Its first attested member was a Gaius Octavius Rufus, whose two sons founded the two branches of the gens, but the second one, to which later belonged Octavian (the future first Roman emperor Augustus), received much less honours during the Republic.
Cicero tells that Octavius's and Hypsaeus's introductory speeches were so bad that Crassus mocked them.
[6] Scholars writing after Badian mostly agree with him, but they are unable to connect the consul of 87 with the other members of the family.
[15][16] Badian notes that Octavius still had a son named Gnaeus, but he did not leave any mark in history, or perhaps died young.
A second known son was Marcus Octavius; as tribune of the plebs between 99 and 85, he repealed the law of Gaius Gracchus that had established the grain dole.
[15] Lucius and Marcus Octavius, as well as the consul of 87, all supported conservative (also described as Optimate) politics at the beginning of the first century BC.