Servilia and her family /
Servilia is often cited as one of the most influential women of the late Roman Republic. Though she was a high-born patrician, her grandfather died disgraced and her controversial father was killed before he could stand for the consulship. She married twice, but both husbands, Marcus Iunius Brutus a...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford :
Oxford University Press,
2019.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | Servilia is often cited as one of the most influential women of the late Roman Republic. Though she was a high-born patrician, her grandfather died disgraced and her controversial father was killed before he could stand for the consulship. She married twice, but both husbands, Marcus Iunius Brutus and Decimus Iunius Silanus, were mediocre. Her position in society and (it may be conjectured) her contacts, personality, ability, and charm gave her influence. It is likely that she masterminded the distinguished marriages of her one son, Brutus, and her three daughters. During her second marriage she entered on an affair with C. Iulius Caesar, which probably lasted for the rest of his life, a fact which also suggests her charm and her exceptional intelligence. The patchiness of the sources means that a full biography is impossible, though in suggesting connexions between the evidence and the possibilities open to women of similar status this volume aims to reconstruct her life and position as a member of the senatorial nobility and within her extended and nuclear family. The best attested period of Servilia's life, for which the chief source is Cicero's letters, follows the murder of Caesar by her son and her son-in-law, Cassius, who were leaders among the crowd of conspirators in the Senate-house on the Ides of March 44 bc. We find her working to protect the assassins' interests and defending her grandchildren (by the Caesarian Lepidus) when he was a public enemy and his property threatened with confiscation. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xxi, 378 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 9780191867927 0191867926 9780192564641 0192564641 |