Cossutia was a
Roman woman who became engaged to
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 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 Caesar's civil wa ...
prior to his reaching adulthood. There has been debate among historians on whether the marriage actually occurred.
Biography
Early life
Cossutia belonged to a very wealthy
equestrian family from
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
.
Caesar
Cossutia appealed to Caesar,
[ although the Cossuti were not even '' novi homines''. She was recommended to Caesar by his father and it is believed that the future dictator of Rome married Cossutia after he began wearing the ''toga virilis''.][ Both families issued coins with her image and were inscribed with ''Uxor Caesaris''. No children sprang from this relation. In 84 BC, after his father's death, Caesar left Cossutia and married Cornelia, as that was more pragmatic than the earlier relation to Cossutia.][''Women of Caesar's Family'', The Classical Journal, Volume 13, 1918, pp. 502-506.] It is also possible that Caesar chose to leave her to marry Cornelia because he had been nominated as '' Flamen Dialis'', a role which demanded marriage to a patrician via '' confarreatio''.
Later years
Cossutia perhaps died in Pisa, Italy in 84 BC.[
]
Scholarly disagreement
In the past it was commonly accepted that Caesar and Cossutia were married, but more recent opinions differ. Among those arguing that Caesar was never married to Cossutia are Ludwig Friedrich Otto Baumgarten-Crusius, Napoleon III, Charles Merivale, James Anthony Froude, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, William Warde Fowler, Ernest Gottlieb Sihler, , and John Carew Rolfe.[Notes and Discussions — "Caesar's First Wife", '' Classical Philology'', Volume 12, 1917, pg. 93.] The French author lists Cossutia first, then Cornelia, Pompeia, and Calpurnia, as wives of Caesar. The ancient historian Plutarch
Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...
largely ignores Cossutia,[''American Notes and Queries'', Volume 1, 1888, pg. 20.] but names her as one of Caesar's wives. Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...
also used the word for an official divorce when describing the separation.
Cultural depictions
Cossutia appears as a major character in the opera '' Young Caesar'', and as a minor character in several novels.
See also
* List of Roman gentes
The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman family, of Italic or Etruscan origins, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same '' nomen'' and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in earl ...
* Plebs
In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins of the gro ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cossutia
80s BC deaths
Year of birth unknown
Women of Julius Caesar