| Bio |

Who they were

Calpurnia belonged to the Calpurnii, a plebeian family, meaning one outside Rome's old patrician nobility^[1]. The family claimed descent from Calpus, a son of Numa, a figure from Rome's legendary early history^[1]. By Calpurnia's day its Piso branch ranked among the most illustrious families in the Roman state^[1]. Her father, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, was consul in 58 BC^[1]. The writer Arthur Weigall described him as a pupil of Philodemus, an Epicurean, that is, a follower of the philosopher Epicurus^{[3, p. 240]}.

Julius Caesar married Calpurnia in 59 BC^[1]. Plutarch says Caesar then got her father named consul for the following year^[4]. Suetonius adds that at about the same time Caesar betrothed his own daughter Julia to Pompey^[5]. According to Plutarch, Cato protested that it was intolerable for supreme power to be passed around through marriage bargains^[4]. The historian Guglielmo Ferrero called the match a political intrigue^[6]. Weigall adds that Caesar soon proposed divorcing Calpurnia to marry Pompey's daughter, and that Pompey refused^[7].

Ancient writers say that on the night before the Ides of March in 44 BC Calpurnia had a frightening dream. Plutarch says she dreamed she held her murdered husband in her arms^[4]. He notes a second version, from the historian Livy, in which she saw a roof ornament on their house falling^[4]. Suetonius says she imagined the house's pediment, or gable, collapsing and Caesar stabbed in her arms^[5]. Appian says she saw him streaming with blood^{[8, p. 87]}. In the morning, according to Plutarch, she begged him not to go out and to put off the Senate meeting^[4].

Smith's nineteenth-century Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography says her entreaties were in vain^[1]. On the night of the Ides, the Loeb edition of Cicero's Philippics says, Mark Antony took Caesar's treasure and private papers with Calpurnia's consent^[9]. George Long wrote that she entrusted him with the money in the house and all Caesar's writings and memoranda^[2]. At the request of her father, Lucius Piso, Caesar's will was then opened and read in Antony's house, Suetonius reports^[10].

Calpurnia's warning became a fixture of later retellings of the Ides of March. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, she kneels to beg Caesar to stay at home^[11]. Her marriage left no heir. Weigall writes that she had no son of her own^[7]. Caesar's will, as Suetonius reports it, still named guardians for a son of his, should he ever have one^[10]. Her father's family stayed prominent: William Smith notes that the Piso branch of the Calpurnii was among the most illustrious in the Roman state^[1].

Nicolaus of Damascus, in his Life of Augustus, says Calpurnia was terrified by her dream and clung to Caesar, declaring she would not let him go out that day^[12]. Plutarch tells a smaller story from the same morning. A slave belonging to someone else, unable to push through the crowd to Caesar, rushed into the house and gave himself up to Calpurnia^[4]. He asked her to keep him until Caesar returned, because he had important news^[4].

| Legacy & Reputation |

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