Servilia Caepionis

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Servilia Caepionis (b. c.100 BC - d. after 43 BC) is one of the few Roman women cited by ancient sources, mainly due to her being the mistress of Julius Caesar, mother of his assassin Marcus Junius Brutus, and half-sister of Cato the Younger.

1 Life
2 Family tree
3 In popular culture
4 Sources
5 External links

[edit] Life

[edit] Birth

She was a patrician, daughter of Livia Drusa (who was mother to Servilia's half-brother Marcus Porcius Cato, the Younger through a later marriage) and Quintus Servilius Caepio the Younger. Servilia was brought up in the house of the tribune Marcus Livius Drusus, a maternal uncle, after her parents' scandalous divorce. He, however, died when she was 9.

[edit] Marriages and issue

Lucius Licinius Lucullus
Marcus Junius Brutus (tribune of the plebs in 83 BC, founder of the colony in Capua, killed after the surrender of Mutina by Pompey in 77 BC).
- Issue: Marcus Junius Brutus
Decimus Junius Silanus, the consul of 62 BC
- Issue: Junia Prima
- Junia Secunda
  - married Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the future triumvir of the Second Triumvirate.
- Junia Tertia
  - married Gaius Cassius, another prominent assassin of Caesar.

[edit] Caesar's mistress

In 63BC she became the mistress of Julius Caesar, and remained so until his death. In the words of Plutarch's, Life of Cato the Younger, 24:

when Caesar was eagerly engaged in a great struggle with [Servilia's stepbrother] Cato and the attention of the senate was fixed upon the two men, a little note was brought in from outside to Caesar. Cato tried to fix suspicion upon the matter and alleged that it had something to do with the conspiracy, and bade him read the writing aloud. Then Caesar handed the note to Cato, who stood near him. But when Cato had read the note, which was an unchaste letter from Servilia to Caesar, with whom she was passionately and guiltily in love, he threw it to Caesar, saying, "Take it, thou sot," and then resumed his speech.

Caesar was very fond of Servilia and, years later, when he returned to a deserted Rome after the Gallic Wars, he offered her a priceless black pearl^{[citation needed]}. Also, in the words of Life of Julius Caesar, 50.2:

But beyond all others Caesar loved Servilia, the mother of Marcus Brutus, for whom in his first consulship [in 59] he bought a pearl costing six million sesterces. During the civil war, too, besides other presents, he knocked down some fine estates to her in a state auction at a nominal price, and when some expressed their surprise at the low figure, Cicero wittily remarked: "It's a better bargain than you think, for there is a third off [in Latin, Tertia - a pun on her daughter Junia Tertia ]." And in fact it was thought that Servilia was prostituting her own daughter Tertia to Caesar.

Some also rumoured Tertia to be Caesar's child, but it is unlikely both rumours could be true at once.

[edit] Assasination of Caesar

After the assassination of Caesar by her son Brutus (and her son-in-law Cassius), the conspirators met at Servilia's house. Despite this, she herself escaped the purges of the second triumvirate unscathed. After Brutus's death she lived in the care of Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. Her son's ashes were sent to her from Philippi and she died naturally, as did her youngest daughter Junia Tertia.

[edit] Family tree

(1)=1st husband/wife
(2)=2nd husband/wife
x=assassin of Caesar

<tr align="center"><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Salonia (2)</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Cato the Elder</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Licinia (1)</td></tr><tr align="center"><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

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<td>

</td><td colspan="2">

</td></tr> <tr align="center"><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Porcius Cato Salonianus</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Livius Drusus</td></tr><tr align="center"></tr> <tr align="center"><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

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</td><td colspan="2">

</td><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

</td></tr> <tr align="center"><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Porcius Cato (2)</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Livia Drusa</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Quintus Servilius Caepio the Younger(1)</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Livius Drusus</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2"></td></tr><tr align="center"><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

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</td><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

</td></tr> <tr align="center"><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Atilia (1)</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Cato the Younger</td><td rowspan="2" style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

</td><td rowspan="2">

</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus, adoptive son</td></tr><tr align="center"><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

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</td><td>

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</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Brutus (1)</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Servilia Caepionis</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Decimus Junius Silanus (2)</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">another Servilia</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Quintus Servilius Caepio</td></tr><tr align="center"><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

</td><td>

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</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Porcia Catonis</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Junius Brutus x</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Junia Prima</td><td rowspan="2" style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

</td><td rowspan="2">

</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Junia Tertia</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Gaius Cassius Longinus x</td></tr><tr align="center"><td colspan="2">

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</td></tr> <tr align="center"><td rowspan="2" style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

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</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2"></td></tr><tr align="center"></tr> <tr align="center"><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Porcius Cato (II)</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

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</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Junia Secunda</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)</td></tr><tr align="center"><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

</td><td>

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</td><td rowspan="2" style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

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</td></tr><tr align="center"></tr> <tr align="center"><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Descendent of Pompey the Great and Lucius Cornelius Sulla</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Lepidus the Younger</td></tr><tr align="center"><td style="border-right: 1px solid black;">

</td><td>

</td></tr> <tr align="center"><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td>

</td><td style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

</td><td style="border-right: 1px solid black; border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

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</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">

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</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Manius Aemilius Lepidus</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td rowspan="2" colspan="2">

</td><td colspan="6" rowspan="2" style="border: 2px solid black; padding: 0.2em; ">Aemilia Lepida II</td></tr><tr align="center"></tr>

</table>

[edit] In popular culture

Lindsay Duncan as Servilia in the TV series Rome.

A fictionalised Servilia appeared in the 2005 television series Rome, played by Lindsay Duncan.
Servilia also makes an appearance in the highly fictionalised 2005 six-part mini series Empire, played by Trudie Styler.