hey if you want I'd like to hear your thoughts on how Octavian wasn't as power hungry as people make him out to be
So, I think I can break it down into three main reasons.
1: He could have lied but didn’t.
As mentioned in my previous post, he could easily have lied about what the gods wanted. Even if no one would believe him if he straight up said “Jupiter thinks I should become praetor, and Jupiter also thinks that there should only be one praetor, which should be me”, he could easily have lied and told Reyna the gods demanded an election. But he didn’t; he respected her decision to not hold an election. He didn’t agree with her, and I personally believe he was right in not agreeing with her, but he accepted that (as praetor) her word was final.
2: He could have convinced the legion that they needed an election.
He could have used the argument that Reyna herself was power hungry in that she refused to share her power with a second praetor.
He was pretty much the only candidate (before Percy returned from the quest), so if he had succeeded in convincing her to hold an election, he would have almost definitely become praetor. It couldn’t have been too difficult for him either- it was implied in Mark of Athena that Octavian was capable of “[whipping] the legion into a frenzy”.
“Reyna’s voice was as hard as iron. “What choice have you left me? Octavian smells blood. He’s whipped the legion into a frenzy, and I can’t stop it.”
Octavian managed to extract such feelings from the legion that even Reyna, powerful as she was, couldn’t stop. Of course, the legion had the attack on their home to add to the feeling, but if Octavian had convinced them that Reyna was power hungry and refused to share her power with a second praetor, he could have probably gotten a similar reaction.
But he kept his mouth shut and respected the praetor’s decision.
3: He genuinely seemed to want what was best for Rome.
When he was first wary of the Greeks when they landed at the start of MoA, he was probably wary because he knew Greeks were longtime enemies of Romans, and he was afraid the Greeks would do something to New Rome, Camp Jupiter or the people that resided in both those places. Leo only confirmed what he already suspected.
There is also the possibility that he had already seen what was coming (i. e. he had known that Leo would attack Rome) but a) he knew fate could not be avoided, or b) he didn’t think Reyna would trust him because he had already shown hatred towards Percy and the Greeks and he thought she would assume he was lying to get his way. I am inclined towards the latter, although both could possibly be the case.
Going back to my first point, I think he didn’t lie because he knew that lying would not be what was best for Rome, and at the end of the day, safety and prosperity for Rome was what he wanted, not power.
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