The Rise of Gaius Julius Caesar, with an Account of his Early Friends, Enemies, and Rivals
In my previous paper I brought the story of Caesar down to the year when he returned home from the East after Sulla's death, and started a new double career—first as one of the college of pontiffs, and secondly as a tribune; the fact of his having had both a religious and secular status at this time no doubt greatly extended his influence and increased the number of useful people with whom he had personal ties. His appointment as a pontiff on the death of his maternal uncle was due, no doubt, to the antecedents of his mother's family, whose ancestral connection with priestly functions he inherited. The Aurelian ‘gens,’ which was plebeian in status, according to Festus professed to derive their family name from their sacerdotal duties, and particularly from the worship of the sun, which in the Sabine language was called ‘ausel,’ a word related to the ‘ozul’ of the Salian hymns and the Etruscan ‘Uzil,’ the god of light Festus argues that the Aurelii were at first called Auselii, like the Valerii and Papinii were respectively called Valesii and Papisii. It further seems to follow from these facts that Caesar, on his mother's side, belonged to a Sabine stock.