Pompeia Sulla - Definition and Overview

Pompeia Sulla (fl. 1st century BC) was the daughter of Quintus Pompeius Rufus and Cornelia Sulla (the daughter of the Roman Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix).

She became the second wife of Julius Caesar sometime between the death of his first wife (c. 69 BC) and 63 BC. Although beautiful and charming, Pompeia appears to have lacked intelligence, and her marriage to Caesar (her second cousin by blood as her mother and Caesar were first cousins) appears to have been mainly for political reasons. Caesar, elected pontifex maximus (chief priest) that year, hosted the Bona Dea ceremony at his residence; the rites for the Mother Earth goddess Bona Dea were highly sacred and only women were permitted to witness them. During the ceremony, the volatile tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher, a well-known troublemaker disguised as a woman, entered into his house, presumably to carry out an affair with her. Although it would appear Pompeia herself was free of any wrongdoing, the disreputable social circle she mixed in counted against her, and she was publicly disgraced. Shortly after, Caesar divorced her, saying no more than the cryptic phrase "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."