Group Project Hand-out Ancient History 260
Servilia of the Junii Description - Born approximately 100 BC. - A female patrician of the Roman Republic. - Half-sister to the renowned orator Cato the Younger. - Married two political figures, firstly, the politician Marcus Junius Brutus and secondly, after being widowed in 77 BC, the consul D. Junius Silanus. - Mother to the infamous Brutus who was involved in the murder of Julius Caesar. - She was the favourite mistress of Julius Caesar, and was able to monopolise his affection for over twenty years. - She was considered the ‘great love of his life’ and exploited their relationship whenever she could.
Significance - She was a political player, utilising her relationship with Caesar to her advantage for wealth and political influence. - During Caesar’s civil wars, Caesar permitted her to purchase confiscated estates at extremely low prices which promoted her status. - She had great aspirations for her son Brutus and used Caesar to protect and promote him. - She convinced Caesar to spare her son after the battle of Thessaly when he sided against Caesar and was promised a splendid career for him. - Caesar honoured his promises to her as Brutus was named consul in 41BC despite others being more suited for the role. - She intended to make her son heir to Caesar’s dictatorship and accordingly opposed any anti- Caesarian influence on him. - Caesar was rumoured to be the father of Brutus. - She became a political entity in her own right. She had influence over the senate and acted as a mediator and confidant for Caesar and Cicero. - However, her political involvement was limited to advancing her son. - The affair between Servilia and Caesar is identified as a driving factor behind Brutus’ part in the assassination of Caesar.
Evidence - There are no sources specifically about Servilia, both modern and primary. Group Project Hand-out Ancient History 260
- All information about her is gathered through her relationship with the males in her life. - There is no way to know what she did outside of these relationships. - There are no writings from Servilia herself and the primary sources involving her are all written from a male perspective. - Plutarch was a Greek who wrote significantly later than the people in his biographies Brutus and Caesar. He did use Roman annalists as sources, however it is important to note that he wrote his biographies as moral lessons rather than historical essays. - Plutarch’s Brutus comments on Servilia’s passion for Caesar but not vice versa. In modern sources however, she is regarded as the great love of his life. - There is conflict in Plutarch’s writings about Brutus being fathered by Julius Caesar. He clearly states that Brutus is Caesars son in Brutus 5, but there is no mention of this in his Caesar. - Cicero was a Roman politician with whom Servilia was politically involved. - Only very late in Cicero’s source does any significant information about Servilia exist. Prior to June 45 BC, there are only two references to Servilia in Cicero’s letters.
Primary Sources • Cicero. Letters to Brutus. Translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh. London, George Bell and Sons, 1908-1909. • Plutarch. Brutus. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1918. • Plutarch. Caesar. Translated by Walter Skeat. London, Macmillian and Co, 1875. Secondary Sources • Africa, Thomas W. “The Mask of an Assassin: A Psychohistorical Study of M. Junius Brutus.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8, no. 4 (1978): 599-626. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/stable/203080 • Bauman, Richard A. Women and Politics in Ancient Rome. London: Routledge, 1992 • Kamm, Antony. Julius Caesar. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006. • Syme, Ronald. “Bastards in Roman Aristocracy.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104, no. 3 (1960): 323- 327. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/stable/985248 • Syme, Ronald.“ No son for Caesar?”. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 29 (1980): 422-437. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/stable/4435732