Famous Julii

[Germanicus Julius Caesar]

Were there any famous 'Julii' after the reign of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, or did the family essentially fall into decline and become inconsequential?

Edited April 28, 2008 by Germanicus Julius Caesar

[Julius Ratus]

Not to thread-kack, but I would beinterested to know if there were any famous Julii before Caesar as well. I recall there being one Consul of the line before Caesar.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Julius Ratus

[Nephele]

Not to thread-kack, but I would beinterested to know if there were any famous Julii before Caesar as well. I recall there being one Consul of the line before Caesar.

 

Broughton mentions quite a number of Julii who held magisterial positions during the Republic.

 

And then there was Proculus Julius, mentioned by Livy (1.16) as having had a divine and inspiring vision following the disappearance/death of Rome's king and founding father, Romulus:

 

For Proculus Julius, whilst the state was still troubled with regret for the king, and felt incensed against the senators, a person of weight, as we are told, in any matter however important, comes forward to the assembly, "Romans," he says, "Romulus, the father of this city, suddenly descending from heaven, appeared to me this day at day-break. While I stood covered with awe, and filled with a religious dread, beseeching him to allow me to see him face to face, he said, Go tell the Romans, that the gods so will, that my Rome should become the capitol of the world. Therefore let them cultivate the art of war, and let them know and hand down to posterity, that no human power shall be able to withstand the Roman arms. Having said this, he ascended up to heaven."

 

Old Proculus Julius must've been kind of like Moses, serving as a conduit for god(s) and convincing the Romans of their destiny.

 

-- Nephele

[Ingsoc]

The story about Proculus Julius is probably a later invented tradition that was first appeared during Julius Caesar dictatorship or the Julio-Claudian rule, as we only hear that the Julii arive to Rome later in the book after the destruction of Alba Longa (Livius, 1.30).

[Ursus]

Not to thread-kack, but I would beinterested to know if there were any famous Julii before Caesar as well. I recall there being one Consul of the line before Caesar.

 

Maty has a good section on the Julians in his book Sons of Caesar.

 

1) Julius Proculus, mentiond by Nephele, who claimed to have spoken with the spirit of Romulus

2) The family was among the leading clans that emigrated from Alba Longa to Rome

3) Appear as Consuls in the fifth century, one of whom dedicated a temple to Apollo

4) one mentioned as a decemvir

5) A Julius Caesar mentioned as a praetorian Governor of Sicily during the Second Punic War

6) during second century BCE, a number found as praetors

7) His uncle became a Consul and later Censor in the Social War, and his own father was a praetor

[Ursus]

Were there any famous 'Julii' after the reign of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, or did the family essentially fall into decline and become inconsequential?

 

 

I found one mention of a Julius Ursus, an eldery Senator considered briefly to follow Hadrian, but was later executed for unspecified reasons.

[Primus Pilus]

A good place to start is the Smith Dictionary of Greek and Roman biographies... The Julia gens had four main branches including Caesar, Iulus, Libo and Mento. Iulus (early Republic) and Caesar (later Republic) were by far the most prominent.

[Germanicus Julius Caesar]

Read up on Ursus. Quite the guy it seems. Thanks for the comments so far.

[Maty]

After the time of Julius Caesar being one of the Julian line was a near-fatal genetic trait. The last known member of the family passed away in Vespasian's time. Whilst the empire is swarming with Julii in later years this is more to do with an idiosyncrasy of Roman nomenclature than family trees. If your name was Kixass Vercingetorix, and you were in a part of northern Italy which was given citizenship by Julius Caesar you would become Kixass Julius Vercingetorix, and the Julius bit would be passed down your line (which is where friend Ursus Julius comes in).

 

Now the fun begins when a Julius who got his name that way - Julius Bassianus - has a gransdon who becomes the emperor Caracalla (Caracalla was not a family name, but a nickname based on his predilection for wearing long Gallic cloaks). Caracalla wanted more Roman citizens, since they paid tax and served in the legions, so he made all free citizens of the empire Romans, thus at a stroke creating a million or so Julii. After that 'Julius' was the Roman equivalent of 'Smith'.

[Maty]

Incidentally on the 'pre' side the line allegedly goes back to Iulus Ascanius, son of Aeneas and grandson of the goddess Venus. The Julii were one of the few surviving 'ship' families that claimed Trojan origin, and this was behind Julius Caesar's not-so-subtle construction of a temple dedicated to Venus Genetrix.

[Primus Pilus]

After the time of Julius Caesar being one of the Julian line was a near-fatal genetic trait. The last known member of the family passed away in Vespasian's time. Whilst the empire is swarming with Julii in later years this is more to do with an idiosyncrasy of Roman nomenclature than family trees. If your name was Kixass Vercingetorix, and you were in a part of northern Italy which was given citizenship by Julius Caesar you would become Kixass Julius Vercingetorix, and the Julius bit would be passed down your line (which is where friend Ursus Julius comes in).

 

Now the fun begins when a Julius who got his name that way - Julius Bassianus - has a gransdon who becomes the emperor Caracalla (Caracalla was not a family name, but a nickname based on his predilection for wearing long Gallic cloaks). Caracalla wanted more Roman citizens, since they paid tax and served in the legions, so he made all free citizens of the empire Romans, thus at a stroke creating a million or so Julii. After that 'Julius' was the Roman equivalent of 'Smith'.

 

Indeed, if one browses the aforementioned Smith's entries, the list of non Caesar, Iulus, Libo and Mento Julii is actually quite long. Even before Caracalla, the number of Gallic Julii seems to have been rather large.

[Nephele]

Now the fun begins when a Julius who got his name that way - Julius Bassianus - has a gransdon who becomes the emperor Caracalla (Caracalla was not a family name, but a nickname based on his predilection for wearing long Gallic cloaks). Caracalla wanted more Roman citizens, since they paid tax and served in the legions, so he made all free citizens of the empire Romans, thus at a stroke creating a million or so Julii. After that 'Julius' was the Roman equivalent of 'Smith'.

 

Maty, I think I had read somewhere that Caracalla had passed on the name of "Aurelius" to his many newly created Roman citizens. Am I remembering this wrong? Or perhaps Caracalla passed on both of these names -- the adopted "Aurelius" and the maternal "Julius" -- from his family line?

 

It was my understanding that this is why the name of "Aurelius" became common among Rome's Jewish citizenry, as evidenced by the many Aurelii to be found in Jewish inscriptions. NYC's Jewish Museum, in fact, has an ancient Jewish burial plaque from Rome naming an Aurelia Progenia and an Aurelia Quintilla.

 

-- Nephele

[Maty]

Maty, I think I had read somewhere that Caracalla had passed on the name of "Aurelius" to his many newly created Roman citizens. Am I remembering this wrong? Or perhaps Caracalla passed on both of these names -- the adopted "Aurelius" and the maternal "Julius" -- from his family line?

 

It was my understanding that this is why the name of "Aurelius" became common among Rome's Jewish citizenry, as evidenced by the many Aurelii to be found in Jewish inscriptions. NYC's Jewish Museum, in fact, has an ancient Jewish burial plaque from Rome naming an Aurelia Progenia and an Aurelia Quintilla.

 

-- Nephele

 

He did - there was also a slew of new citizens called Antoninius from the same thing. However (as I understand it) by then Roman naming conventions had become flexible enough to allow some variations. Ever since Vespasian - the earliest I can find - adding parts of a distinguished female line also became acceptable. Vespasian was properly Flavius, but he added his mother's line of Vespasia, which is why he is Flavius Vespasianus in the sources. At least that's how I remember it, but will be happy to be corrected!

[Nephele]

He did - there was also a slew of new citizens called Antoninius from the same thing. However (as I understand it) by then Roman naming conventions had become flexible enough to allow some variations. Ever since Vespasian - the earliest I can find - adding parts of a distinguished female line also became acceptable. Vespasian was properly Flavius, but he added his mother's line of Vespasia, which is why he is Flavius Vespasianus in the sources. At least that's how I remember it, but will be happy to be corrected!

 

Certainly sounds right! As you said, Roman naming conventions had become quite flexible by that time, as evidenced by the fact that Roman women were acquiring names of more variety, adopting their own distinctive, feminine cognomina.

 

-- Nephele

[Germanicus Julius Caesar]

After the time of Julius Caesar being one of the Julian line was a near-fatal genetic trait. The last known member of the family passed away in Vespasian's time.

 

Any record of who this family member was? And if I am understanding correctly, Caesar's line died off. And those after were not from the Julii family he was from.