Julius Caesar's Love Letter From a Rival’s Sister
By: Oskar Bogdanowicz
Tags: Love Letters, History, Rome, Love, Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar's Love Letter From a Rival’s Sister

Julius Caesar, Former Roman Consul

The times in which Julius Caesar was a senator were very strange and complex. Due to the fact that Roman high society was very complicated and relatively small, it meant that better off Romans knew each other rather well, this sometimes led to complications when two people disagreed and some Romans knew how to exploit this.

The story goes that in 64 B.C when Julius Caesar was arguing with Cato, a fellow senator, over Caesar’s involvement in the Catiline conspiracy a letter was handed to him.

The Catiline conspiracy was a plot devised by senator Lucius Catilina along with a few fellow aristocrats meant to overthrow the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cato was convinced that Julius Caesar was involved in this plot in order to gain power in the Senate and became hellbent on proving it.

Once Caesar received this seemingly innocuous note Cato demanded that it be read out loud as it was potentially a message from the conspirators. While at first hesitant Caesar eventually caved and handed it over. To Cato’s dismay, it turned out the letter was a rather presumptuous love letter to Caesar… from Cato's half-sister.

It turns out that Servilia Caepionis had become Caesar’s mistress in around 64 B.C while she was married to her second husband, Decimus Silanus, who apparently didn't seem to mind the relationship. She was also at the time raising two children from her previous marriage.

Cato began reading the note and very rapidly realised his political opponent had been playing around with his own half-sister. He was of course embarrassed by the unveiling of this affair and threw the note back at Caesar and said “Keep it, you drunk!”

Here is the actual excerpt from Plutarch’s The Life of Cato the Younger:

«Now, since we must not pass over even the slight tokens of character when we are delineating as it were a likeness of the soul, the story goes that on this occasion, when Caesar was eagerly engaged in a great struggle with Cato and the attention of the senate was fixed upon the two men, a little note was brought in from outside to Caesar. Cato tried to fix suspicion upon the matter and alleged that it had something to do with the conspiracy,25 and bade him read the writing aloud. Then Caesar handed the note to Cato, who stood near him. But when Cato had read the note, which was an unchaste letter from his sister Servilia to Caesar, with whom she was passionately and guiltily in love, he threw it to Caesar, saying, “Take it, thou sot,” and then resumed his speech.»

Historians are split as to whether this was indeed an accident on Caesar's side that made the affair public, or whether it was all part of the plan to anger or provoke Cato. Definite proof has never been found.

As mentioned previously, the life of Roman high society was very complex and interconnected which often led to many marriages, divorces, adoptions, and generally melded families. The affair with Servilia lasted for two decades as Caesar fought wars, conquered and increased his power.

In fact, it lasted until Caesar’s murder. There’s a little-known fact that might be interesting to you. As previously mentioned Servilia had a few children, one of them was called Brutus and would go down in history books as one of the leaders in the conspiracy to kill Julius Ceasar in 44 B.C. So, on the same day, Servilia lost her lover of over 20 years and became the mother to his killer.