Julia (c. 130 BC – 69 BC) was the wife of the Roman consul

Gaius Marius Gaius Marius (; – 13 January 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important refor ...

and a paternal aunt of future

Roman dictator A Roman dictator was an extraordinary magistrate in the Roman Republic endowed with full authority to resolve some specific problem to which he had been assigned. He received the full powers of the state, subordinating the other magistrates, con ...

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 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 a civil war, an ...

Biography

Julia was the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar and Marcia (daughter of praetor Quintus Marcius Rex). She was a sister of Gaius Julius Caesar (the father of

) and Sextus Julius Caesar, consul in 91 BC. At about 110 BC she married

. They had a son, Gaius Marius the Younger.

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

also mentions that Marius had two step-sons named Quintus Granius and Gnaeus Granius, it is possible that these men were children of Julia by an earlier marriage or step-children of Marius from a marriage to another woman before Julia. If Quintus and Gnaeus were indeed Julia's sons, then her earlier husband was likely a member of the Campanian trading family since Julia was a Patrician and would only have married someone from the Grania gens if they were very rich. According to

, it was by marrying her, a patrician woman, that the upstart Marius got the attention of the snobbish

Roman Senate The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...

and launched his political career. Julia is remembered as a virtuous woman devoted to her husband and their only child. Her reputation alone permitted her to keep her status, even after Sulla's persecutions against Marius himself and his allies. Julia died in 69 BC and received a devoted funeral eulogy from her nephew

.Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', "(The Life of) (Julius) Caesar", V; Also: Suetonius, '' The Twelve Caesars'', "I. Julius Caesar", VI:

When quaestor, he pronounced the customary orations from the rostra in praise of his aunt Julia and his wife Cornelia, who had both died. And in the eulogy of his aunt he spoke in the following terms of her paternal and maternal ancestry and that of his own father: "The family of my aunt Julia is descended by her mother from the kings, and on her father's side is akin to the immortal Gods; for the Marcii Reges (her mother's family name) go back to
Ancus Marcius Ancus Marcius was the legendary fourth king of Rome, who traditionally reigned 24 years. Upon the death of the previous king, Tullus Hostilius, the Roman Senate appointed an interrex, who in turn called a session of the assembly of the people wh ...
, and the Julii, the family of which ours is a branch, to Venus. Our stock therefore has at once the sanctity of kings, whose power is supreme among mortal men, and the claim to reverence which attaches to the Gods, who hold sway over kings themselves."

References

Sources

, '' Parallel Lives'', written approx. 75 CE: **"(The Life of) (Gaius) Marius" **
John Dryden translation at MIT classics
**

*** ttps://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Marius*.html Bernadotte Perrin (ed.) translation at LacusCurtius**"(The Life of) (Julius) Caesar" *
John Dryden translation at MIT classics
*

*

*
Bernadotte Perrin (ed.) translation at Perseus project
*
Thomas North (ed.) translation at Perseus project

External links

{{Commons category, Julia (wife of Marius)

130s BC births 69 BC deaths 2nd-century BC Roman women 1st-century BC Roman women 1st-century BC Romans Julii Caesares

Biography

See also

References

Sources

External links