The Julius Caesar family tree, from the Julii to the last Julio-Claudian

The Julius Caesar family tree begins with the Julii. Caesar’s father, also named Gaius Julius Caesar, was praetor in 92 BC and governor of Asia, and died in 85 BC.⁴ His mother Aurelia came from the Aurelii Cottae and lived until 54 BC.⁵

Caesar was born on 12 or 13 July 100 BC and had two sisters, both named Julia.^3,4 At the funeral of his aunt, Caesar traced her mother’s family to the kings of Rome and the Julii to the goddess Venus, through Iulus, the son of Aeneas.^1,3 The claim of divine descent belongs to the family’s story, so it stays in this text and off the chart.

All three of Caesar’s wives stand beside him on the Julius Caesar family tree. Cornelia, a daughter of Cinna, became his wife in 84 BC, and Suetonius records that the dictator Sulla could not force him to give her up. She died in 69 BC.^1,3

Their daughter Julia, born in about 76 BC, was the only child Caesar had in marriage, and her grandmother Aurelia raised her.⁶ In April 59 BC Caesar married her to Pompey. She died in childbirth in August 54 BC, and the child died too.⁶ In 49 BC the two men went to war.⁷

Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla, married Caesar in 67 BC. After the Bona Dea scandal of 62 BC he divorced her, saying his wife must be above suspicion.⁵ Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, married him in 59 BC and was his widow.¹

Cleopatra VII met Caesar at Alexandria in October 48 BC, and Caesarion was born on 23 June 47 BC.^8,9 Suetonius writes that Caesar let her give the child his name.¹ The sources disagree on the father. Caesar did not name the boy in his will. Mark Antony said Caesar had acknowledged him in private, and Caesar’s friend Gaius Oppius wrote that he could not be his son.⁹

Caesarion reigned with his mother as Ptolemy XV from 44 BC. Octavian had him killed in August 30 BC, a few weeks after Cleopatra died.⁹

On the Julius Caesar family tree the heir came through Caesar’s sister. Julia married Marcus Atius Balbus, and their daughter Atia married Gaius Octavius, who died in 59 BC.¹⁰ Their son Gaius Octavius was born in 63 BC.¹¹

Caesar was killed on 15 March 44 BC. His will, read at Antony’s house, made Octavius heir to three quarters of the estate and, in its last lines, adopted him into the family and the name.¹ He accepted on 8 May 44 BC and took the name Gaius Julius Caesar.¹¹ In 27 BC the Senate gave him the name Augustus.¹¹

The only surviving child of Augustus was Julia the Elder, born in 39 BC to his second wife Scribonia.¹³ On 17 January 38 BC he married Livia, who left Tiberius Claudius Nero to marry him and brought two sons of the Claudian house, Tiberius and Drusus.¹²

Julia married Agrippa in 21 BC, and their daughter Agrippina was born in 14 BC.¹³ Drusus married Antonia, a niece of Augustus, and died in 9 BC.¹⁴ The two branches of the Julius Caesar family tree met when Agrippina married their son Germanicus.²⁰

Augustus outlived his chosen heirs.¹⁹ On 26 June AD 4 he adopted Tiberius and made him adopt Germanicus the same year.^14,15 That is why the Julius Caesar family tree runs on through two dotted lines in one generation.

Tiberius ruled from AD 14 to 37.¹⁹ His heir was Caligula, a son of Germanicus and Agrippina, killed on 24 January AD 41.¹⁹ His uncle Claudius, the younger son of Drusus and Antonia, followed him.¹⁶

Claudius married his niece Agrippina the Younger on 1 January AD 49 and adopted her son by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus on 25 February AD 50, giving him the name Nero Claudius Caesar.^17,18 Claudius died on 13 October AD 54. Many ancient writers say Agrippina poisoned him, and others allow a natural death.^17,16

Nero had his mother killed in AD 59 and killed himself on 9 June AD 68. The Julio-Claudian line that began with an adoption by will ended with his death.^18,19