Pompeia (wife of Caesar)
Pompeia ("fl." 1st century BC) was the second or third wife of Julius Caesar. Biography. Early life. Her parents were Quintus Pompeius Rufus, a son of a former consul, and Cornelia, the daughter of the Roman dictator Sulla. Marriage. Caesar married Pompeia in 67 BC, after he had served as quaestor in Hispania, his first wife Cornelia having died in 69 BC. Caesar was the nephew of Gaius Marius, and Cornelia was the daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna so that they were related to both the leaders of the losing "populares" side in the civil war  of the 80s BC. In 63 BC Caesar was elected to the position of the Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the Roman state religion, which came with an official residence on the "Via Sacra". In 62 BC Pompeia hosted the festival of the Bona Dea ("good goddess"), which no man was permitted to attend, in this house. However a young patrician named Publius Clodius Pulcher managed to gain admittance disguised as a woman, apparently for the purpose of seducing Pompeia. He was caught and prosecuted for sacrilege. Caesar gave no evidence against Clodius at his trial, and he was  acquitted. Nevertheless, Caesar divorced Pompeia, saying that "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion". This gave rise to a proverb, sometimes expressed: "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". Later life. Nothing specific is known about her life after the divorce, but it has been proposed that she may have married Publius Vatinius. Cultural depictions. Pompeia is depicted in various works of fiction including Robert Harris' "Lustrum" and Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series, in the "Masters of Rome" series the theory that she remarried to Publius is depicted.