Lucius Julius Caesar was son of another
Lucius Julius Caesar, who had been
Roman consul in 64 BC, as well as a distant cousin of the dictator
Gaius Julius Caesar. A Lucius Caesar is mentioned in 54 BC as one of the men contemplated to prosecute the governor of
Sardinia,
Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, for extortion. Lucius likely held the office of
quaestor by 50 BC, meaning he will have become a senator. In January 49,
Lucius Roscius Fabatus (a
praetor) and L. Caesar arrived in
Ariminum (modern Rimini) as open envoys to Caesar from Pompey. Caesar described L. Caesar as young (), and the statesman
Cicero had a low opinion, calling him in a letter dated 23 January ("not a man, but a broom untied"). He may have been chosen or volunteered for the task because of his kinship with Caesar. The envoys passed back and forth with counter-proposals, but no agreement was reached. He next appears later in 49 as commander under
Publius Attius Varus of a fleet of ten ships, charged with guarding the waters between
Africa and
Sicily. Threatened by the fleet of
Gaius Scribonius Curio, he withdrew from
Clupea (in modern
Tunisia) to
Hadrumetum (also in modern Tunisia), and then joined Pompey's land forces in Africa. According to
Suetonius (writing about 170 years later), he behaved with great cruelty to those of Caesar's
freedmen and
slaves whom he captured, and even butchered the wild animals which had been captured for popular amusement in the
circus. In 46, he is recorded as being
proquaestor (a military and magisterial office) under
Marcus Porcius Cato in
Utica (in modern Tunisia). After Cato's suicide, he surrendered Utica to Caesar. He was killed later that year, in unclear circumstances. Pompeians asserted that he had been killed at Caesar's instigation; but Julians retorted that not only was Caesar renowned for his clemency after victory, but that he had specifically granted L. Caesar mercy after his surrender. It may be that Caesar's soldiers, angered by the actions recounted by Suetonius, fell upon him. ==Footnotes==