Adolescence and Marriage to Brutus (c.88–78)

Abstract

Matchmaking was the art of the possible. It was desirable for upper-class girls to be married soon after the onset of puberty. Though of plebeian noble family, M. Iunius Brutus did not come close to the ideal. Troubled times may have narrowed Servilia’s chances, though she was a desirable bride. She probably married between 87 (before puberty?) and early 85 (when she was about 15, a normal age by aristocratic standards); Brutus was about seventeen years older. Her son was born in 85, in early winter 85/84. Her husband was tribune 83, which meant that Sulla excluded him from further office. In 78 he joined the rebellion of Lepidus and was killed by Pompey. Servilia in her early twenties was left a widow with a son to rear.