“Caesar belonged to a distinguished family, the Julians, whose name would be invoked repeatedly by generations of his successors. In the funeral oration that he gave for his aunt Julia in 68 BC he reminded his audience of the tradition that the Julian gens had existed since the foundation of Rome and was descended from the goddess Venus, through her son Aeneas and her grandson Julus, a happy fiction that was later to be given a veneer of respectability by the poet Vergil in his great national epic, the Aeneid. The Julii attained prominence in the fifth and fourth centuries, but then, despite their splendid divine ascestry, sank into obscurity for 200 years. By the time of Caesar they had once again come to prominence. Caesar’s ultimate political ambitions are something of a mystery, and whether or not be aimed at the restoration of a monarchical system is far from clear. But it was nature that denied him the ultimate satisfaction of a monarch, that of being succeeded by his own son. He married several times and had a reputation among his soldiers for sexual prowess but despite all these assets he produced only one legitimate child, a much-loved daughter, who on her death left no surviving offspring. Caesar’s sister Julia did better, with two granddaughters and a grandson, Octavius. This sickly and unprepossessing youth was Caesar’s closest male descendant. He was destined to change the course of history. Agrippina: Sex, Power and Politics in the Early Empire, Anthony A. Barrett.
