Gaius Julius Caesar
Fantasy portrait of Caesar in the Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum
Bornc. 140 BC
Died85 BC (aged 54-55)
NationalityRoman
Office
SpouseAurelia
ChildrenJulia Major, Julia Minor and Julius Caesar
RelativesGaius Marius (Brother-in-law)

Gaius Julius Caesar (/ˈsiːzər/; Latin: [ˈɡaːiʊs ˈjuːliʊs ˈkae̯sar]; c. 140 BC – 85 BC) was a Roman senator, a supporter of his brother-in-law, Gaius Marius, and the father of Roman statesman Julius Caesar.

Biography

Caesar was married to Aurelia, a member of the Aurelii and Rutilii families. They had two daughters, known as Julia Major and Julia Minor, and Julius Caesar the dictator was born to them in 100 BC.[1] He was the brother of Sextus Julius Caesar (consul in 91 BC).[2]

Caesar's progress through the cursus honorum is well known, although the specific dates associated with his offices are controversial. According to two elogia erected in Rome long after his death, Caesar was a commissioner in the colony at Cercina, military tribune, quaestor, praetor, and propraetor of Asia.[3] The dates of these offices are unclear. The colony is probably one of Marius' of 103 BC.[4] Broughton dated the praetorship to 92 BC, with the quaestorship falling towards the beginning of the 90s BC.[5] Sumner dated his term as propraetor of Asia from sometime in 92 to at least January or February 90 BC.[6] Brennan, on the other hand, has dated the governorship to the beginning of the decade.[4]

Caesar died suddenly in 85 BC, in Rome, while putting on his shoes one morning. Another Caesar, possibly his father, had died similarly in Pisa.[7] His father had seen to his education by one of the best orators of Rome, Marcus Antonius Gnipho.[8] In his will, he left Caesar the bulk of his estate, but after Marius's faction had been defeated in the civil war of the 80s BC, this inheritance was confiscated by the dictator Sulla.[9]

Family

Julio-Claudian family tree[10][11][12][13][14][15]
Sextus Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius CaesarSextus Julius Caesar Postumus
Gaius Julius CaesarMarcia
Gaius MariusJuliaGaius Julius CaesarAureliaSextus Julius CaesarLucius Julius Caesar
3 CalpurniaJulia MajorJulia MinorMarcus Atius BalbusSextus Julius CaesarLucius Julius Caesar
2 PompeiaGaius Julius CaesarGaius OctaviusAtiaSextus Julius Caesar
1 Cornelia (wife of Caesar)Marcus Antonius CreticusJulia
2 PompeyJulia1 Gaius Claudius MarcellusOctavia Minor2 Mark Antony
2 ScriboniaGaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus (Gaius Octavius)3 Livia Drusilla Augusta[13][14]1 Tiberius Claudius Nero
1 Claudius Marcellus
2 Julia the Elder3 Tiberius Claudius Nero1 Vipsania AgrippinaDrusus the Elder[13][14]Antonia Minor
2 Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Drusus the YoungerLivilla1 Plautia Urgulanilla
Julia the YoungerGaius CaesarTiberius GemellusJulia LiviaClaudius Drusus
Agrippa PostumusLucius CaesarAgrippina the ElderGermanicus2 Claudius2 Aelia Paetina
Lucius Cassius LonginusJulia DrusillaDrusus CaesarJulia Livilla4 Agrippina the Younger1 Gnaeus Domitius AhenobarbusClaudia Antonia
Milonia CaesoniaGaius Caesar (Caligula)Nero Julius Caesar3 Valeria Messalina
1 Claudia OctaviaBritannicus
Julia Drusilla1 Otho2 Poppaea Sabina2 Nero
3 Statilia Messalina
Claudia Augusta
Legend
descent
 adoption
 marriage
 1, 2 
 spouse order

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 1, 9; Suetonius, Julius 1 Archived 2012-05-30 at archive.today, 74
  2. ↑ Broughton 1952, p. 20.
  3. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, 6.1311
  4. 1 2 Brennan 2001, p. 555.
  5. ↑ Broughton 1952, p. 17.
  6. ↑ Sumner 1978, p. 149.
  7. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Natural History 54.7
  8. ↑ Suetonius, Lives of Eminent Grammarians 7
  9. ↑ Suetonius, Julius 1 Archived 2012-05-30 at archive.today
  10. ↑ Smith 1870, Vol. 1 p. 536 ff.
  11. ↑ Napoleon III 1865, Vol. 1 p. 253
  12. ↑ Wurts 1945, Vol. 4 p. 627
  13. 1 2 3 Meijer 1990, pp. 511/532/576-577
  14. 1 2 3 Kamm 2006, pp. 156-157
  15. ↑ Griffin 2009, p. 13 ff.

References

  • Brennan, T. Corey (2001). The Praetorship in the Roman Republic Volume 2: 122 to 49 BC. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511460-4.
  • Broughton, T. Robert S. (1952). The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (PDF). Vol. 2. New York: American Philological Association.
  • Münzer, Friedrich, "Iulius 130" (in German), Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE, PW), volume X.1 (Stuttgart, 1918), columns 185–186.
  • Sumner, G.V. (1978). "Governors of Asia in the Nineties B.C." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 19 (2): 147–153.
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