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The Julii: Troy to the Ides, trad. 1184–27 BC

The legend lane against the record lane.

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The Chart — trad. 1184–27 BC

TROY AND ALBA THE KINGS THE REPUBLIC CAESAR 1000 BC 500 BC AD 1 1184 BC (trad.) — Troy falls — 1184 BC in the traditional computation of Eratosthenes. The date is a later calculation, not a record; but Troy VIIa is destroyed around 1180 and that destruction sits inside the Late Bronze Age Collapse, which took the Hittite empire, Mycenaean Greece and Ugarit within about fifty years. The war as a narrative is legend; a destruction at Troy in that window is archaeology. Aeneas escapes carrying his father Anchises and the Palladium.1 1184 BC (trad.) Troy falls — 1184 BC in the… c. 1180 BC — Aeneas reaches Latium, marries Lavinia, founds Lavinium.2 c. 1180 BC Aeneas reaches Latium, marries Lavinia,… c. 1150 BC — Ascanius — Iulus in the family’s identification, a disputed equation the tradition itself records — founds Alba Longa; the Silvii kings follow for some four centuries.3 c. 1150 BC Ascanius — Iulus in the… 753 BC (trad.) — Romulus, of the Alban royal house in the tradition, founds Rome — the Varronian date.4 753 BC (trad.) Romulus, of the Alban royal house in… c. 650s BC — Tullus Hostilius, third king of Rome, destroys Alba Longa and transplants its noble families to Rome — the Julii named among them.5 c. 650s BC Tullus Hostilius, third… c. 640 BC — Ancus Marcius, fourth king — the descent the Marcii Reges claimed: the maternal royal line of the 69 BC eulogy.6 c. 640 BC Ancus Marcius, fourth king — the… 509 BC (trad.) — The kings expelled; the Republic begins — the traditional date.7 509 BC (trad.) The kings expelled; the Republic… 489 BC — Gaius Julius Iulus, consul — the first Julius in the consular record. Five more Iuli consulships follow to 434.8 489 BC Gaius Julius Iulus, consul — the… 451 BC — A Julius sits on the Decemvirate that writes the Twelve Tables — Rome’s first written law.9 451 BC A Julius sits on the Decemvirate… 434 BC — The last consulship of the Julii Iuli. The family fades from high office for nearly three centuries.10 434 BC The last consulship of the Julii Iuli 157 BC — The first of the Julii Caesares reaches the consulship.11 157 BC The first of the Julii Caesares reaches… c. 100 BC — The gens Julia dedicates the altar at Bovillae to Vediovis leege Albana — by Alban law. The family’s Alban cult, in stone, in the dictator’s generation.12 c. 100 BC The gens… 12/13 Jul 100 BC — Gaius Julius Caesar born — the last Julian to hold the blood claim inside Roman law. His life runs on Rome and Egypt, 100–30 BC.13 12/13 Jul 100 BC Gaius Julius… 90 BC — Lucius Julius Caesar, consul, carries the lex Julia: Roman citizenship for the Italian allies who lay down arms.14 90 BC Lucius Julius Caesar, consul, carries… 87 BC — Lucius Caesar and his brother Caesar Strabo, the orator, killed in the Marian seizure of Rome.15 87 BC Lucius Caesar and his brother Caesar… 15 Mar 44 BC — The Ides: Caesar killed. In law the line ends here — no legitimate son exists, none can now be fathered, and the name passes by testamentary adoption to a sister’s grandson, an Octavius in the male line.16 15 Mar 44 BC The Ides: Caesar… late Aug 30 BC — Caesarion, the attested natural son, executed in Alexandria on the adopted heir’s order. In blood the male line ends here — fourteen years after it ended in law.17 late Aug 30 BC Caesarion, the attested natural son,… 27 BC — Octavian takes the name Augustus. The Julian name rules; the Julian male line is gone.18 27 BC Octavian takes the name Augustus
The legend The record
The Legend — traditional computations The Record — attested Death Error bar — the dating window

Each numbered marker links to its row in the event register below. The legend lane carries the family’s traditional descent story on traditional computations — every marker dashed; the record lane carries the Julii as the surviving record attests them. Closely spaced events are fanned rightward for readability at 0.87 pixels per year; the register carries the true dates. This period overlaps Rome and Egypt, 100–30 BC by design, and closes on the two endings of the line: in law at the Ides, in blood in 30 BC — the charcoal-and-gold markers at the lane’s end.

The Register

How the grading reads. one amber dot: a single channel carries it, with no external corroboration. two green: two independent sources cross. three green: a contemporary inscription, coin or other object. Counted by distinct register entries, not by citations — two passages of one author are one source. Fourteen of the eighteen entries rest on a single channel. Nothing before the Republic is materially attested at all: the Trojan descent is a family claim, and the chart shows where it stops being one.

№DateLaneEventRefs
11184 BC (trad.)LEGEND Troy falls — 1184 BC in the traditional computation of Eratosthenes. The date is a later calculation, not a record; but Troy VIIa is destroyed around 1180 and that destruction sits inside the Late Bronze Age Collapse, which took the Hittite empire, Mycenaean Greece and Ugarit within about fifty years. The war as a narrative is legend; a destruction at Troy in that window is archaeology. Aeneas escapes carrying his father Anchises and the Palladium. 35.1 36.1 M2 §3
2c. 1180 BCLEGEND Aeneas reaches Latium, marries Lavinia, founds Lavinium. 36.1 35.1 M2 §3
3c. 1150 BCLEGEND Ascanius — Iulus in the family’s identification, a disputed equation the tradition itself records — founds Alba Longa; the Silvii kings follow for some four centuries. 36.1 32.1 M2 §3
4753 BC (trad.)LEGEND Romulus, of the Alban royal house in the tradition, founds Rome — the Varronian date. 32.1 36.1 M2 §3
5c. 650s BCLEGEND Tullus Hostilius, third king of Rome, destroys Alba Longa and transplants its noble families to Rome — the Julii named among them. 32.1.30 M2 §5
6c. 640 BCLEGEND Ancus Marcius, fourth king — the descent the Marcii Reges claimed: the maternal royal line of the 69 BC eulogy. 32.1 M2 §6
7509 BC (trad.)RECORD The kings expelled; the Republic begins — the traditional date. 32.2 M2 §7
8489 BCRECORD Gaius Julius Iulus, consul — the first Julius in the consular record. Five more Iuli consulships follow to 434. 34.1 M2 §7
9451 BCRECORD A Julius sits on the Decemvirate that writes the Twelve Tables — Rome’s first written law. 34.1 32.2 M2 §7
10434 BCRECORD The last consulship of the Julii Iuli. The family fades from high office for nearly three centuries. 34.1 M2 §7
11157 BCRECORD The first of the Julii Caesares reaches the consulship. 34.1 M2 §7
12c. 100 BCRECORD The gens Julia dedicates the altar at Bovillae to Vediovis leege Albana — by Alban law. The family’s Alban cult, in stone, in the dictator’s generation. 37.1 M2 §4
1312/13 Jul 100 BCRECORD Gaius Julius Caesar born — the last Julian to hold the blood claim inside Roman law. His life runs on Rome and Egypt, 100–30 BC. 8.1 11.1 M2 §8 M1 §3
1490 BCRECORD Lucius Julius Caesar, consul, carries the lex Julia: Roman citizenship for the Italian allies who lay down arms. 10.1 M2 §7
1587 BCRECORD Lucius Caesar and his brother Caesar Strabo, the orator, killed in the Marian seizure of Rome. 10.1 M2 §7
1615 Mar 44 BCRECORD The Ides: Caesar killed. In law the line ends here — no legitimate son exists, none can now be fathered, and the name passes by testamentary adoption to a sister’s grandson, an Octavius in the male line. 9.1.82 M2 §9 M1 §15
17late Aug 30 BCRECORD Caesarion, the attested natural son, executed in Alexandria on the adopted heir’s order. In blood the male line ends here — fourteen years after it ended in law. 8.2.81 11.1 M2 §9
1827 BCRECORD Octavian takes the name Augustus. The Julian name rules; the Julian male line is gone. 6.1 11.1 M2 §10

Reference codes read source . work . passage against the master source register. Green M2 chips link to the section of The Julii covering the event; M1 chips to Caesar, to the Ides. The register cites the earliest attestation, not the most familiar one.

The Sources of This Period

Numbers are master register numbers — permanent across the whole timelines project; the full register lives at the master source register. Suetonius (9), Appian (10), Pliny (24) and the biographical sources also serve this period through the reference codes above.

  1. 32 · Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, surviving books — Augustan-era narrative history; Book 1 carries the Alban chain, the destruction of Alba Longa and the transplant of its noble houses — the Julii named — to Rome (1.30). Distinct from the lost books of the Caesarean era (item 17).32.1 Ab Urbe Condita Book 1 (edition)
  2. 33 · Homer, Iliad — the oldest Greek epic; Book 20 carries Poseidon’s prophecy that Aeneas’s descendants will rule — the root of the whole Julian tradition, centuries before Rome.33.1 Iliad Book 20 (edition)
  3. 34 · The Bovillae altar — stone altar dedicated by the gens Julia to Vediovis at Bovillae, inscribed leege Albana — by Alban law; dated on letter-forms to c. 100 BC. The one surviving physical document of the family’s own Alban claim.34.1 The inscription (CIL I² 1439) — stone; no single edition to link
  4. 35 · Virgil, Aeneid — the canonical Troy-to-Latium epic. Commissioned and written under Augustus, after the Julian name had become the state: the tradition’s codification by the dynasty that ruled by it.35.1 Aeneid (edition)
  5. 36 · Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities — Augustan-era Greek history of early Rome; the fullest surviving Aeneas-to-Romulus narrative.36.1 Roman Antiquities (edition)
  6. 37 · Fabius Pictor — Rome’s first historian, writing ~200 BC, who carried the Aeneas tradition a century and a half before Caesar. Lost.

Missing sources

Nothing in this list links out: these works are lost — their absence is the entry.

  1. 38 · Cato, Origines — the first history written in Latin, treating the Alban and Italian origins. Fragments only.
  2. 39 · The consular fasti — the inscribed magistrate lists (Fasti Capitolini and related), carrying the Julii Iuli consulships of 489–434 BC, the decemvir of 451, and the first Caesar consul of 157 BC.39.1 Fasti Capitolini — stone; no single edition to link
  3. 40 · The Venus–Aeneas denarius — silver coinage struck by Caesar 47–46 BC: Venus obverse; Aeneas carrying Anchises and the Palladium reverse. The descent claim minted into army pay.40.1 The coin type (Crawford 458/1) — coin; no single edition to link

Memos for This Period

Held as references, per the stream rule — the arguments live in the memos; the timeline states only what is attested and by whom.

Rome · History

The Julii

The family history of the gens Julia: the Troy chain and who recorded it, the surviving stone at Bovillae, Alba destroyed and the family transplanted to Rome, the Republic’s consuls, the lex Julia — and the adoption break: Augustus was a Julian through two women only, grafted by will onto a claim that runs father to son. With its own family timeline, Troy to the Ides.

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Rome · History · People

Caesar, to the Ides

Part 1 of the Caesar–Cleopatra period: the life to 15 March 44 BC, from the record — the Julii, the Subura, Sulla defied, the pirates, the kings-and-gods eulogy, the lawful ladder to an army, Gaul, the civil war, Cleopatra in Rome, the will and the drafted marriage bill, the Ides, and the documents that are missing. Linked event-by-event to the period timeline.

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A Note on the Dating

The two lanes of this page carry two kinds of date, and the chart draws the difference. The legend lane is the family’s descent story — Troy, Aeneas, Iulus, Alba, the kings — dated only by traditional computation (Eratosthenes’ reckoning for Troy, the Varronian date for Rome’s founding); every marker is dashed because no position on that lane is attested. The record lane carries the Julii as the surviving record holds them — and its own condition is stated: the early consulships survive through the consular fasti, whose monumental inscription was made under Augustus, and the one contemporary stone, the Bovillae altar, is dated by its lettering. Every claim before the Republic rests on texts written after the family already ruled or was positioned to; the register lists what is missing — Alba’s records, Rome’s first historians — with the same seriousness as what survives.

Format — TIMELINE-FORMAT-SPEC v1.4

This page follows the period-page format applied to a family line: a traditional lane and an attested lane, every traditional marker dashed, the dating basis cited per event, memo chips linking each event to the section that covers it, and the missing sources entered in the master register as first-class entries.

House rules: every event carries numbered references, linked to the master register · the register states no interpretation as an event · estimated means flagged, not resolved · the earliest attestation is cited.