Gaius Julius Caesar was the name of several members of the gens Julia in ancient Rome. It was the full name (tria nomina) of the dictator Julius Caesar, as well as other prominent men of the Roman Republic, including the dictator's father and grandfather. Gaius was one of the three praenomina regularly used by the Julii Caesares, the others being Lucius and Sextus.
Livy mentions a senator named Gaius Julius who wrote a Roman history in Greek about 143 BC. Given the time period, he would probably have been one of the Julii Caesares, most probably a brother of the Sextus Julius Caesar who was consul in 157, and the great-grandfather of the dictator. This is how Drumann regarded the dictator's most likely descent.
The grandfather of the dictator is relatively unknown; he might have been the same Julius Caesar who died while praetor urbanus. Nothing is known of the career of Gaius Julius Caesar, except that he can possibly be identified with a praetor who died suddenly at Rome, according to Pliny; but that may instead have been the Lucius Julius Caesar who held that office in 166 BC. We know that the dictator's paternal grandmother was named Marcia, and that through her the family traced its descent from Ancus Marcius, the fourth King of Rome.
Gaius and Marcia had at least three children: Gaius Julius Caesar, father of the dictator; Sextus Julius Caesar, consul in 91 BC, and Julia, who married the great general Gaius Marius.