Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar
(b. c. 87 BC (?); fl. 1st century BC)
BIRTH
Around 87 BC (?)
PLACE
Rome, Italy
DEATH
UNKNOWN
PLACE
Unknown
FAMILY
HUSBAND
Julius Caesar
(100 BC-44 BC)
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
ROMAN POLYTHEIST
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Pompeia was the wife of Julius Caesar from 67 BC until their divorce in 62 or early 61 BC. Her father was killed in 88 BC, and she was a granddaughter of both Sulla and his consular colleague Quintus Pompeius Rufus. She was not closely related to Pompey the Great. Clodius was tried for sacrilege and acquitted. When asked why, since he did not claim she was guilty, he replied that his wife should be above suspicion. Nothing is known of her later life.
EARLY LIFE
Pompeia was the daughter of Quintus Pompeius Rufus and Cornelia, a daughter of the dictator Sulla; her birth is tentatively placed around 87 BC in a modern biographical compilation, without a verified exact date. Her father was killed in 88 BC, and she was a granddaughter of both Sulla and his consular colleague Quintus Pompeius Rufus. She was not closely related to Pompey the Great. In 67 BC, two years after the death of his first wife, Cornelia, Julius Caesar married Pompeia. The match linked Caesar, who had been associated with the Marian party, to the family of Sulla.
In December 62 BC, the rites of the Bona Dea, a festival restricted to women, were held at Caesar's house, hosted by Pompeia as the wife of the chief priest.
The young politician Publius Clodius Pulcher was caught at the rites disguised as a woman, and rumors spread that he had come to meet Pompeia. Clodius was tried for sacrilege and acquitted.
Caesar divorced Pompeia. When asked why, since he did not claim she was guilty, he replied that his wife should be above suspicion. Nothing is known of her later life.
CAREER
DEATH
Pompeia was the wife of Julius Caesar from 67 BC until their divorce in 62 or early 61 BC. When asked why, since he did not claim she was guilty, he replied that his wife should be above suspicion. The young politician Publius Clodius Pulcher was caught at the rites disguised as a woman, and rumors spread that he had come to meet Pompeia. Clodius was tried for sacrilege and acquitted. Nothing is known of her later life. The date and circumstances of Pompeia's death are not securely documented in the biographical material available here. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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