The name "Octavian"

[Jona Lendering]

Octavian never called himself Octavian, but Julius Caesar. The boy's name was the boy's fortune. I seem to remember having read somewhere that the name he never used was introduced as early as the fourth century. But of course I have forgotten the author who invented it? Anyone?

[Praefectusclassis]

Wild guess: Orosius?

[Jona Lendering]

Perhaps, but I think I would've remembered that, because it's an author I've always liked. I already found out that the name is used once by Tacitus (Annals 13.6.3) but it is obviously meant to distinguish several people called Caesar, so it doesn't count.

[Praefectusclassis]

(University access to databases has its advantages):
Cicero, Philippicae 14.23: bellum Octavianum. It also occurs in his letters.

[Jona Lendering]

Yep, I now also found something similar in the Neue Pauly, and there is the famous line in the Letters to Atticus (14.12.2) that Cicero did not know what to call the friendly young man, finally deciding not to call him Caesar. I wonder what Cicero might have said if he had survived. Not divi filius, I'm sure, but I think he would also have said Caesar.

The generations after Cicero always call the boy Caesar, as he continued to call himself; it is only later that the Ciceronian name became the name of Augustus before he was Augustus. Syme and Jones are extremely unhelpful.

At the moment, my hypothesis is Aurelius Victor, who surely calls the young man Octavian and was widely read.

[john m roberts]

The main reason we remember him as Octavian is Shakespeare. I believe he used that variant to avoid confusion with Julius Caesar, the subject of his own play.

[Matthew]

I seem to recall a letter of Mark Antony in which he refers to his adversary as Octavian or something similar. It was along time ago when I read that, but I think the idea was that he was addressing him as such on purpose, as a kind of veiled insult.

Matthew James Stanham

[Jona Lendering]

Cicero, Philippica 13.24-25: 'et te, o puer, qui omnia nomini debes', o boy, you owe everything to your name (i.e., Caesar).

[Gaius_Calvus]

This is how I understand the issue:

"Octavian" was G. Julius Caesar's (dictator perpetuus) grand nephew through his elder sister, Julia. "Octavian's" birth-father was Gaius Octavianus, which was also his (Octavian's) given name.

When Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, he was childless (his daughter Julia, wife of Pompey, having died around 53-52 BC); she was his daughter by his first wife, Cornelia Cinna, to whom he was married at a very early age (at the same time Caesar was made Flamen Dialis by Gaius Marius). Cornelia Cinna died very young, and Caesar had no children by his second wife, Poppeia, (Sulla's grand-daughter).

Caesar therefore adopted Gaius Octavianus in his will, a not uncommon practice for a childless Roman nobleman (Caesar's family was patrician as well as noble). When men were adopted in this fashion, the traditional usage was to change one's name (Gaius Octavianus was now legally Gaius Julius Caesar) by adding one's former last name as a (first or second) cognomen -- thus, upon his adoption, Gaius Octavianus became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus -- and would therefore refer to himself (and be addressed as) Gaius Julius, praenomen and nomen, in polite conversation, or as "Caesar" if one were less formal (it becoming the practice at that time to refer to men by their cognomen only, as opposed to praenomen and nomen together, which was more correct/polite).

"Octavian" is the anglicized form of his second cognomen, Octavianus.

Thus, while "Octavian" is an invention of sorts (it is a diminution of Octavianus, his second cognomen), it (Octavianus) was truly a part of his legal name from the time of his adoption in Caesar's will until his death.

[Crispvs]

Adding a small footnote to what Gaius Calvius has just said, 'Octavian's' name prior to his adoption in Caesar's will was Gaius Octavius, as stated above. On being adopted by Caesar his name did indeed become Gaius Julius Caesar, to which he added the name 'Octavianus' (which I have always understood to effectively mean 'who used to be Octavius'). However, he did not take Caesar' entire name - only his family name (Julius Caesar). The two men just happened to have the same name. Thus if the Young Caesar had originally been called 'Publius Octavius' he would have remained Publius and become 'Publius Julius Caesar'.

I should state here that I am not correcting anything in Gaius's description. I am merely clarifying a small point.

Incidentally, regarding the name 'Octavianus', I am not sure that he used it very much except in his formal titles. As soon as he heard that his great uncle Caesar was not coming to join him in Thrace but had instead died and adopted him in his will, he immediately adopted the name 'Caesar and used it to great effect in quickly recruiting an army (helped, of course by Agrippa, Mycaenus and the purloined py chest which had been intended for Caesar's planned Illyrican war).
Before long he had taken for himself the right to use the term 'Imperator' as his own, making him 'Imperator Caesar'. Then, of course, as of his first settlement with the Roman People, he adopted the title/name 'Augustus', making him 'Imperator Caesar Augustus' or simply 'Imperator Augustus'.
It cannot have been often that he actually called himself 'Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus'.

Crispvs

[Gaius_Calvus]

Crispus,

You are entirely correct. I merely wanted to point out that "Octavian/Octavianus" was not a later, made-up name but was actually a part of his legal name.

I simply did not carry out the history of his names/titles as far.

Calvus

[SOCL]

I hate to revive a dead thread, but...

According to Dr. George Pesely, my former Roman history professor, Octavian would have never used the name "Octavian(us)" because it reminded everyone he wasn't "quite as patrician" as those around him. Further, he stated that the use of "Octavianus" and other adoptive-style names (e.g. "Aemillianus") were actually never used in Roman society. Rather, they are only used by later historians or in conversation when using the full names of family members in order to distinguish between father and adopted son. In that sense, Octavian's legal name after being adopted by Caesar would have been only Gaius Julius Caesar with the "Octavianus" used only in circumstances of differentiation. I also recall him stating that in any matter, Octavian never used "Octavianus" as part of his name, but was rather:

1. Gaius Julius Caesar
2. Imperator Caesar divi filius

The latter is a "made up"/honorific name Octavian used for himself.
According to Dr. Pesely, this is what is found in primary sources and that the adoptive name convention was not a formal, much less legal ordnance, but rather informal used primarily by historian and record-keepers.

The name "Octavian" was popularized most by Shakespeare.

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

hmm, intersting. Would he have used the name Augustus or did he continued to name himself Gaius Julius Caesar?

[Tib. Gabinius]

According to Professor Vössing of University Bonn:
He was born under the name C. Octavius, and everyone will used this name in his childhood..
After 44 his official name was C. Julius C. Caesar, but he already changed it to pronounce the filiation: C. Caesar C. f.
In the year 40 the first steps to change the titles to names and other way started, cause now he called himself Imp. Caesar and in the same near, according to the divinatio of his "father" Imp. Caesar divi f.
In Jan. 27 bc he was able to call himself same way, but with the "Augustus" at the end.
In 23 bc he called himself with full title, which he occupied right for his name:
Imperator Caesar divi f. Augustus trib. potestate, in 12 bc he added the pontifex maximus and at least, 2 bc he he full name and titles:
Imperator Caesar divi f. Augustus pontifex maximus trib. pot. XYZ (years he had it) imp. cos XYZ pater patria.

As we can see, he included titels to his name as part of the names, worn titles as titles, took a cognomen to a nomen gentile and so on....


Edit: and btw, "primus inter pares" ...

[SOCL]

hmm, intersting. Would he have used the name Augustus or did he continued to name himself Gaius Julius Caesar?

Sorry, I left out the fact his name changed again to Augustus, rather as Gabinius described. In any event, he would refer to himself as Augustus, but only in formal discussions, rather as though it were a title (i.e. Res Gestae divi Augusti), but would continue being called Caesar.

Gabinius has it exact. I should have mentioned that, but Octavian before becoming Augustus used "Imperator" before his name almost as though it were a praenomen rather than a title (which would have been attached at the end of the name), hence "Imperator Caesar...(etc)", but there is no documented use during his lifetime that he ever used the name "Octavianus". Further, the information about the legal standing of adopted names seems to be nonexistant, but rather an informal way of differentiating between two persons of the same name.