The Ides and the Aftermath (44–)

After Caesar’s murder, Servilia had to act to help Brutus and Cassius. From now on, our sources improve. She was, on and off, with the assassins at a villa, involved in deliberations and negotiations. On 5 June 44 a meeting of the Senate was to authorize Brutus and Cassius to leave their duties as praetors and go abroad on a grain-commission. They took this as an insult. A family council at Antium in early June decided that they would leave. Servilia promised to get the grain-commission dropped from the decree. Planning for the games (ludi Apollinares) to be held in Brutus’s absence involved Atticus and Servilia. The games were a qualified success. Servilia led the family in protecting both Brutus and Cassius in their absence and Lepidus’s children. She continued to lead after Philippi. We do not know when she died, but it may have been many years later.

Family

Servilia’s patrician paternal line, the Servilii Caepiones, descended from Cn. Servilius Caepio consul 253. Servilia’s great-grandfather was probably Cn. Caepio consul 141, censor 125. His presumed second son won a triumph and the consulship of 106. This man proposed a law on the panels of judges. His defeat by the Cimbri at Arausio in 105 wrecked his career. Driven into exile, he gave up his citizenship. His son, Q. Caepio, possibly by a Metella, married Livia. Her family, the Livii Drusi, had distinguished themselves in the second century. Her father was tribune 122, consul 112, triumphed, and died as censor 109. Livia and Caepio produced a daughter, Servilia (c.100), and a son. They divorced and Livia married Cato, to whom she bore two children. On the deaths of Cato and Livia, the four children lived with their maternal uncle M. Drusus and perhaps his wife and his mother.

Servilia’s World

First-century BC Rome controlled the Mediterranean. This empire was achieved by a militaristic citizen body and an honour-seeking ruling class. A succession of offices qualified a man to sit in the Senate, govern territories, command armies. A politician sought status conferred by the electorate. Magistrates formed the executive in Rome and in the provinces. The Senate acted as an advisory council and a pool of executives. The Roman People, the citizen body, was theoretically sovereign. Men voted in elections and on bills. Women were citizens, though they could not vote or stand for office or serve in the army. In private law, paternal power was important. Marriages between two citizens were intended for the production of children and founded on consent. An upper-class woman would hold her own property, could inherit, and divorce, and remarry. As a group, upper-class women were visible. Like men, they sought reputation.

Interactions

Starting from her family, a woman would expect to have some influence with her husband, then with her children. Some would expand this to outsiders. They could exploit intelligence, tact, sexuality, and charm. Moralizing sources focus on conciliation, intercession, and intervention by women from legendary times onwards. Clodia worked with and for her brother. Under the triumvirate, women were forced to take a greater role. Some (e.g. Iulia, Mucia) were related to the main contenders for power, and acted as intermediaries in the interests of their kinsmen and of peace. Fulvia, with her own power base in the City, acted with greater independence in public life than any other woman, but in the interests of her son and Antony. An extreme case, she illustrates what a women could achieve and what a woman was not supposed to do. Servilia’s influence on politics and society was more like that of Iulia, Mucia, or Octavia.

Servilia’s Place in Society

Servilia has been viewed as having exceptional political influence. Women were excluded from the vote, office (other than religious), army, and (normally) advocacy. Family gave them a position. They could exercise patronage. They could benefit clients in various ways, inherit them from family or husband, transmit them to children. Clients and friends gave them a network of mutual obligations (officia) and favours (beneficia). Servilia formed her own ties with friends/acquaintances of all ranks, e.g. Atticus, Cicero, Flaminia, Triarius, probably Sulpicius. She had access to the circles of Caesar, Cato, and Brutus, from whom she is known to have drawn allies, such as Balbus, Labeo, Casca, Scaptius. Her wealth gave her leverage and the ability to display herself to advantage.

The Wife of Silanus (77–60)

Widows were not expected to remain unmarried. Servilia’s second husband was D. Iunius Silanus, who became consul for 62, with help from her and her family, and died c.60. She bore him daughters, probably in rapid succession: the future wives of Lepidus and Cassius and, it is argued, another who would marry Isauricus. Her full brother Q. Caepio died in 67, her half-siblings Cato and Porcia were rising. In 63 or earlier, Servilia began an initially adulterous relationship with Caesar, which would last until his death. Caesar enjoyed other liaisons with the wives of his friends and colleagues; Servilia is not known to have had other lovers. In 62 a proposed marriage alliance between Pompey and Cato’s family, perhaps the elder Iuniae, came to nothing.

Under the Domination of Caesar (49–44)

The civil wars of 49–45 killed many leaders. Caesar spared and employed ex-Pompeians, including Brutus and Cassius. Life in Italy was unsettled. Caesar was popular with the People, but many in the senatorial class accused him of behaving like a tyrant, a king, and a master of slaves. Brutus made a political statement by taking Porcia, Cato’s daughter, as his new wife. Servilia did not get on with her. Brutus joined the conspiracy led by C. Cassius and D. Brutus. The plotters’ motives were mixed. Servilia probably knew nothing.

Brutus (85–49)

Servilia’s only son, Brutus, was probably born in 85. By 59 he had taken the name Q. Caepio Brutus, either by adrogation or by taking the name of Servilius Caepio as a condition of inheriting. The adopter may have been Servilia’s full brother. In 58–56 he served under Cato in Cyprus. About 55 he married Claudia, daughter of the rich and influential Ap. Claudius Pulcher. He held a quaestorship (?54) and served under Claudius in Cilicia. He lent money to foreigners at usurious rates. In 49 he joined his father’s enemy Pompey.

The Iuniae (?c.75–49)

Servilia is likely to have taken the lead in arranging her daughters’ marriages, all of which were distinguished. One Iunia was married ?c.61 to the much older P. Servilius Isauricus, cos. 48, 41; they had a son, Publius (c.55–AD 35) cos. 25, and a presumed daughter, who married her first cousin, M. Lepidus, and died, like him, in 30. Another Iunia was married (?late 60s/early 50s) to M. Aemilius Lepidus; they had two sons, Marcus and Quintus. She was still alive in 30. The other daughter (died AD 22) married C. Cassius pr. 44. His parents are unknown. If he had no prior wife, Iunia probably married him by 59 and bore a son (known to have become adult 15 March 44) c.58. In 49–48 Cassius was a Pompeian admiral, but Caesar forgave him. He was a man of warmth and charm.

Adolescence and Marriage to Brutus (c.88–78)

Matchmaking was the art of the possible. It was desirable for upper-class girls to be married soon after the onset of puberty. Though of plebeian noble family, M. Iunius Brutus did not come close to the ideal. Troubled times may have narrowed Servilia’s chances, though she was a desirable bride. She probably married between 87 (before puberty?) and early 85 (when she was about 15, a normal age by aristocratic standards); Brutus was about seventeen years older. Her son was born in 85, in early winter 85/84. Her husband was tribune 83, which meant that Sulla excluded him from further office. In 78 he joined the rebellion of Lepidus and was killed by Pompey. Servilia in her early twenties was left a widow with a son to rear.