The
gens Julia or
Iulia was one of the most ancient
patrician families at
Ancient Rome. Members of the
gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the
Republic. The first of the family to obtain the
consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for
Gaius Julius Caesar, the
dictator, and grand uncle of the emperor
Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called
Julio-Claudian dynasty of the 1st century AD. The
nomen Julius became very common in
imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as
citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.