Julia (c. 130 BC – 69 BC) was the wife of the Roman consul Gaius Marius and a paternal aunt of future Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Biography Julia was the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar and Marcia (daughter of praetor Quintus Marcius Rex). She was a sister of Gaius Julius Caesar (the father of Julius Caesar) and Sextus Julius Caesar, consul in 91 BC. At about 110 BC she married Gaius Marius. They had a son, Gaius Marius the Younger. Plutarch also mentions that Marius had two step-sons named Quintus Granius and Gnaeus Granius, it is possible that these men were children of Julia by an earlier marriage or step-children of Marius from a marriage to another woman before Julia. If Quintus and Gnaeus were indeed Julia's sons, then her earlier husband was likely a member of the Campanian trading family since Julia was a Patrician and would only have married someone from the Grania gens if they were very rich. According to Plutarch, it was by marrying her, a patrician woman, that the upstart Marius got the attention of the snobbish Roman Senate and launched his political career. Julia is remembered as a virtuous woman devoted to her husband and their only child. Her reputation alone permitted her to keep her status, even after Sulla's persecutions against Marius himself and his allies. Julia died in 69 BC and received a devoted funeral eulogy from her nephew Julius Caesar. See also Women of the Julii Caesares Julia gens Julii Caesares Julio-Claudian family tree References Sources Plutarch, Parallel Lives, written approx. 75 CE: "(The Life of) (Gaius) Marius" John Dryden translation at MIT classics Stewart/Long translation at Project Gutenberg Bernadotte Perrin (ed.) translation at LacusCurtius "(The Life of) (Julius) Caesar" John Dryden translation at MIT classics Stewart/Long translation at Project Gutenberg Bernadotte Perrin (ed.) translation at LacusCurtius Bernadotte Perrin (ed.) translation at Perseus project Thomas North (ed.) translation at Perseus project External links Livius.org: Julia 130s BC births 69 BC deaths 2nd-century BC Roman women 1st-century BC Roman women 1st-century BC Romans Julii Caesares