She was gentle, affectionate, and kind, a lover of peace and harmony, and not at all disposed, like Fulvia, to assert and maintain her influence over others by an overbearing and violent demeanor.

Octavia's husband died about this time, and, in the course of the movements and negotiations between Antony and Octavius, the plan was proposed of a marriage between Antony and Octavia, which, it was thought, would ratify and confirm the reconciliation.

This proposal was finally agreed upon, Antony was glad to find so easy a mode of settling his difficulties.

The people of Rome, too, and the authorities there, knowing that the peace of the world depended upon the terms on which these two men stood with regard to each other, were extremely desirous that this arrangement should be carried into effect.

There was a law of the commonwealth forbidding the marriage of a widow within a specified period after the death of her husband.
That period had not, in Octavia's case, yet expired.