e wife of
Marius. Gaius Julius held no higher office than Praetor. He was married
to Aurelia, a stately woman of simple and severe tastes. Their son Gaius
was born on July 12th, 100.

During Cinna's consulship (86), Caesar is first mentioned as a youth,
tall, slight, handsome, with dark, piercing eyes, sallow complexion,
and features refined and intellectual. The bloody scenes attending the
proscription of his uncle Marius, to whose party his father belonged,
must have made a deep impression upon him. One of his most intimate
companions was CICERO, who was six years his senior.

Marius had seen in his nephew the materials which make great men, and
determined to help him to promotion. He made him, when scarcely fifteen,
a priest of Jupiter (_flamen dialis_), which sacred office carried with
it a handsome income.

Shortly after the death of his father, in 84, Caesar married Cornelia,
the daughter of Cinna. By this marriage he was connected more closely
with the popular party, whose champion he remained.

When Sulla returned to Rome from his Eastern campaign, Caesar was but
eighteen. In the wholesale murders that followed, his party was ruined,
his nearest friends dispersed or killed. He himself was yet free from
proscription, for Sulla wished to win such a promising young man to his
own side. He made proposals that Caesar divorce his wife and marry
one whom he might select. Caesar refused. Force was then tried. His
priesthood was taken from him, and his wife's dowry. His estate was
confiscated, and, when this had no effect, he was himself declared an
outlaw, and a price was set on his head. Influential friends, however,
interceded in his behalf, and the Dictator was finally persuaded to
pardon him; but with reluctance, and with the remark that in Caesar was
the making of many a Marius. The youth then left Italy, and joined the
army in Asia.

Here Caesar served his apprenticeship as a soldier. He joined the forces
of the Praetor Thermus, who had been sent against the pirates that were
making their head-quarters in Lesbos. The Praetor, finding his troops
insufficient to accomplish his work, sent Caesar to Nicomedes, a Roman
ally and the King of Bithynia, to obtain additional forces. He was
successful in his mission, and, upon his return to Lesbos, distinguished
himself for his bravery in the attack upon Mitylene, and was awarded the
oak wreath, a coveted honor, for saving the life of a fellow-soldier.

Caesar is next