A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

5. Daughter of Caesar the dictator, by Cornelia [CORNELIA, 2], and his only child in marriage (Tac. Ann. 3.6). She was born B. C. 83-82, and was betrothed to Servilius Caepio [CAEPIO, No. 14], but married Cn. Pompey, B. C. 59. This family-alliance of its two great chiefs was regarded as the firmest bond of the so-called first triumvirate, and was accordingly viewed with much alarm by the oligarchal party in Rome, especially by Cicero and Cato (Cic. Att. 2.17, 8.3; Plut. Caes. 14, Pomp. 48, Cat. Min. 31; App. BC 2.14; Suet. Jul. 50; D. C. 38.9; Gel. 4.10.5; comp. August. Civ. Dei. 3.13). The personal charms of Julia were remarkable; her talents and virtues equalled her beauty; and although policy prompted her union, and she was twentythree years younger than her husband, she possessed in Pompey a devoted husband, to whom she was, in return, devotedly attached. (Plut. Pomp. 48, 53.) It was not the least fortunate circumstance in Julia's life that she died before a breach between her husband and father had become inevitable. (Vell. 2.44, 47; Flor. 4.2.13; Plut. Pomp. 53; Lucan, 1.113.) At the election of aediles in B. C. 55, Pompey was surrounded by a tumultuous mob, and his gown was

sprinkled with blood of the rioters. The slave who carried to his house on the Carinae the stained toga was seen by Julia, who, imagining that her husband was slain, fell into premature labour (V. Max. 4.6.4; Plut. Pomp. 53), and her constitution received an irreparable shock. In the September of the next year, B. C. 54, she died in childbed, and her infant--a son, according to some writers (Vell. 2.47; Suet. Jul. 26; comp. Lucan. 5.474, 9.1049), a daughter, according to others (Plut. Pomp. 53; D. C. 39.64),-- survived her only a few days (Id. 40.44). 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. For permission a special decree of the senate was necessary, and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus [AHENOBARBUS, No. 7], one of the consuls of B. C. 54, 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 the forum, the people placed her urn in the Campus Martius. (D. C. 39.64; comp. 48.53.) 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 (Suet. Octav. 95; comp. Caes. 84). Caesar was in Britain, according to Seneca (Cons. ad Marc. 14), when he received the tidings of Julia's death. (Comp. Cic. ad Quint. fr 3.1, ad Att. 4.17.) He vowed games to her manes, which he exhibited in B. C. 46. (D. C. 43.22; Suet. Jul. 26; PIut. Caes. 55.)