Julia | |
---|---|
Born | 101 B.C. Rome |
Died | 51 B.C. |
Spouse | Marcus Atius Balbus |
Issue | Atia Balba Prima Atia Balba Caesonia Atia Balba Tertia (?) |
Father | Gaius Julius Caesar |
Mother | Aurelia Cotta |
Julia, also known as Julia Minor and Julia the Younger, (101–51 BC) was the second of two daughters of Gaius Julius Caesar and Aurelia Cotta. She is best known as the sister of the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar, and the maternal grandmother of Augustus.
Julia and her siblings were born and raised at Rome. Because Roman daughters typically received praenomina only if they had several elder sisters, the elder sister came to be known as "Julia Major", and the younger as "Julia Minor", when it was necessary to distinguish between them.
It is not known if it was the elder or the younger of the dictator's sisters who gave evidence against Publius Clodius Pulcher when he was impeached for impiety in 61 BC. Julia and her mother gave the legal courts a detailed account of the affair he had with Pompeia, Julius Caesar's wife. Caesar divorced Pompeia over the scandal.
Caesar's youngest sister married Marcus Atius Balbus, a praetor and commissioner who came from a senatorial family of plebeian status. Julia bore him three (or two, according to other sources) daughters. The second daughter, known as Atia Balba Caesonia was the mother of Octavia Minor (fourth wife of triumvir Mark Antony) and of first Emperor Augustus. Atia Balba Caesonia' sister, Atia Balba Prima (or Atia Balba Tertia) was the wife of Lucius Marcius Philippus. Their daughter, Marcia, later married to Paullus Fabius Maximus and bore him a son, Paullus Fabius Persicus. Fabia Numantina was either Marcia's daughter with Maximus or a daughter of his brother Africanus Fabius Maximus.