To confirm their uneasy alliance Antony marries Octavius Caesar's sister, Octavia, however his interests lie in Egypt with Cleopatra and in the unsuccessful attempts to conquer new territory. As tensions increase, Antony seeks to engage Octavius Caesar in civil war, however he loses the Battle of Actium and commits suicide shortly thereafter. Octavius Caesar has both Caesarion (Caesar's son with Cleopatra) and Marcus Antonius Antyllus (Mark Antony's son and official heir), both only 17, assassinated. At the age of 33, Octavius Caesar has now consolidated power. He is given the title Augustus. Now comfortably in power, Octavius Caesar spends most of his time defending the borders of his empire. He enjoys a happy marriage with his third wife, Livia, and leaves her in charge of rearing his only biological daughter, Julia. Unlike other women of her era, Octavius Caesar insists on giving his daughter an education closer to that of a male child. When Julia is only 14, Octavius Caesar becomes severely ill. Fearing death, and desperate to protect the line of succession he marries Julia to her cousin, and his niece to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Octavius Caesar manages to survive the sickness but it in turn kills Julia's husband. Once again seeking to protect his plans of succession he has his niece divorce Agrippa and the now widowed Julia marry him. The political maneuverings put Octavius Caesar at odds with his sister, Octavia, and his wife, Livia, who had hoped that Julia would marry her son from her first marriage, Tiberius. As their marriage breaks down, Octavius takes his friend Maecenas's wife as a mistress. In the meantime, Julia bears her husband a son and heir. At the age of 21 she begins to realize the great power she has as the daughter of an emperor and mother of a presumed emperor. She joins her father and husband on a tour of their territories but is called back by her father in shame when it becomes known that she has been named a goddess and engaged in strange sexual rituals on the island of Lesbos. In her late 30s Julia begins an affair with her cousin's husband, Iullus Antonius, the son of Mark Antony. Her husband and father tolerate the affair, however it is discovered by Octavius Caesar that Iullus Antonius, along with several of Julia's former lovers, had been plotting to kill him and her husband, Tiberius and