- Pompeia (wife of Julius Caesar)
"For other Roman Women with this name, see
Pompeia ."Pompeia (flourished
1st century BC ), daughter of Quintus Pompeius Rufus, a son of a former consul, and Cornelia, the daughter of theRoman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla , was the second wife ofJulius Caesar .Caesar married her in 67 BC,Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth- E.A. (edd),
Oxford Classical Dictionary ,Oxford University Press , 2003- | 1214.] after he had served asquaestor inHispania , his first wife Cornelia having died the previous year. [Plutarch , "Caesar" [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#5.6 5.6] ] Caesar was the nephew ofGaius Marius , and Cornelia had been the daughter ofLucius Cornelius Cinna : Marius and Cinna were the leaders of the losing "populares " side in the civil war of the 80s BC. His marriage to a granddaughter of Sulla, the winner of that war, perhaps signifies his acceptance into the establishment of Roman politics.In 63 BC Caesar was elected to the position of
Pontifex Maximus , the chief priest of the Roman state religion, which came with an official residence on the "Via Sacra " [Plutarch, "Caesar" [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#7 7] ;Suetonius , "Julius" [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html#13 13] , [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html#46 46] ] . In 62 BC Pompeia hosted the festival of theBona Dea ("good goddess"), which no man was permitted to attend, in this house. However a young patrician namedPublius Clodius Pulcher managed to gain admittance disguised as a woman, apparently for the purpose of seducing Pompeia. He was caught and prosecuted forsacrilege . Caesar gave no evidence against Clodius at his trial, and he was acquitted. Nevertheless, Caesar divorced Pompeia, saying that "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion." [Cicero , "Letters to Atticus" ; Plutarch, "Caesar" [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#9 9-10] ;Cassius Dio , "Roman History" [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/37*.html#45 37.45] ; Suetonius, "Julius" [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html#6.2 6.2] ]Fiction
Pompeia was featured in the
Epistolary novel "Ides of March" byThornton Wilder . The novel mentions the above events, though it transplants them to a short time before the assassination of Julius Caesar.References
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