1.1
In the course of his sixteenth year85/84 B.C., according to the chronology of Suetonius, which makes the year of Caesar’s birth 100 B.C. The arguments in favour of 102 are however very strong. he lost his father. In the next consulate, having previously been nominated priest of Jupiter,By Marius and Cinna, consuls in 86; see Vell. 2. 43. 1. he broke his engagement with Cossutia, a lady of only equestrian rank, but very wealthy, who had been betrothed to him before he assumed the gown of manhood, and married Cornelia, daughter of that Cinna who was four times consul, by whom he presently had a daughter Julia; and the dictator Sulla could by no means force him to put away his wife.
1.2
Therefore besides being punished by the loss of his priesthood, his wife’s dowry, and his family inheritances, Caesar was held to be one of the opposite party. He was accordingly forced to go into hiding, and though suffering from a severe attack of quartan ague, to change from one covert to another almost every night, and save himself from Sulla’s detectives by bribes. But at last, through the good offices of the Vestal virgins and of his near kinsmen, Aemilius Mamercus and Aurelius Cotta, he obtained forgiveness.
