Servilia (mother of Brutus)
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Servilia (Template:Circa 100 BC – after 42 BC)Template:Sfn was a Roman matron from a distinguished family, the Servilii Caepiones. She was the daughter of Quintus Servilius Caepio and Livia, thus the maternal half-sister of Cato the Younger. She married Marcus Junius Brutus, with whom she had a son, the Brutus who, along with others in the Senate, assassinated Julius Caesar. After her first husband's death in 77 BC, she married Decimus Junius Silanus,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and with him had a son and three daughters.
She gained fame as the mistress of Julius Caesar,Template:Sfn whom her son Brutus and son-in-law Gaius Cassius Longinus would assassinate in 44 BC. Her affair with Caesar seems to have been publicly known in Rome at the time.Template:Sfn Plutarch stated that she in turn was madly in love with Caesar.Template:Sfn The relationship between the two probably started in 59 BC, after the death of Servilia's second husbandTemplate:Sfn although Plutarch implied it began when they were teenagers.Template:Sfn
Biography
Early life
Servilia was a patrician who could trace her line back to Gaius Servilius Ahala,Template:Sfn and was the Template:Citation needed span of Livia and Quintus Servilius Caepio. Her parents had two other children, a younger Servilia and a Gnaeus Servilius Caepio; her father also likely had another son named Quintus Servilius Caepio from an earlier marriage.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They divorced when she was three or four,Template:Sfn and her mother then married Marcus Porcius Cato. From this union, Servilia's half-brother, Cato the Younger, and half-sister, Porcia, were born.
However, her mother and stepfather both died before 91 BC. As a result, Servilia, her younger siblings, and her half-siblings were all brought up in the house of their maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus. He was assassinated during his tribunate in 91 BC, in his own atrium, when Servilia was nine.Template:Sfn Her father was ambushed and killed in the immediately ensuing Social War, a war triggered by Drusus' assassination, mere months after her uncle's murder.Template:Sfn After this she was probably brought up either by her other maternal uncle Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus,Template:Sfn her maternal grandmother Cornelia or her paternal aunt Servilia.Template:Sfn At adulthood, Servilia became legally independent and gained a considerable estate.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }}
Servilia truly had great influence on her half-brother Cato the Younger.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> He was considered to be tough and wild as a child, which frames Servilia as his equal in those respects.Template:Sfn
As a young girl belonging to Roman ruling class, Servilia would have been well educated. She likely would have been taught to read, write, sing, dance, and play an instrument.Template:Sfn She would have read poetry, epics, and histories.Template:Sfn
Marriages and children
At the age of 13 or 14, she married Marcus Junius Brutus in the early 80s, who later was tribune of the plebs (83 BC) and founder of a colony at Capua. They had one child, the future tyrannicide Marcus Junius Brutus, born around 85 BC.Template:Sfn This was a profitable marriage for Brutus, who would gain fortune, stability, and political traction through Servilia.Template:Sfn Although the elder Brutus survived Sulla's proscriptions, he was treacherously killed by Pompey after surrendering at Mutina in 77 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn After the death of the elder Brutus, Servilia's bond with her son grew.Template:Sfn She also arranged for her son to be adopted into her family,Template:Sfn allowing for the name of the Servilii Caepiones to be preserved.Template:Sfn
Servilia subsequently married Decimus Junius Silanus,Template:Sfn by whom she had three daughters.Template:Sfn Her daughters were all married into prominent and politically active families,<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed Her first daughter married Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus;Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed her second married Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (later triumvir);Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed and her third daughter married Gaius Cassius Longinus.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed Servilia was well connected and facilitated these advantageous marriages herself.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed
It is speculated that either soon after she married Silanus, or after the births of her daughters, Servilia's notorious affair with Caesar began.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed Silanus is not depicted to have been against the affair.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed Servilia did not remarry after the death of Silanus around 59 BC,Template:Sfn and remained unmarried for the rest of her life.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed She was able to live independently as a widow, owning various estates due to inheritances from various wealthy relatives.Template:Sfn
Relationship with Caesar
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Caesar had numerous affairs with women married and unmarried, but none lasted as long, nor were they as passionate as his affair with Servilia.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed An intimate relationship between the two probably started in 59, after the death of Servilia's second husband.Template:Sfn The affair was well known and Servilia suffered no damage to her reputation because of this relationship.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed Unlike most other aristocratic affairs, this one seemed also to have lasted over many years.Template:Sfn
The relationship broadly is first recorded in extant sources in 63, when Servilia apparently was caught sneaking a love note to Caesar in the senate by her brother Cato.Template:Sfn Cato was greatly displeased to find out about Caesar's correspondence with his half-sister. Modern scholars have made use of this incident to indicate the passion between Servilia and Caesar, noting that Servilia maintained long-distance contact while Caesar was away.<ref name=":3" />Template:Page needed Template:Citation needed span as both Cato and Brutus espoused the side of Pompey, despite the latter's role in the death of her former husband.
Plutarch only emphasized Servilia's devotion for Caesar, claiming that she was madly in love with him,<ref name=":4">Template:Harvnb</ref> but it is widely accepted that Caesar held a deep affection for Servilia. ScholarsTemplate:Who speculate that it was Caesar's affections which allowed the affair to continue for as long as it did.<ref name=":3" />Template:Page needed During his consulship in 59, Caesar supposedly presented Servilia with an outrageously expensive pearl worth some six million sesterces.Template:Sfn
Another popular rumor was that Servilia was prostituting her daughter Tertia to Caesar in 47 BC.Template:Sfn At an estate auction where Caesar received several properties at a low rate to give to Servilia, Cicero remarked, "It's a better bargain than you think, for there is one-third deducted;" the Latin phrase, tertia deducta, is a pun, meaning both "a third off" and "with Tertia seduced".<ref>Template:Harvnb. Template:Cite journal</ref> Some ancient sources refer to the possibility of Caesar being Brutus' real father,Template:Sfn despite Caesar being only fifteen years old when Brutus was born. Ancient historians were sceptical of this possibility and "on the whole, scholars have rejected the possibility that Brutus was the love-child of Servilia and Caesar on the grounds of chronology".Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal.</ref> Perhaps out of a desire to avoid offending Servilia, Caesar gave orders that Brutus should not be harmed if encountered after the Pompeian defeat at Pharsalus.Template:Sfn
When her son – Marcus Junius Brutus – divorced his wife Claudia to marry Cato's daughter Porcia in 45, she disapproved, having been instrumental in arranging the match and also disagreeing with the anti-Caesarian stance taken by her half-brother Cato.Template:Sfn Servilia may also have been jealous of the affection that Brutus showed his new bride.<ref>Cic. Att. 13. 22</ref> Later that year, Caesar appointed her son urban praetor for 44.Template:Sfn
After Caesar's death
After Caesar's assassination by a conspiracy which included Servilia's son – Brutus – and son-in-law – Gaius Cassius Longinus – on the Ides of March of 44 BC, Template:Citation needed span. It is unlikely she knew anything of the conspiracy, having been on good terms with Caesar until his death; regardless, she worked to protect her relatives from the ensuing political storm.Template:Sfn Apart from Servilia, the only women in attendance were Porcia and Junia Tertia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Servilia worked extensively in 44 BC to ensure the safety of her family both by Template:Dubious span, and by contributing greatly to the discourses during their meetings. Cicero's letters detail other meetings of the senate that Servilia had called to discuss what actions should be taken which would protect her son and sons-in-law. Cicero described her as a 'nervous lady', which could be understood as politically cautious.<ref name=":2" />Template:Page needed
Servilia's opinions were often held in higher esteem than those of Cicero during meetings of the liberatores. Due to women being unable to hold office or vote, Servilia focused her political efforts on strategic marriages for her daughters and helping create her political career for her son Brutus.<ref name=":1" />Template:Page needed
Due to life-threatening unrest in the city, her son Brutus was able to get a special dispensation to leave the capital for more than 10 days, and he withdrew to one of his estates in Lanuvium, 20 miles south-east of Rome.Template:Sfn By mid-May, Antony proposed reassigning Brutus and Cassius from their provinces to instead purchase grain in Asia and Sicily.Template:Sfn There was a meeting at Brutus' house attended by Cicero, Brutus and Cassius (and wives), and Brutus' mother, in which Cassius announced his intention to go to Syria while Brutus wanted to return to Rome, but ended up going to Greece.Template:Sfn His initial plan to go to Rome, however, was to put on games in early July commemorating his ancestor Lucius Junius Brutus and promoting his cause; he instead delegated the games to a friend.Template:Sfn Servilia assisted in organising Brutus' games, in charge of decisions concerning the ceremony, finances, and senatorial contacts.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed Antony's proposed reassignment also was dropped by the senate; Cicero claims that it was because of some action by Servilia.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed
Servilia led a council meeting in July 43 to discuss the possible return of Brutus and Cassius from exile, which serves as the most explicit depiction of a woman overseeing a meeting in this period.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed
Later life
Despite her connections with the conspirators, Servilia escaped the purges of the Second Triumvirate unscathed due to the protection of her long-time friend Titus Pomponius Atticus.Template:Sfn After Brutus' death, her son's ashes were sent to her by Antony from Philippi.Template:Sfn
Very little is known about Servilia's life after the death of Brutus. She is suspected to have died a natural death between 27 and 23 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed Her youngest daughter, Junia Tertia, out-lived Augustus and was noticed by Tacitus to have had a splendid funeral which kept the memory of Brutus and Cassius alive.Template:Sfn
Marriages and issue
- Marcus Junius Brutus
- Decimus Junius Silanus, the consul of 62 BC
- Template:Citation needed span
- Junia Prima (married Publius Servilius Isauricus)<ref name=cadouxOCD>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
- Junia Secunda (married Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, future triumvir)<ref name=cadouxOCD />
- Junia Tertia (married Gaius Cassius Longinus, another prominent assassin of Julius Caesar)<ref name=cadouxOCD />
Cultural depictions
Literature
Servilia is the subject of a poem by John Dryden.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A fictionalized Servilia appears in the Emperor series of novels by Conn Iggulden, who has portrayed her as a courtesan. Servilia is a character in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Television and film
A fictionalised version of Servilia was among the principal characters in the 2005 HBO television series Rome, played by Lindsay Duncan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Servilia of HBO's Rome was depicted as instigating actor in the plot against Caesar's life; there is no historical evidence thereof.Template:Sfn A similarly fictionalised Servilia makes an appearance in the 2005 six-part mini series Empire, played by Trudie Styler.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Natalie Medlock portrays Servilia in the 2018 Netflix television docudrama series Roman Empire.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
See also
References
Citations
Sources
Modern sources Template:Refbegin
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Ancient sources Template:Refbegin
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
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- Appian, Civil Wars
- Cicero, Letters F 12.7, A 14.21, A 15.11, A 15.12
- Cornelius Nepos, Atticus