OCTAVIA, the grand-daughter of the preceding, was the daughter of the Emperor Claudius and Messalina, and was born about 42 A.D. Her short life was a series of the most cruel wrongs. At the age of six she was betrothed to Lucius Silanus, a young man of noble birth. About her eleventh year this betrothal had been nullified by the designs of her step-mother, the infamous Agrippina; and she was married to Nero, the son of the latter, and the heir to the empire. Nine years afterwards Nero, by that time emperor, divorced her on the charge of sterility, in order to make room for Poppæa. The innocent young princess next became the victim of the systematic vengeance of her triumphant rival. An attempt was first made to force her servants to accuse her of incontinency; but not even the torture could wring from them a word against the reputation of their mistress. She was then exiled into Campania; but the people soon brought her back to Rome in triumph. At length the slave Anicetus was hired to procure her condemnation, by swearing that he had been her paramour. The helpless girl, in her twentieth year, was immediately taken away to the island of Pandataria to be put to death. Her veins were opened by the soldiers; extreme fear, however, prevented the blood from flowing; and it was found necessary to stifle her in the steam of a hot bath. The woes of Octavia form the subject of a tragedy found among the works of Seneca, and they have also been dramatized by Alfieri.