892 OCT OCT 
a man or hufband.] The 8th clafs in Linnaeus's fexual tremely provoked at this treatment of a beloved filler, and 
fyftem ; confiding of plants which are furnilhed with wilhed her to live in retirement. She however refufed 
eight ftamina, See Botany, vol. iii. p. 257,268. and to quit her hufband’s houfe; and, preferving the dignity 
Plate X. fig. 8. and XI. 30, 31. of her dation, devoted herfelf to the education of her 
GCTAN'GULAR, adj. Having eight angles. 
OCTAN'GULARNESS, f. The quality of having eight 
angles. 
OC'TANT, f. The eighth part of a circle. The name 
of a nautical indrument. 
OC'TAPLA, [from or.ra, Gr. eight, q.d. fomething with 
eight rows or columns.] A term in facred literature, 
ufed for a kind of ancient Polyglot Bible, confiding of 
eight columns. In the fird column was the Hebrew text 
in Hebrew characters; in the fecond, the fame text in 
Greek characters; in the third, the Greek verfion of 
A.quiia; in the fourth, that of Symmachus ; in the fifth, 
the Septuagint; in the fixth, that of Theodotion, &c. 
Origen was the author of the oftapla, as well as of the 
tetrapla and hexapla. 
OCTARA'RO CREE'K, a river of Pennfylvania, 
which runs into the Sufquehannah in lat. 39.40. N. Ion. 
76. 12. W. 
OC'TATEUCLI, f. [from the Gr. cxru, eight, and 
-ret a wor k-] A name for the eight fird books of the 
old Tedament.—Procopius of Gaza has ten commen¬ 
taries on the odateuch. Chambers. —Not unlike unto that 
f dy’le] ofTheodoret in his quedions upon the odoteuch. 
Hanmer's View of Antiq. 1677. 
OC'TAVE, J'. [Fr. odavus, Lat.J The eighth day after 
fome peculiar fedival.—It was a cudom among the primi¬ 
tive Chridians, to obferve the odave or eighth day after 
their principal leads with great folemnity. Wheatly on the 
Common Prayer. —Eight days together after a fefti- 
vai.—Celedine granted from the fead, and in the odc.vss, 
every day, thirty thoufand yeares of pardon! Fullie 
againjl Allen, 1580.—An eighth, or an interval of eight 
founds. See the article Music.—Although the fame notes 
in the diderent odaves are in reality uniibnous, yet there 
is a variety of tones in treble, contratenor, tenor, and 
bafs, voices, which, when combined in a numerous cho¬ 
rus, produces an effeCl of a noble if not a fublime kind, 
that mud be felt rather than defcribed. Mafoti on Church 
Miitfte. 
OC'TAVE, adj. Denoting eight.—Boccace particularly 
is faid to have invented the octave rhyme, or danza of eight 
lines. Dryden. 
OCTA'VIA, a Roman lady didinguiflied for her vir¬ 
tues and accomplifhments, was the daughter of Caius 
OCtavius, father of the emperor Augudus. According 
to Suetonius, die had the fame mother with that emperor ; 
but Plutarch makes her the daughter of a former wife of 
her father’s. She was fird married to Claudius Marcellus, 
by whom the had a fon and two daughters. In her wi¬ 
dowhood die w-as given to the triumvir Mark Antony, as 
the medium of reconciliation between him and her bro¬ 
ther, after the fird difference between them. She was at 
that time beautiful in her perfon, univerfally edeemed for 
her conduct, and tenderly beloved by her brother. An¬ 
tony had already been captivated by the allurements of 
Cleopatra; but the merits of Oftavia feemed to make a 
proper impredion upon him, and he palled fome time in 
conjugal union with her, during which die bore him two 
daughters. She accompanied him to Greece; and, when 
fome new mifunderdandings had arifen between her huf- 
band and brother, die employed her influence with both, fo 
as to redore an apparent concord. OCtavia returned to 
Rome, while Antony went into the Ead, where he had 
another interview with Cleopatra, which rivetted his fet¬ 
ters, and fealed his fate. OCtavia was foon apprifed of his 
infidelity; but, refolved on her part to omit no duty of 
a faithful wife, (he collected considerable fupplies for the 
war in which he was engaged, and failed with them to 
Athens. She there received orders from her hufband to 
advance no farther; and, defpairing of a renewal of his 
affection, die returned to Rome. Her brother was ex¬ 
children, bellowing no lefs care on thofe of Antony by 
Fulvia than on her own. She kindly entertained all her 
hufband’s friends wdio were fent to Rome on bufinefs, 
and ufed her bed endeavours to promote his intered. 
But his infatuation not only rendered him infenfible to 
thefe fervices, but puflied him on to an open difiolution 
of their union. He fent emiflaries to turn OClavia out 
of his houfe, folemnly divorced her, and married Cleo¬ 
patra. The Roman people w'ere not lefs indignant than 
her brother at this profligate conduct; whild Oftavia her¬ 
felf chiefly lamented that lhe fliould become one of the 
caufes of a civil war. 
After the death of Antony, OClavia gave a proof of 
the goodnefs of her heart which could lcarcely be fur- 
palled ; for die undertook the care even of his children 
by Cleopatra, and married the daughter to Juba king of 
Mauritania. Her own fon by Marcellus, of the fame 
name, lived to be the hope of the empire, the intended 
heir of Augudus, and the darling of the Roman people. 
His untimely death threw her into a date of deje&ion 
and defpair from w-hich fne never recovered. The anec¬ 
dote recorded by Servius, of the effeCt upon her of Virgil’s 
beautiful lines in commemoration of that lamented youth, 
is highly charafteriftic of a mother’s feelings. When the 
poet, reciting them in her prefence, came to the name of 
Marcellus, fo artfully fupprelfed to make the clofe and 
climax of the paffage, OClavia fainted away. On her re¬ 
covery, the expreffed her gratitude for fo noble an eflort 
of genius conlecrated to her forrow, by a recompenfe 
more munificent than perhaps was ever before received 
for the fame number of lines. She furvived this lofs 
twelve years, the whole of which die fpent in mourning, 
receiving no confoiation from her other children, though 
nobly allied, and the mothers of flourifhing families, but 
remained plunged in darknefs and folitude. From the 
relation of Seneca, her grief exceeded all reafonable 
bounds, and made her unjuft to all who were more fortu¬ 
nate than herfelf. Her weaknefs in this point was the 
only blemilh of a character otherwife fo eftimable and ex- " 
emplary. She died B.C. 11 ; and extraordinary honours 
were paid to her memory by her brother and the lenate. 
Three Roman emperors delcended from her blood. Sue¬ 
tonius in Avguft. Plularchi Vit. 31 . Anton. Senecce CouJ'ol. 
ad Marc. 
OCTAVIA'NUS, or Octavius Ctesar, was nephew 
of Julius Ceefar the dictator, being the fon of Accia, his 
After by Octavius, a fenator; and afterwards became empe¬ 
ror of Rome, under the name of Auguftus. See the ar¬ 
ticle Rome. 
OCTA'VO, f. [Latin.] A book is faid to be in oflaw 
when a Iheet is folded into eight leaves.—Folios, quartos, 
odavos, and duodecimos ! ungrateful variets that you are, 
who have fo long taken up my houfe without paying for 
your lodging ! Pope's Acc. of Curl. 
OCTAVI'NA, or Oc'teline, f in the Italian imific, 
a kind of fmall fpinet, eafily moved, having perhaps not 
more than three octaves, the common ones extending to 
five. 
OCTAVON', or Octavo'ne, /. [French.] Any male 
or female that is born of a quarteron and a white woman, 
or of a wdiite man and a quarterone. 
OCTEN'NIAL, adj. Happening every eighth year.— 
Lafting eight years. 
OC'TEVILLE, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Seine : three miles weft of Montvilliers. 
OC'TILE, adj. in aftrology, is, when a planet is in fuch 
an alpeft or petition with refpedt to another, that theft- 
places are only diftant an eighth part of a circle, or forty- 
five degrees. 
OCTO'BER, in chronology, was the eighth month in 
the Alban year and in that of Romuius, whence the name 
it 
