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Chapter Three of my 'I've been everywhere, man' series
Some of my past lifetime recollections
brought back to life for you
Image of Julia Caesar from 'Caesar' 2002
Julia (c. 76–54 BC) was Julius Caesar's only legitimate child to survive to adulthood. Her marriage to Caesar's ally Pompeius was an important familial link within the First Triumvirate, and her death in childbirth in 54 BC was one of the events that led to the unraveling of the alliance.
So I'm publishing Chapter Three before Chapter Two, but that's ok! Still working on my Kösem Memoirs, a very profound journey indeed.
This article about Julia Caesar fell across my desktop a few days ago as I researched the Ottoman Empire in the time of Kösem, and although I'd never heard of her before that day, all I could say was a big "Yes!" in response. I remember.
The article has already been written by another, so I'm forwarding it to you all, with many thanks to the author, and gratitude for the abundance of the Universe and God's grace in always providing me with all the information I need - and more!
Julia (c. 82 BC or c. 76 BC–54 BC) was the daughter of Roman dictator Julius Caesar by his first or second wife Cornelia, and his only child from his marriages. Julia became the fourth wife of Pompey the Great and was renowned for her beauty and virtue. Julia was born around 76 BC. Her mother died in 69 BC when Julia was only seven years old, after which she was raised by her paternal grandmother Aurelia Cotta.
Her father engaged her to Quintus Servilius Caepio, who was the brother of Caesar's long-time mistress Servilia.
The notion that it could have been Marcus Junius Brutus (Caesar's most famous assassin), who, after being adopted by his uncle, was known as Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus for an unknown period of time, is just a conjecture.
Caesar broke off this engagement and married her to Pompey in April 59 BC, with whom Caesar sought a strong political alliance in forming the First Triumvirate.
This family-alliance of its two great chiefs was regarded as the firmest bond between Caesar and Pompey, and was accordingly viewed with much alarm by the optimates (the oligarchal party in Rome), especially by Marcus Tullius Cicero and Cato the Younger.
Pompey was supposedly infatuated with his bride.
The personal charms of Julia were remarkable: she was a kind woman of beauty and virtue; and although policy prompted her union, and she was thirty years younger than her husband, she possessed in Pompey a devoted husband, to whom she was, in return, devotedly attached.
A rumor suggested that the middle aged conqueror was losing interest in politics in favor of domestic life with his young wife.
In fact, Pompey had been given the governorship of Hispania Ulterior, but had been permitted to remain in Rome to oversee the Roman grain supply as curator annonae, exercising his command through subordinates
Julia died before a breach between her husband and father had become inevitable.At the election of aediles in 55 BC, Pompey was surrounded by a tumultuous mob, and his gown was sprinkled with blood of the rioters.
A slave carried the stained toga to his house on the Carinae and was seen by Julia. Imagining her husband was slain, she fell into premature labor, and her constitution received an irreparable shock.
In August of the next year, 54 BC, she died in childbirth, and her infant—a son, according to some writers,a daughter, according to others—did not survive and died along with Julia. Caesar was in Britain, according to Seneca,when he received the tidings of Julia's death. 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 (Campus Martius).
For permission a special decree of the senate was necessary, and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, one of the consuls of 54 BC, impelled by his hatred for 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 field of Mars.
Ten years later the official pyre for Caesar's cremation would be erected near the tomb of his daughter, but the people intervened after the funeral oration by Marcus Antonius and cremated Caesar's body in the Forum.
After Julia’s death, Pompey and Caesar’s alliance began to fade, which resulted in Caesar's civil war.
It was allegedly remarked, as a singular omen, that on the day Augustus entered Rome as Caesar's adoptive son (in May 44 BC), the monument of Julia was struck by lightning.
Caesar himself vowed a ceremony to her Manes (spirits of the dead), which he exhibited in 46 BC as extensive funeral games including gladiatorial combats.The date of the ceremony was chosen to coincide with the ludi Veneris Genetricis on September 26,the festival in honor of Venus Genetrix, the divine ancestress of the Julians.
"To stand upon my kingdom once again."
All photos are images of Julia Caesar from the 'Caesar' series, 2002
SOURCES
FURTHER SOURCES
Tracing the Julii Lineage
Click on gold headline for the entire write-up
The gens Julia was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator and grand uncle of the emperor Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century AD. The nomen Julius became very common in imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.
Origin
The Julii were of Alban origin
The Albans were Latins from the ancient city of Alba Longa, southeast of Rome.
The Latins (Latin: Latini), sometimes known as the Latians, were an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome (see Roman people). From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to the Romans as Old Latium (in Latin Latium vetus), that is, the area between the river Tiber and the promontory of Mount Circeo 100 km (62 mi) southeast of Rome. Following the Roman expansion, the Latins spread into the Latium adiectum, inhabited by Osco-Umbrian peoples.
The Italic peoples were an ethnolinguistic group identified by their use of Italic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
The Italic peoples are descended from the Indo-European speaking peoples who inhabited Italy from at least the second millennium BC onwards. Latins achieved a dominant position among these tribes, establishing ancient Roman civilization. During this development, other Italic tribes adopted Latin language and culture in a process known as Romanization. This process was eventually extended to certain parts of Europe. The ethnic groups which emerged as a result are known as Romance peoples.
My forthcoming Kösem past-life Memoirs are coming to you in three parts. Part One is already published:
Coming very soon:
Part Two:
Kösem: Anastasia the Child
and Part Three:
Kösem: Woman. Mother. And Queen
Image from 'The Magnificent Century: Kösem' series
Other writings on my past lifetime memories:
If you're enjoying this series, stay tuned for more!
