Cornelia (c. 97 – c. 69 BC) was the first or second wife of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
, and the mother of his only legitimate child,
Julia
Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...
.
[Suetonius, "The Life of Caesar", 1, 5, 6.][Plutarch, "The Life of Caesar", 1, 5.][Velleius Paterculus, ii. 41.][''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, p. 854 ("Cornelia", Nos. 2, 3).] A daughter of
Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna (died 84 BC) was a four-time consul of the Roman Republic, serving four consecutive terms from 87 to 84 BC, and a member of the ancient Roman Cinna family of the Cornelia gens.
Cinna's influence in Rome exacerb ...
, Cornelia was related by birth or marriage to many of the most influential figures of the late
Republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
.
Biography
Early life
Cornelia was the daughter of
Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna (died 84 BC) was a four-time consul of the Roman Republic, serving four consecutive terms from 87 to 84 BC, and a member of the ancient Roman Cinna family of the Cornelia gens.
Cinna's influence in Rome exacerb ...
, one of the most influential politicians at Rome during the conflict between the generals
Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius (; – 13 January 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important refor ...
and
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force.
Sulla ha ...
.
He held the
consulship
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...
for a term of four consecutive years, from BC 87 to 84, when he was slain in a soldiers' mutiny. During this period, he espoused the side of Marius, leaving his family exposed to Sulla's wrath on the latter's return in 82.
[''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, pp. 754, 755 ("Cornelius Cinna", Nos. 2, 3).]
By his wife, Annia, Cinna had a son,
Lucius
Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...
, and two daughters, conventionally known as ''
Cornelia Major
Cornelia may refer to:
People
*Cornelia (name), a feminine given name
*Cornelia (gens), a Roman family
Places
*425 Cornelia, the asteroid ''Cornelia'', a main-belt asteroid
;Italy
*Cornelia (Rome Metro), an underground station on Rome Metro
*Via ...
'', who married
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, and ''Cornelia Minor'', the wife of Caesar.
The designations ''Major'' and ''Minor'' were not really part of their names, but were used to distinguish between sisters, who bore the same nomen. Since there were a great many Corneliae at Rome, Caesar's wife is occasionally referred to as ''Cornelia Cinnae'', or "Cinna's Cornelia".
Marriage
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
reports that Caesar and Cornelia were married in the consulate occurring after Caesar lost his father, which occurred in his sixteenth year.
In Suetonius' chronology, Caesar was born in 100 BC, placing the death of his father in 85 or 84. Thus, he probably married Cornelia in 83, when he was about seventeen years old, and she perhaps a little younger.
Their daughter, Julia, was Caesar's only legitimate child, and the only one he acknowledged.
The young Caesar was one of those to whom Sulla turned his attention after returning to Rome. Although he had taken no part in the government of Marius and Cinna, and done nothing to oppose Sulla's return, Caesar's aunt,
Julia
Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...
, was the wife of Marius; his cousin was the
younger Marius, who as consul in 82 was defeated by Sulla, and had taken his own life as the city fell. Marius and Cinna had appointed the young Caesar to an important priesthood, and by marrying Cinna's daughter, Caesar gained control of a substantial dowry. Sulla regarded Caesar as a potential rival, and commanded him to divorce Cornelia.
However, neither the deprivation of his priesthood, Cornelia's dowry, and his own inheritance, nor the threat of violence, would induce Caesar to forsake his wife. He was proscribed, and escaped Rome in disguise, evading capture by regularly changing his place of concealment, and on at least one occasion by bribing the commander of a patrol sent to search for Sulla's enemies. Eventually Sulla relented, following the intercession of Caesar's numerous friends and kinsmen, and Caesar returned home to Cornelia.
Death
After about thirteen years of marriage, Cornelia died early in her husband's
quaestor
A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.
In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...
ship, which occurred in BC 69 or 68. Caesar was due to depart for
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, and had already pronounced
the funeral oration of his aunt, Julia, from the
rostra
The rostra ( it, Rostri, links=no) was a large platform built in the city of Rome that stood during the republican and imperial periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the comitium towards the senate house and deli ...
, as was customary for elderly Roman matrons. He then gave an oration in honour of Cornelia, which was extraordinary in the case of a young woman, although it later became commonplace.
[''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. II, pp. 640, 641 ("Julia", Nos. 1, 5).] Historically, Cornelia is often stated to have died in childbirth, but this is not confirmed.
[Bill Yenne; ''Julius Caesar: Lessons in Leadership from the Great Conqueror'']
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
Marcus Velleius Paterculus
Marcus Velleius Paterculus (; c. 19 BC – c. AD 31) was a Roman historian, soldier and senator. His Roman history, written in a highly rhetorical style, covered the period from the end of the Trojan War to AD 30, but is most useful for the per ...
, ''Compendium of Roman History''.
*
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
us, ''
Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', commonly called ''Parallel Lives'' or ''Plutarch's Lives'', is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably writt ...
''.
*
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, ''
De Vita Caesarum
''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The g ...
'' (Lives of the Caesars, or The Twelve Caesars).
* ''
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...
'',
William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).
*
Monroe E. Deutsch
Monroe or Monroes may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Monroe (surname)
* Monroe (given name)
* James Monroe, 5th President of the United States
Places United States
* Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorporated community and census-designate ...
, "
The Women of Caesar's Family
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
", in ''
The Classical Journal
''The Classical Journal'' (CJ) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of classical studies published by the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.
Print edition
The journal currently has about 2300 subscribers, including app ...
'', vol. XIII (1918).
*
T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association (1952).
* Matthias Gelzer, ''Caesar: Politician and Statesman'', Peter Needham, translator, Oxford (1968).
*
Adrian Goldsworthy
Adrian Keith Goldsworthy (; born 1969) is a British historian and novelist who specialises in ancient Roman history.
Education
Adrian Goldsworthy attended Westbourne School, Penarth. He then read Ancient and Modern History at St John's Colleg ...
, ''Caesar, Life of a Colossus'', Yale University Press (2006).
* ''
Oxford Classical Dictionary
The ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (''OCD'') is generally considered "the best one-volume dictionary on antiquity," an encyclopædic work in English consisting of articles relating to classical antiquity and its civilizations. It was first pub ...
'', 3rd Edition, Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth, Eds., Oxford University Press (2009).
External links
{{Authority control
90s BC births
69 BC deaths
Cornelii Cinnae
Deaths in childbirth
Wives of Julius Caesar