Italy / Holland: 'Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar' (1st Century BCE), line engraving by Aegidus Sadeler, after Titian, 17th Century

Pompeia (1st Century BCE) was the second wife of Julius Caesar. The two were married in 67 BCE, after Caesar's first wife Cornelia had died the year previous. Not much is known about her, aside from the controversial events surrounding her hosting the festival of the Bona Dea ('good goddess') in 62 BCE, a festival which men were not permitted to attend. Despite this, a young patrician named Publius Clodius Pulcher snuck in disguised as a woman, supposedly to try to seduce Pompeia. He was caught and prosecuted for sacrilege, and Caesar divorced Pompeia, uttering 'my wife ought not even to be under suspicion', which gave rise to the proverb 'Caesar's wife must be above suspicion'.

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