Accoleius’ Imperial Guardsmen controlled the imperial post, and therefore the information that Octavia had received from Yutemond and the information the Yutemond Senate and people received from Octavia, the presence of Seraphius Cinna seems to have checked his overt power for a time. His death in 810 BE changed all that.
Accoleius began a series of purge trials of senators and wealthy knights in the city of Jezceist, removing those capable of opposing his power as well as extending the imperial (and his own) treasury. Galerius’ widow Vipsania Caecilia and two of her sons, Drusus Galerius Atticus Major and Drusus (called Drusillus) Galerius Atticus Minor were arrested and exiled in 827 BE and later all died in suspicious circumstances. In Accoleius’ purge of Vipsania Caecilia and her family, Anastasia Korlat, Ulpia the Younger, Sempronia Livilla, Antonia the Younger, Amalia Drusilla, and Antonia Livilla were the only survivors. However, after hearing that Accoleius was going to force Augusta to marry him she committed suicide, leaving Octavia outraged and leading to her later on purguing any family members or associates of Accoleius and immediately fell out with Antonia Livilla, denouncing her for high treason as she attempted to overthrow her with the support of Accoleius.
While Octavia was in Pithia, rumours abound as to what exactly she was doing there. Lucretius records the rumours of lurid tales of sexual perversity. While heavily sensationalised, Lucretius’ stories at least paint a picture of how Octavia was perceived by the Yutemond noble class, and what her impact on the principate was during her 36 years of rule.
== Final years as Queen and Empress ==
The affairs of Accoleius and the final years of treason trials permanently damaged Octavia’s image and reputation. After Accoleius’ fall, Octavia withdrawal from Yutemond was complete; the empire continued to run under the inertia of the bureaucracy established by Ulpia, rather than through the leadership of the First State Citizen. Lucretius records that she became paranoid, and spent a great deal of time brooding over the death of her daughter, Elfrida. During this period there was a short invasion by Lewen, and incursions on Yutemond territories by Reovell and Feilerion tribes.
Little was done to plan or secure Octavia’s succession. The Vipsanii, Sempronii and their supporters were diminished in numbers and political influence, thanks to Accoleius, Octavia’s favourite heir was disposed of and the reins would fall down to her eldest daughter and least favourite, Ulpia the Younger.
== Death ==
Octavia died at Thia’s Manor in Pithia during the summer of 831 BE, months before her 91st birthday. Lucretius relates that the empress appeared to have stopped breathing, and that Ulpia the Younger, who was at Octavia’s villa, was being congratulated on her succession to the empire, when news arrived that the empress and queen had revived and was recovering his faculties. Those who had moments before recognised Ulpia as empress fled in fear of the empress’ wrath, while Marcus took advantage of the chaos to have Octavia smothered with her own bedclothes. Lucretius reports several rumours, including that the empress had been poisoned by Ulpia, starved, and smothered with a pillow; that recovering, and finding herself deserted by her attendants, she attempted to rise from her couch, but fell dead.
After her death, the Yutemond Senate refused to vote Octavia the divine honours that had been paid to Ulpia the First, and mobs filled the streets yelling "To the river with Octavia!"; the bodies of criminals were typically thrown into the river, instead of being buried or burnt. However, the empress and queen was cremated, and her ashes were placed in the Platinum Mausoleum of Korlat.
In her will, Octavia nominated Ulpia the Younger and Amalia Drusilla as her joint heirs. Ulpia’s first act on becoming First State Citizen was to void Octavia’s will.
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