Julia (daughter of Julius Caesar)

Julia Caesaris (Classical Latin: IVLIA•CAESARIS), 83 or 82 BC-54 BC, was the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar the dictator, by his first wife, Cornelia Cinna, and his only child in marriage. [Tacitus, "Annals", iii. 6.] Julia became the fourth wife of Pompey the Great and was renowned for her beauty and virtue.

Life

Julia was born around 83 BC–82 BC.William Smith (ed.), "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology", 1870.] After her mother died in childbirth around 69 BC [Matthias Gelzer, "Caesar, Politician and Statesman", (translated by Peter Needham), Oxford, 1968; Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton, "Magistrates of the Roman Republic", vol. 2, 132, New York, (1951-1986). Gelzer quotes Broughton to assert that Caesar was quaestor in 69. Gelzer then explains that Caesar, after taking on his place of duty, delivered an oration in praise of his aunt Julia. Shortly after this, his wife died too.] –68 BC, she was raised by her paternal grandmother Aurelia Cotta. Her father wanted her to marry Faustus Cornelius Sulla (the eldest surviving son of the Roman Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla), but instead she got engaged to a certain Quintus Servilius Caepio, likely the Brutus who later assassinated Caesar. [This Quintus Servilius Caepio could have been Marcus Junius Brutus (Caesar's most famous assassin) who after adopted by his uncle Quintus Servilius Caepio, was known as Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus for an unknown period of time.] Caesar broke off this engagement and married her to Pompey in April 59 BC, with whom Caesar sought a strong political alliance in forming the First Triumvirate. This family-alliance of its two great chiefs was regarded as the firmest bond between Caesar and Pompey, and was accordingly viewed with much alarm by the "optimates" (the oligarchal party in Rome), especially by Marcus Tullius Cicero and Cato the Younger. [Cicero, "Letters to Atticus", ii. 17, viii. 3. ] [Plutarch, "Life of Caesar", 14; "Pompey", 48; "Cato the Younger", 31.] [Appian, "Civil Wars", ii. 14.] [Suetonius, "Life of Julius Caesar", 50.] [Dio Cassius, xxxviii. 8.] [Gellius, iv. 10. § 5.] [Augustine of Hippo, "The city of God", iii. 13.]

Pompey was supposedly infatuated with his bride. The personal charms of Julia were remarkable: she was a woman of beauty and virtue; and although policy prompted her union, and she was twenty-three years younger than her husband, she pos­sessed in Pompey a devoted husband, to whom she was, in return, devotedly attached. [Plutarch, "Life of Pompey", 48.] A rumor suggested that the aging conqueror was losing interest in politics in favor of domestic life with his young wife. In fact, Pompey had been given the governorship of Hispania Ulterior, but had been permitted to remain in Rome to oversee the Roman grain supply as "curator annonae", exercising his command through subordinates. [Plutarch, "Life of Pompey", 53.]

Julia died before a breach between her husband and father had become inevitable. [Velleius Paterculus, ii. 44, 47.] [Florus, iv. 2. 13.] [Plutarch, "Life of Pompey", 53.] [Lucanus, i. 113.] At the election of aediles in 55 BC, Pompey was surrounded by a tumultuous mob, and his gown was sprinkled with blood of the rioters. A slave carried the stained toga to his house on the Carinae and was seen by Julia. Imagining that her husband was slain, she fell into premature labour, [Valerius Maximus, "Memorable Deeds and Sayings", iv. 6. § 4.] [Plutarch, "Life of Pompey", 53.] and her constitution received an irreparable shock. In August of the next year, 54 BC, she died in childbed, [William Smith (ed.), "A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography", 1851.] and her infant —a son, according to some writers, [Velleius Paterculus, ii. 47.] [Suetonius, "Life of Julius Caesar", 26.] [Lucanus, v. 474, ix. 1049.] a daughter, according to others, [Plutarch, "Life of Pompey", 53.] [Dio Cassius, xxxix. 64.] —survived her only a few days. [Dio Cassius, xl. 44.] Caesar was in Britain, according to Seneca, [Seneca, "To Marcia, On consolation", xiv. 3.] when he received the tidings of Julia's death. [Cicero, "Oration for Publius Quinctius", iii. 1; "Letters to Atticus", iv. 17.]

Pompey wished her ashes to repose in his favourite Alban villa, but the Roman people, who loved Julia, determined they should rest in the field of Mars ("Campus Martius"). For permission a special decree of the senate was necessary, and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, one of the consuls of 54 BC, impelled by his hatred to Pompey and Caesar, procured an interdict from the tribunes. But the popular will prevailed, and, after listening to a funeral oration [In Latin: "laudatio funebris".] in the forum, the people placed her urn in the field of Mars. [Dio Cassius, xxxix. 64; xlviii. 53.] Ten years later the official pyre for Caesar's cremation would be erected near the tomb of his daughter, [Suetonius, "Life of Julius Caesar", 84.] [Livy, "Ad urbe condita" preserved by a 4th century summary entitled "Periochae", cxvi. 6. ] but the people intervened after the funeral oration by Marcus Antonius and cremated Caesar's body in the Forum.

After Julia’s death Pompey and Caesar’s alliance began to fade which resulted in Caesar's civil war. It was remarked, as a singular omen, that on the day Augustus entered the city as Caesar's adoptive son, the monument of Julia was struck by lightning. [Suetonius, "Life of Augustus", 95; "Life of Julius Caesar ", 84.] Caesar himself vowed a ceremony to her manes, which he exhibited in 46 BC as extensive funeral games including gladiatorial combats. [Dio Cassius, xliii. 22.] [Suetonius, "Life of Julius Caesar", 26.] [Plutarch, "Life of Caesar ", 55.] The date of the ceremony was chosen to coincide with the "ludi Veneris Genetricis" in September 26, [John T. Ramsey, A. Lewis Licht, " [http://books.google.com/books?q=The+Comet+of+44+B.C.+and+Caesar%27s+Funeral+Games|The Comet of 44 B.C. and Caesar's Funeral Games] ", appendix III, Oxford University Press US, 1997.] the festival in honor of Venus Genetrix, the divine ancestress of the Julians. [Octavian followed this precedent in 44 BC by staging the "ludi funebres" for Caesar while simultaneously moving the "ludi Veneris Genetricis" from September to July.]

Chronology

*83 BC–82 BC — Julia's birth
*69 BC–68 BC — Cornelia Cinna (Julia's mother and Caesar's first wife) dies in childbirth
*59 BC — marriage to Pompey
*55 BC — Julia has a miscarriage
*54 BC — Julia dies in childbed, her child only survives a few days

Cultural depictions of Julia

Fiction

* In Dante Alighieri's epic poem "The Divine Comedy" (14th century), Julia was encountered by Dante in the first circle of Hell, the "Limbo" (where rest souls who are not in torture, the pagans that lived righteous existences): [Dante Alighieri, "The Divine Comedy", Inferno Canto IV, 24, 45 and 128, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.]

:: [...] The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss. [...] :: [...] I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended. [...] :: [...] Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia, [...]

Television

* In "Julius Caesar" (2002 television movie), the role of young Julia is played by Alexandra Morris, [ [http://tv.yahoo.com/caesar/show/501/castcrew Caesar Cast & Crew - Yahoo! TV] ] [ [http://www.peplums.info/pep19.htm PEPLUM - Jules Cesar (DVD)] ] while the role of grown-up Julia is played by Italian actress Nicole Grimaudo. [imdb title|id=0284741|title=Julius Caesar (2002)(TV) Retrieved July 15, 2006.]
* Julia's death is portrayed in the premiere episode of HBO's 2005 television series "Rome". However, Julia actually died in childbirth in 54 BC, at least 2 years before the events of this episode.

Notes

References

Primary sources

* Livy, "Periochae".
* Tacitus, "Annals".
* Appian, "Civil Wars".
* Cicero
** "Letters to Atticus".
**"Oration for Publius Quinctius".
*Plutarch, "Parallel Lives
** "Life of Caesar".
** "Life of Pompey".
** "Life of Cato the Younger".
* Suetonius, "Life of Julius Caesar".
* Seneca, "To Marcia, On consolation".
* Augustine of Hippo, "The city of God".
* Valerius Maximus, "Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri iv.6.4"

econdary sources

* "This entry incorporates public domain text originally from:"
** William Smith (ed.), "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology", 1870.
** William Smith (ed.), "A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography", 1851.
* Dante Alighieri, "The Divine Comedy", translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.
* Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton, "Magistrates of the Roman Republic", vol. 2, 132, New York, (1951-1986).
* Matthias Gelzer, "Caesar, Politician and Statesman", (translated by Peter Needham), Oxford, 1968.
* John T. Ramsey, A. Lewis Licht, " [http://books.google.com/books?q=The+Comet+of+44+B.C.+and+Caesar%27s+Funeral+Games|The Comet of 44 B.C. and Caesar's Funeral Games] ", Oxford University Press US, 1997.