Historically the massive field

Historically the massive field that stretched from the east bank of the Tiber to the slopes of the Quirinal hill had been the principal staging ground for military exercises and the place where Roman men assembled for the census and voting. Its southern end, the Circus Flaminius, had been the site of massive displays of manubiae (battle spoils) and enormous triumphal monuments erected by victorious republican generals competing for the most impressive building (e.g., Pompey's theater, Metellus' earlier portico, and C. Octavius' portico). During the early imperial era, Augustus and members of the imperial circle replaced the fragmented, competitive identity of the region with a unified building plan whose structures complemented one another and presented a harmonious display of imperial power. Octavia's contribution to the agenda added a woman's hand to the family tree of buildings arising here. Indeed, Octavia's benefaction helped shift the character of the region from a staging ground for individual displays of power by men to a tableau of familial largesse.

Yet, perhaps due to the novelty of her unusual benefaction in a traditionally male-dominated world of architectural patronage, scholarly accounts of the portico have questioned Octavia's actual role. Modern studies often cite Augustus as author of the monument that bore his sister's name, pointing to literary sources that credit him with the erection of buildings to which he gave the names of female relatives. A passage in Augustus' Res Gestae, the autobiographical account of his life's accomplishments, has also provoked modern confusion. Here, Augustus describes his restoration of a portico called the porticus Octavia--that is, the Octavian portico, rather than the portico of Octavia--located along the Circus Flaminius. Though a seemingly innocuous difference, the implications for authorship are significant. An ancient source from the philologist Festus clarifies these ambiguities as he explains that there were two porticoes on the Circus Flaminius associated with the Octavian name: one was near the Theater of Marcellus and was built by Octavia, while the other stood near the Theater of Pompey and was built by an ancestor of Augustus, Cn. Octavius, and later rebuilt by the emperor (Festus, 188L).

Some scholars have resisted the attribution to Octavia, instead holding fast to the idea that Festus erred and that it is the later ancient authors who give the monument to Augustus--namely Suetonius and Cassius Dio--who are in fact correct. This position is problematic, for both Suetonius and Cassius Dio wrote their commentaries much later than the erection of the portico. Their attributions, then, should be used judiciously, and contemporary sources, like Festus, given greater weight. The Augustan poet Ovid provides further evidence for Octavia's patronage and adds further that she was joined by her son, Marcellus, in this effort (Ars Amatoria, 1.69-70). (32) If, as Ovid suggests, Marcellus participated in the benefaction, probably in its early years, then it is likely that he and Octavia first worked on the project jointly, but that she added the libraries and meeting hall after his premature death. In fact, evidence for comparable mother/son collaborations existed in some of the most notable benefactions by women in the Augustan era, such as Empress Livia's porticus Liviae in Rome carried out with her son Tiberius, or the famous colonnaded building in Pompeii paid for by the priestess Eumachia and dedicated in her own name and her son's. In both examples, scholars have interpreted the joint benefaction as a means by which a publicly prominent mother lent political support to her son. (34) Such was probably the case with Octavia, who was no doubt interested in promoting her son's future in the imperial lineup.