temple in his forum
to Venus Genetrix; but his patrician descent was of little importance in
politics and disqualified Caesar from holding the tribunate, an office to
which, as a leader of the popular party, he would naturally have aspired.
The Julii Caesares, however, had also acquired the new _nobilitas_, which
belonged to holders of the great magistracies. Caesar's uncle was consul in
91 B.C., and his father held the praetorship. Most of the family seem to
have belonged to the senatorial party (_optimates_); but Caesar himself was
from the first a _popularis_. The determining factor is no doubt to be
sought in his relationship with C. Marius, the husband of his aunt Julia.
Caesar was born in the year of Marius's first great victory over the
Teutones, and as he grew up, inspired by the traditions of the great
soldier's career, attached himself to his party and its fortunes. Of his
education we know scarcely anything. His mother, Aurelia, belonged to a
distinguished family, and Tacitus (_Dial. de Orat._ xxviii.) couples her
name with that of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, as an example of the
Roman matron whose _disciplina_ and _severitas_ formed her son for the
duties of a soldier and statesman. His tutor was M. Antonius Gnipho, a
native of Gaul (by which Cisalpine Gaul may be meant), who is said to have
been equally learned in Greek and Latin literature, and to have set up in
later years a school of rhetoric which was attended by Cicero in his
praetorship 66 B.C. It is possible that Caesar may have derived from him
his interest in Gaul and its people and his sympathy with the claims of the
Romanized Gauls of northern Italy to political rights.

In his sixteenth year (87 B.C.) Caesar lost his father, and assumed the
_toga virilis_ as the token of manhood. The social war (90-89 B.C.) had
been brought to a close by the enfranchisement of Rome's Italian subjects;
and the civil war which followed it led, after the departure of Sulla for
the East, to the temporary triumph of the _populares_, led by Marius and
Cinna, and the indiscriminate massacre of their political opponents,
including both of Caesar's uncles. Caesar was at once marked out for high
distinction, being created _flamen Dialis_ or priest of Jupiter. In the
following year (which saw the death of Marius) Caesar, rejecting a proposed
marriage with a wealthy capitalist's heiress, sought and obtained the hand
of Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, and thus becam