00:00This is Jeff, a typical American man, and his body count is 7, or at least he claims
00:07it so.
00:08And this is Julius, a not so typical Roman man, and his body count looks more like a
00:13phone number.
00:15He had loyal and unfaithful wives, multiple love affairs, and he was even intimate with
00:21someone who contributed to his demise.
00:24Since one of his lovers gave birth to the man who took his life, let's take a sneak
00:29peek at Caesar's bedroom, shall we?
00:35One important thing you need to understand is that Caesar wasn't born an emperor.
00:39There weren't any in his bloodline and usually you need your daddy to reign the empire to
00:44be able to take over when you grow up.
00:47Duh, he had an ancient pedigree and all.
00:50His father was a senator, but his family wasn't that politically influential.
00:55So his first wife was Cornelia, a noblewoman from a really good family.
01:01Together they had Julia, who is the only legitimate daughter of Caesar, and no one can really
01:06tell how many best non-legitimate ones he had.
01:11The big question is, was Caesar a good, loving, and loyal husband to Cornelia?
01:16Well to know that for sure, we'd need a Ouija board, since there's no real evidence about
01:21their feelings documented in the books.
01:24But there's no evidence concerning why he refused to divorce her either, though he was
01:28literally forced to.
01:31Here's the tea.
01:32Back in 8281 BCE, there was Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a Roman general who turned dictator.
01:40He was even the rival of Cornelia's dad and he was forcing people to leave their wives
01:45and marry into his family, and guess what?
01:48Many people did comply.
01:51Sulla wanted Caesar to dump his wife Cornelia, but instead, Caesar chose to flee Rome.
01:57Because of that, he lost his titles and inheritance, and Sulla even hired people to liquidate him.
02:04Although he was caught, he managed to bribe his captor and, with some help from influential
02:10allies, returned to Cornelia.
02:13Who knows, he may have stayed with her happily ever after, but she passed away pretty young
02:18in 69 BCE.
02:20To sum up, this marriage made him lose money, home, position in society, and he could even
02:26lose his life.
02:27Yet, it was her untimely demise that did them part.
02:32Maybe Caesar did really love Cornelia after all.
02:37Anyways, two years later, Caesar officially remarried.
02:42In a way, that was Sulla's dream coming true.
02:45Caesar married someone from his family because Pompeia was his granddaughter.
02:50Needless to say, it was more of a marriage of convenience rather than a marriage for
02:55love.
02:56Time went by, and four years later, Caesar got a serious promotion, becoming in 69 BCE
03:03the Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the Roman state religion.
03:08It all came with an official residence on the Via Sacra, and you can still take a walk
03:12down this street if you visit the Roman Forum.
03:16Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly, until one day in 62 BCE, when his wife Pompeia
03:21decided to throw a party that put an end to her marriage.
03:26She hosted a festival called Bona Dia, and there was only one condition, no man was allowed.
03:33However, a young patrician managed to sneak in because he was disguised as a woman, apparently
03:40for the purpose of seducing Pompeia.
03:44He was caught and prosecuted for sacrilege, and at that time, rumors about adulterous
03:49Pompeia started circulating around Rome.
03:53It turned out pretty fine for Clodius, he was free from any criminal charges as Caesar
03:58gave no evidence against him at his trial.
04:02Things ended less happily for Pompeia as Caesar divorced her.
04:07Ever heard the proverb, Caesar's wife must be above suspicion?
04:10Well, that's about this very unfortunate situation.
04:14We'll never know if Pompeia was really unfaithful, but Caesar didn't want to take a risk, though
04:20it could have been just a lame excuse to ditch Pompeia, who he may have never really loved.
04:28The same year Caesar divorced Pompeia, he married another woman, Calpurnia, a humble
04:33young lady of noble descent.
04:36We already know that he was becoming more and more influential in Rome, and he needed
04:41to think about what was the best for his career.
04:45Despite being just a convenience wife, records say that Calpurnia was a good and faithful
04:50one to Caesar, which can't be exactly said about him.
04:54He had numerous lovers, and the most famous of them was surely Queen Cleopatra, but we'll
05:00speak about their spicy affair a bit later.
05:04That was a very much unequal marriage, starting with the fact that Calpurnia was 17 and Caesar
05:09was 41 when the two wedded.
05:12Get this, she was probably younger than Caesar's daughter, yet it's not something unbelievable
05:18in the 21st century, duh!
05:21It's hard to judge whether Calpurnia was gifted by nature with an outstanding appearance,
05:26yet what she was definitely gifted with was patience.
05:30Otherwise it's impossible to explain how she tolerated the Casanova lifestyle Caesar
05:34adopted in the years of their marriage.
05:37Rumor had it that he took advantage of the wives of a number of prominent men.
05:42He also seduced the wives of two of his allies in the First Triumvirate, a political alliance
05:48among three prominent politicians.
05:50One of them was Caesar himself.
05:53Do the math, and you'll see that no wife of his allies hadn't been seduced.
05:58Weird, right?
06:00There weren't records of him being this adulterous before, but after a marriage where he thought
06:04he was cheated on, he just went nuts and started treating women like Kleenex.
06:10All Rome was buzzing about his relationship with Servilla, who was a Roman matron.
06:15No one knows when their relationship started exactly.
06:18Some records say it was 59 BCE, but Plutarch insisted it all started way back when they
06:25were teenagers.
06:26And if Plutarch was right, then the rumor about Caesar being the real father of Brutus
06:30– yep, the one who betrayed him and one of those who took his life – might be true
06:36after all.
06:38Caesar definitely had a thing for taken ladies.
06:41Like, Caesar also had love affairs with the Mauritanian queen, but it wasn't as memorable
06:46as his affair with the one and only Cleopatra.
06:50When Caesar met her, he was in his 50s and had a wife back in Rome.
06:54But something about the 21-year-old Cleopatra caught his eye.
06:58I guess it was her charm and intelligence.
07:02The drama kicked off when Julius Caesar got involved in her family feud with her brother,
07:06Ptolemy XIII, whom she was married to at the time.
07:11Their relationship was rocky, leading to Cleopatra being kicked out of Egypt while Ptolemy tried
07:17to rule alone.
07:19When Caesar arrived in Alexandria, he was greeted with the severed head of his rival,
07:25Pompey.
07:26Outraged, he wanted Cleopatra and Ptolemy to reconcile, but Cleopatra had other plans.
07:32She famously snuck into the palace, hidden in a bed sack, to charm Caesar.
07:38Their connection was both romantic and politically strategic.
07:43Caesar eventually put Cleopatra back on the throne, arranging for her to marry her younger
07:48brother, Ptolemy XIV, after her first brother-husband drowned.
07:54Despite the awkward situation, Cleopatra took charge of the kingdom.
08:00They celebrated their alliance with a lavish cruise down the Nile, during which Cleopatra
08:05announced her pregnancy with Caesar's son, nicknamed Caesarian.
08:10He was never acknowledged by Roman law, though.
08:13Even though their situation-ship faced challenges due to Roman laws and Caesar's existing marriage,
08:19Cleopatra spent about 18 months in Rome.
08:23The official wife, Calpurnia, didn't magically disappear.
08:26She was always there and loved him, turning a blind eye on all the shame he put on her.
08:32The night before Caesar's life was taken, Calpurnia had a nightmare where she saw Caesar
08:37hurt and breathing his last in her arms.
08:41The next morning, she pleaded with him not to go to the Senate as he had planned.
08:46Her worries really got to him and he decided to stay home.
08:49But then, Brutus showed up in his house and convinced him to brush off the bad signs and
08:54head to the Senate anyway.
08:56The rest is history.
08:58After Caesar was eliminated, Cleopatra didn't think long and returned to Egypt, only to
09:03begin an affair with Marc Antony, Caesar's ally.
09:07Like Calpurnia, she handed all the Caesar's papers to the same Marc Antony and grieved
09:12her late husband, surrounded by her servants.
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