Julia Minor (before 100 BC – 51 BC) was the second of two daughters of
Gaius Julius Caesar and
Aurelia. She was an elder sister of the dictator
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
, and the maternal grandmother of Rome's first emperor
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
.
Biography
Bona Dea scandal
It is not known if it was the elder or the younger of the dictator's sisters who gave evidence against
Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher ( – 18 January 52 BC) was a Roman politician and demagogue. A noted opponent of Cicero, he was responsible during his plebeian tribunate in 58 BC for a massive expansion of the Roman grain dole as well as Cic ...
when he was impeached for impiety in 61 BC. Julia and her mother gave the legal courts a detailed account of the affair he had with
Pompeia, Julius Caesar's wife. Caesar divorced Pompeia over the scandal.
Marriage and offspring
Julia married
Marcus Atius Balbus
Marcus Atius Balbus (105 – 51 BC) was a 1st-century BC Roman who served as a praetor in 62 BC; he was a cousin of the general Pompey on his mother's side and a brother-in-law of the Dictator Julius Caesar through his marriage to Caesar's sister ...
, a praetor and commissioner who came from a senatorial family of
plebeian
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins of the gro ...
status. Julia bore him three (or two, according to other sources) daughters and possibly a son named
Marcus Atius Balbus
Marcus Atius Balbus (105 – 51 BC) was a 1st-century BC Roman who served as a praetor in 62 BC; he was a cousin of the general Pompey on his mother's side and a brother-in-law of the Dictator Julius Caesar through his marriage to Caesar's sister ...
. The
second daughter was the mother of
Octavia Minor (fourth wife of triumvir
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...
) and of Rome’s first Emperor
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
. Her
youngest daughter was the wife of
Lucius Marcius Philippus, and they had a daughter named
Marcia.
Another Atia, who may have been her granddaughter through her son (probably from a marriage to a
Claudia) may have been married to Gaius Junius Silanus. This Atia was the mother of
Gaius Junius Silanus who became consul in AD 10. Sons of Silanus were
Appius Junius Silanus (consul in 28),
Decimus Junius Silanus (who was involved in the disgrace of
Julia the Younger
Vipsania Julia Agrippina (19 BC – c. AD 28), nicknamed Julia Minor (Classical Latin: IVLIA•MINOR) and called Julia the Younger by modern historians, was a Roman Empire, Roman noblewoman of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was emperor Augustus ...
) and
Marcus Junius Silanus (''consul suffectus'' in 15).
[ (Limited Previes]
"Atia, wife of Marcius Philippus (suff. 38 BC)"
an
"A daughter (Atia) would supply a wife for C. Silanus"
of this page in Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
)
Balbus died in 51 BC along with Julia. At age 12,
Octavius, her youngest grandson, the future Emperor Augustus, delivered her funeral oration.
References
Sources
*
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...
- The Twelve Caesars - Caesar and Augustus.
* , Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
100s BC births
51 BC deaths
2nd-century BC Roman women
1st-century BC Roman women
1st-century BC Romans
Family of Augustus
Family of Julius Caesar
Julii Caesares
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