Julia (mother of Mark Antony)

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Julia Antonia
Spouse(s)
Parents (mother)

Julia (104 – after 39 BC) was the mother of the

triumvir general Mark Antony
.

Biography

Early life

She was the daughter of Lucius Julius Caesar (the consul of 90 BC) and Fulvia. She and her brother Lucius Julius Caesar (who was consul in 64 BC) were born and raised in Rome.

Julia was a third-cousin of Julius Caesar (their great-grandparents Gaius and Sextus Julius Caesar were siblings).

Marriages

Julia married

Catilinarian conspiracy and was executed on the orders of Cicero
.

Julia had raised her sons through her marriages. Plutarch describes her as one of the "most nobly born and admirable women of her time".[1] The following clause from Plutarch describes her relationship with her first husband:

His father was Antony, surnamed of Crete, not very famous or distinguished in public life, but a worthy good man, and particularly remarkable for his liberality, as may appear from a single example. He was not very rich, and was for that reason checked in the exercise of his good nature by his wife. A friend that stood in need of money came to borrow of him. Money he had none, but he bade a servant bring him water in a silver basin, with which, when it was brought, he wetted his face, as if he meant to shave, and, sending away the servant upon another errand, gave his friend the basin, desiring him to turn it to his purpose. And when there was afterwards a great inquiry for it in the house, and his wife was in a very ill humour, and was going to put the servants one by one to the search, he acknowledged what he had done, and begged her pardon.

— Plutarch, Antony 1

Later life

Elsewhere Plutarch illustrates her character with an episode from the proscription of 43 BC, during the Second Triumvirate:

His uncle, Lucius Caesar, being closely pursued, took refuge with his sister, who, when the murderers had broken into her house and were pressing into her chamber, met them at the door, and spreading out hands, cried out several times. "You shall not kill Lucius Caesar till you first dispatch me who gave your general his birth!" and in this manner she succeeded in getting her brother out of the way, and saving his life.

— Plutarch, Antony 20

During the

Misenum
.

See also

  • List of Roman women

References

  1. ^ Plutarch, Antony 2.

Sources