It is not probable that Antony felt any very strong affection for his new wife, beautiful and gentle as she was.  A man, in fact, who had led such a life as his had been, must have become by this time incapable of any strong and pure attachment.  He, however, was pleased with the novelty of his acquisition, and seemed to forget for a time the loss of Cleopatra.  He remained with Octavia a year.  After that he went away on certain military enterprises which kept him some time from her.  He returned again, and again he went away.  All this time Octavia’s influence over him and over her brother was of the most salutary and excellent character.  She soothed their animosities, quieted their suspicions and jealousies, and at one time, when they were on the brink of open war, she effected a reconciliation between them by the most courageous and energetic, and at the same time, gentle and unassuming efforts.  At the time of this danger she was with her husband in Greece; but she persuaded him to send her to her brother at Rome, saying that she was confident that she could arrange a settlement of the difficulties impending.  Antony allowed her to go.  She proceeded to Rome, and procured an interview with her brother in the presence of his two principal officers of state.  Here she pleaded her husband’s cause with tears in her eyes; she defended his conduct, explained what seemed to be against him, and entreated her brother not to take such a course as should cast her down from being the happiest of women to being the most miserable.  “Consider the circumstances of my case,” said she.  “The eyes of the world are upon me.  Of the two most powerful men in the world, I am the wife of one and the sister of another.  If you allow rash counsels to go on and war to ensue, I am hopelessly ruined; for, whichever is conquered, my husband or my brother, my own happiness will be for ever gone.”

Octavius sincerely loved his sister, and he was so far softened by her entreaties that he consented to appoint an interview with Antony in order to see if their difficulties could be settled.  This interview was accordingly held.  The two generals came to a river, where, at the opposite banks, each embarked in a boat, and, being rowed out toward each other, they met in the middle of the stream.  A conference ensued, at which all the questions at issue were, for a time at least, very happily arranged.

Antony, however, after a time, began to become tired of his wife, and to sigh for Cleopatra once more.  He left Octavia at Rome and proceeded to the eastward, under pretense of attending to the affairs of that portion of the empire; but, instead of doing this, he went to Alexandria, and there renewed again his former intimacy with the Egyptian queen.