Plutarch, after his fashion, gives
incidental information about Caesar's youth and his family. I conceive
that he purposely avoided a formal beginning; and according to his
plan of biography, he was right. Niebuhr also observes that the
beginning of the Life of Caesar in Suetonius is imperfect; "a fact well
known, but it is only since the year 1812, that we know that the part
which is wanting contained a dedication to the praefectus praetorio of
the time, a fact which has not yet found its way into any history of
Roman Literature." It is an old opinion that the Life of Caesar in
Suetonius is imperfect. The fact that the dedication alone is wanting,
for so Niebuhr appears to mean, shows that the Life is not incomplete,
and there is no reason for thinking that it is.
C. Julius Caesar, the son of C. Julius Caesar and Aurelia, was born on
the twelfth of July, B.C. 100, in the sixth consulship of his uncle C.
Marius. His father, who had been praetor, died suddenly at Pisa when
his son was in his sixteenth year.]
[Footnote 436: See the Life of Pompeius, c. 9, and notes.]
[Footnote 437: Caesar was first betrothed to Cossutia, the daughter of
a rich Roman Eques, but he broke off the marriage contract, and
married Cornelia, B.C. 83.]
[Footnote 438: A different story is told by Suetonius (_Caesar_, c. 1),
and Velleius Paterculus (ii. 43).]
[Footnote 439: Cornelius Phagita (Suetonius, c.
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