Bona Dea scandal It is not known if it was the elder or the younger of the dictator's sisters who gave evidence against
Publius Clodius Pulcher when he was impeached for impiety in 61 BC. Julia and her mother gave the legal courts a detailed account of the affair he had with
Pompeia, Julius Caesar's wife. Caesar divorced Pompeia over the scandal.
Marriage and offspring Julia married
Marcus Atius Balbus, a praetor and commissioner who came from a senatorial family of
plebeian status. Julia bore him three (or two, according to other sources) daughters and possibly a son named
Marcus Atius Balbus. The
second daughter was the mother of
Octavia Minor (fourth wife of triumvir
Mark Antony) and of Rome's first Emperor
Augustus. Her
youngest daughter was the wife of
Lucius Marcius Philippus, and they had a daughter named
Marcia. Another Atia, who may have been her granddaughter through her son (probably from a marriage to a
Claudia) may have been married to Gaius Junius Silanus. This Atia was the mother of
Gaius Junius Silanus who became consul in AD 10. Sons of Silanus were
Appius Junius Silanus (consul in 28),
Decimus Junius Silanus (who was involved in the disgrace of
Julia the Younger) and
Marcus Junius Silanus (
consul suffectus in 15). Balbus died in 51 BC along with Julia. At age 12,
Octavius, her youngest grandson, the future Emperor Augustus, delivered her funeral oration. ==References==