Philip Matyszak and Joanne Berry

OF THE ROMANS

With 217 illustrations, 135 in color

-<�;- Thames Hudson & HALF-TITLE Bronze bust of (1616). Decius Mus typified the Augustus, formerly Octavian, warrior aristocracy of the early 27-25 BC. Republic, when Roman leaders FRONTISPIECE Fourth-century were expected to command from mosaic of a house on a lake. the front. PREVIOUS PAGE Bust of Lucius OPPOSITE Romulus and Remus Cornelius Sulla, 138-78 BC. being suckled by the wolf, thought BELOW Decius Mus addressing the to be an Etruscan statue of the sth BC. Legions, by Peter Paul Rubens century

© 2008 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London

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First published in 2008 in hardcover in the UnitedStates of America by Thames & Hudson Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10110 thamesandhudsonusa.com

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2008901001

ISBN 978-o-soo-25144-7

Printed and bound in Singapore by Tien Wah Press (Pte) Ltd 36 I SERVILIA CAESAR'S LOVER, BRUTUS' MOTHER

Few people reflect the tangled affairs-both personal and political-of the late Republican aristocracy better than Servilia, though she herself survived safely to old age and seems to have died peacefully. During this period members of the small group of Roman elite families tended to divorce and remarry often, (one historian has called the practice 'serial polygamy'), so almost all of Rome's leading politicians were related in some way. This gave a family flavour to their bitter political struggles.

Servilia's family claimed to be older than Rome itself, being one of the aristocratic clans transplanted to Rome in the mid-7th century BC. Servilia was born around roo BC. Her uncle was Livius Drusus, a highly influential tribune and an ancestor of Livia, the wife of Augustus. Servilia's mother was married to a Cato, and from this marriage came Servilia's half-brother,

Marcus Porcius Cato, known to posterity as Cato the Younger. Servilia herself was born from a marriage to Quintus Servilius Caepio, once an ally and later an enemy of Drusus. This enmity caused a sensational divorce which led to young Servilia staying with her uncle until he was murdered in 90 BC.

112 LIFEINTROUBLEDTIMES As was the aristocratic custom, Servilia seems to have married young. She gave her husband, Marcus Junius Brutus, a son in 85 BC when still in her mid-teens. Her husband was killed during political troubles in 77 BC, by Pompey the Great's soldiers. Servilia then married Decimus

Junius Silanus and had three daughters with him, named, thanks to the imaginative Roman naming system, Iunia(s) First, Second and Third.

Servilia's family were deeply involved in politics. Cato opposed

Pompey, who was allied with Julius Caesar. This was unfortunate, as

Servilia was Caesar's lover. During the debate on the Catiline conspiracy (no.

31), Caesar received a note which Cato claimed proved Caesar was correspon­ ding with Catiline's supporters. Cato forced the note to be read aloud, only to find that it was from his half-sister suggesting a romantic meeting with

Caesar after the debate. This romance had been of such duration that some suspected Caesar of having fathered Marcus Brutus, Servilia's son. This is generally discounted on the grounds that Caesar would only have been 15 at the time, but then, so was Servilia.

Caesar's victory in the civil war of 49 BC complicated Servilia's life yet more. Cato killed himself rather than accept Caesar's rule, whereupon her son made a point of marrying Cato's daughter. Brutus had opposed Caesar, forcing himself to ally with Pompey, the man who had killed his father, but Coin that closely associates Brutus with the family ofServilia. At this Caesar had forgiven him, partly for Servilia's sake. Indeed, such was his fond­ time the desperate need for self­ ness for his long-time paramour that when selling off lands confiscated from promotion through propaganda was breaking down previous inhibitions his enemies, he gave some to Servilia at a scandalous discount. ('Even cheaper about showing contemporary than it seems' remarked Cicero, 'since a third got knocked off', a reference persons or events on coins. The trophy showing captured enemy to the rumour that Caesar had seduced Servilia's daughter Iunia the Third.) arms on the obverse may be either Caesar's assassination showed how comprehensively Servilia's family an appeal to the legions, or an implied warning to civilians that was split. In the Julian corner were Servilia, Caesar's mistress, and Iunia the Brutus and Cassius had mustered a Second, wife of Lepidus, Caesar's second-in-command. For the opposition considerable army. were Caesar's assassins Brutus, son of Servilia, and Cassius, Servilia's son-in­ law, who was married to Iunia the Third (and if rumour of an affair with

Caesar was true, certainly might have given Cassius some extra motivation).

Once Caesar had perished, Servilia threw herself wholeheartedly into supporting her son, showing a flair for politics that won Cicero's grudging admiration. When her cause and her son died (by his own hand) at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, Servilia retired into private life, protected by Atticus (no.

35) and her daughter's marriage to Lepidus, who was now one of the three most powerful men in Rome. It is not known when Servilia died, but her clan continued until at least AD 189, having endured over seven centuries. -

SERVI LIA 113