The Wives and Lovers of Julius Caesar

The Wives and Lovers of Julius Caesar

The Wives and Lovers of Julius Caesar

The Wives and Lovers of Julius Caesar

The Wives and Lovers of Julius Caesar

From Cornelia to Cleopatra, from the wife of Crassus to that of Pompey: here is the sentimental history of Julius Caesar, the last dictator of the Roman Republic.

Julius Caesar, the last dictator of the Roman Republic, was a great womanizer. It is well known that he loved Cleopatra and had three wives. Less known is that he seduced the wives and daughters of political adversaries, friends, and even allies. As Suetonius (c. 70-140 AD), his biographer, informs us, everyone agreed that he was inclined to sensuality and was very generous in his love affairs.

Sentimental History. His first wife, in 83 BC, was Cornelia: rich, noble, and also beautiful. From this union was born his daughter Julia, whom Caesar adored but did not hesitate to use as a political pawn, giving her in marriage in 59 BC to Pompey the Great, his ally at that time. Cornelia was loved, but above all betrayed, since Caesar did not give up his career as a “latin lover” after the marriage. He seduced Tertulla, Crassus’ wife, and also Pompey’s wife, Mucia, thus inducing her husband to divorce her and allowing him to arrange the marriage between the general and his daughter Julia.

The most lasting affair, however, was with Servilia, half-sister of Cato the Younger (Caesar’s great adversary) and mother of Brutus, one of the assassins of Caesar and perhaps the dictator’s natural son. It was a very close relationship, lasting about twenty years, during which Caesar made fabulous gifts to his lover. When Servilia became too old to attract the attention of the leader, she managed to place her daughter Tertia in Caesar’s bedchamber, thus maintaining solid ties with what was by then the master of Rome.

Cleopatra. Caesar had meanwhile gone through two other marriages. After Cornelia, who died in 68 BC, it was the turn of Pompeia (Sulla’s granddaughter), who provided a fabulous dowry for her husband’s political career. After divorcing his wife because of the Clodius affair (Caesar discovered that Clodius was Pompeia’s lover), the future Divus Julius married Calpurnia in 59 BC, daughter of one of his most powerful allies, the senator Lucius Calpurnius Piso. The marriage lasted until the fateful Ides of March, also thanks to the fact that Calpurnia stoically endured the repeated betrayals. In particular, she had to tolerate the presence of the only woman who perhaps managed to capture Caesar’s heart: Cleopatra.

The meeting with Cleopatra, which took place in 48 BC, when Caesar was over fifty and the woman was a splendid eighteen-year-old, was a kind of lightning strike for the leader, who for love risked destroying in a few months everything he had built by conquering Gaul and defeating Pompey.

For the Queen of Egypt, the powerful Roman represented the only possibility to escape a conspiracy that aimed to eliminate her and place her brother and consort Ptolemy XIII on the throne. Cleopatra presented herself to Caesar secretly, wrapped in a thick cloth and in all her splendor. He was dazzled by her beauty but also by her extraordinary eloquence and charisma: he guaranteed Cleopatra’s power and for nine months forgot Rome, abandoning himself to love and a long cruise on the Nile. From her he also had his only son, Caesarion.

Bisexual. Caesar’s amorous exploits were many and well known, so much so that they made the legionaries sing during the celebration of one of the many triumphs: “Hey, men, lock up your wives, the bald seducer has returned!” Some historians suggest that much of the animosity that the aristocrats had towards the leader was due precisely to his exploits with their women, exploits that also led to more than one slander, such as the one according to which Caesar was the husband of all wives and the wife of all husbands.

In short, the leader would have been bisexual, indulging in what the Romans contemptuously called “Greek love.” Also in this case it is Suetonius who has passed down much information to us, recalling the predilection that the king of Bithynia, Nicomedes IV, had shown to the future conqueror of Gaul during a diplomatic mission to the eastern court, which took place when Caesar was just over 20 years old.

In fact, the sovereign, who did not disdain handsome young men, showered the Roman with attention and favors, and Caesar was not uncomfortable in an environment where luxury and lust went hand in hand. In later years, however, his adversaries embroidered on Caesar’s stay “queen of Bithynia” with Nicomedes, who in turn was called a “rapist of Caesar.” The general never shook off that sin of youth: “Caesar has subdued the Gauls, but Nicomedes has subdued him,” his soldiers used to sing.