This chapter discusses the sharp distinction between the Flavian present and the Julio-Claudian past through an analysis of the pseudo-Senecan Octavia. Historical events no less than fiction provide scintillating material, especially the surviving historiographical accounts of Nero’s attempt to drown his mother Agrippina in the Bay of Naples and her subsequent murder which is poetically transformed in the variant versions of the tragedy in Martial 4.63 and the anonymous Octavia (309–76, 598–613): both exploit Nero’s reputation for attempting to control nature with aquatic engineering and a personified Campania’s loyalty to Agrippina rather than to her son. In the Octavia, the pathos of Agrippina struggling vainly against mountainous Campanian waves runs counter to Tacitus’ report of a calm sea, whereas Martial, who adheres to the historiographic account, cites the defiance of the waves in refusing to comply with the attempted murder.