Servilia Caepionis

Servilia Caepionis (1st century BC) is one of the few Roman women cited by ancient sources. She was a patrician, daughter of Quintus Servilius Caepio and Livia Drusa. By her mother, she was half-sister of Marcus Porcius Cato, the Younger.

Servilia was brought up in the house of Marcus Livius Drusus, a maternal uncle, after her parents' scandalous divorce. She married a Marcus Junius Brutus, a relatively nobody in the political scene. From this marriage, Servilia had only one child: Brutus, one of Caesar's assassins.

But the most important contribution of Servilia to history, besides her son, was the fact that she became Julius Caesar's mistress. Unlike other Roman women, she had not the character to sit still and wait for him to call. This boldness would be the disclosure of the affair. One day, when Caesar was attending the senate, Servilia sent him a love letter. Caesar tried to read the message discreetly but Cato the Younger, his greatest enemy, caught him and accused him of conspiracy. Caesar said that was from his mistress but Cato, not believing, defied him to prove it and snapped the message from him. The contents are unknown but Cato was disgusted and dropped the subject. Servilia's marriage ended shortly afterwards.

Caesar was very fond of her and, years later, when he returned to a deserted Rome after the Gallic Wars, he offered her a priceless black pearl.