Julia ( – 69 BC) was the wife of the Roman consul Gaius Marius and a paternal aunt of future

Roman dictator A Roman dictator was an extraordinary Roman magistrate, 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 oth ...

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 ...

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 Gaius Marius. They had a son, Gaius Marius the Younger.

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

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 () was the highest and constituting assembly of ancient Rome and its aristocracy. With different powers throughout its existence it lasted from the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC) as the Sena ...

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 Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (, ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman of the late Roman Republic. A great commander and ruthless politician, Sulla used violence to advance his career and his co ...

's persecutions against Marius himself and his allies. Julia died in 69 BC and received a devoted funeral eulogy from her nephew

, before he left to serve under Gaius Antistius Vetus in

Hispania Ulterior Hispania Ulterior (English: "Further Hispania", or occasionally "Thither Hispania") was a Roman province located in Hispania (on the Iberian Peninsula) during the Roman Republic, roughly located in Baetica and in the Guadalquivir valley of moder ...

.Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', "(The Life of) (Julius) Caesar", V; Also:

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 ''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'' or ''The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 Roman Emperor, emperors of the Roma ...

'', "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, and the Julii, the family of which ours is a branch, to
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
. 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

Bibliography

* * *

External links

*
Livius.org: Julia
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601210427/http://www.livius.org/jo-jz/julia/julia01.html , date=2013-06-01 130s BC births 69 BC deaths 2nd-century BC Roman women 1st-century BC Roman women 1st-century BC Romans Julii Caesares Gaius Marius

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography

External links