Talk:Julia (daughter of Caesar)

Welcome

Welcome to the talk page for Julia, daughter of Julius Caesar. Unfortunately, I feel that after my recent edits, the article is now quite stable. This is due to fact that there is not so much information about her in the classical sources. Nevertheless the section concerning Julia's appearances in literature should be increase its size over time. Thanks in advance for your constructive edits. :) -- Pichote 10:26, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Question: does anyone know who the Quintus Servilius Caepio was that Julia got engaged to, supposedly? --82.34.129.62 16:36, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

A majority of people believe it was Marcus Junius Brutus as he was referred to as Quintus Servilius Caepio at that point because he had recently been adopted by his uncle of the same name. --Sophie-Lou 00:12, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

For example Colleen McCullough in her Masters of Rome series assumes that Quintus Servilius Caepio is indeed Marcus Junius Brutus. -- Pichote 09:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

That appears to be popular fiction or brought up by confusion of historians. Although not one knows for sure, I have read that there was another Quintus Servilius Caepio who was Caesar's supporter in the consulship against Bibulus. --77.96.193.236 17:23, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

This one sentence kinda bugs me...

The slave who carried to his house on the Carinae the stained toga was seen by Julia, who, imagining that her husband was slain, fell into premature labour,[17][18] and her constitution received an irreparable shock.

I've changed this to

A slave carried the stained toga to his house on the Carinae and was seen by Julia. Imagining that her husband was slain, she fell into premature labour,[17][18] and her constitution received an irreparable shock.

I think it's a little more readable without losing any facts. Anyone agree/disagree? Jodamn 06:21, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

It's perfectly written now. Thanks. -- Pichote 16:08, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Date of birth of Julia

The date of the birth of Julia is uncertain. The idea that it was c. 83 seems based on a reading of Suetonius, Divine Julius 1.1, that assumes that when he say that Julia was born 'after' Caesar and Cornelia married, that meant soon after. But Suetonius does not say 'soon', and if Julia was born this early, she would have been twenty-three or twenty-four when she married Pompey in 59 BC. This seems very old for a daughter of a leading Roman politician and aristocrat to be unmarried, and a later date of birth seems more likely. The Oxford Classical Dictionary says c. 73, which is possibly on the late side, but still plausible.

There seems also to be no reliable evidence that her mother Cornelia died in childbirth, though it is possible.Tony Keen2 (talk) 12:12, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I think you've stated the problem accurately here. You seem to have a citation error going on in footnote 4 that you might want to look into. Cynwolfe (talk) 13:27, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

I totally agree with you. — Pichote (talk) 12:11, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Maybe this uncertainty should be indicated in the article(s) somewhere? I just noticed this myself as the article for Julius Caesar says Julia was "born in 83 or 82 BC" while the family tree graphic says 83 BC and this article for Julia herself says 76 BC multiple times (granted, once with "probably" added). Also, multiple articles indicate Cornelia, her mother, was born in 97 BC. So Cornelia was either 14, 15, 21, or 24 when she gave birth to Julia? What a spectrum of possibilities. gfoxcook (talk) 06:25, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Proposal to rename

More than one person can be identified as a Julia, daughter of Caesar, (Mark Antony's mother for example). Julia (wife of Pompey) would be more appropriate, even if her father is already the most notable Caesar. Avilich (talk) 17:47, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

I disagree. Julia is most notable as the daughter of Julius Caesar and his only child produced within a legally valid Roman marriage. Pompey had other wives, but Julia's own notability in marrying him depends on what this marriage represented because she was the only child of "the" Julius Caesar. And in terms of Roman nomenclature, "daughter of Caesar" is the correct identification because her marriage to Pompey was almost certainly in this period not cum manu – she likely remained in the potestas of Caesar because that's the way these marriages could function as political alliances. Cynwolfe (talk) 17:18, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

To put this in terms of policy, WP:PRECISE states: According to the above-mentioned precision criterion, when a more detailed title is necessary to distinguish an article topic from another, use only as much additional detail as necessary. (emphasis mine). Thus we can have Andrew Jones (priest), even though it is almost certain that more than one priest named Andrew Jones exists, because we only have one article titled as such. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 10:39, 30 June 2024 (UTC)

I think the date of her death should be included in the title, eg. Julia (daughter of Caesar, d. 54 BC). T8612 (talk) 09:00, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

WP:PRECISE would say not, unless there's another article for a Julia, daughter of Caesar, who died at another time. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 10:10, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Agree that the date is unnecessary, though I wouldn't argue against "daughter of Julius Caesar" if others thought it needed. Cynwolfe (talk) 12:42, 3 July 2024 (UTC)