Julia Rutila
16
Female
Red-gold hair, pale, tall, and blue-green eyes
Patrician
Divorced from Marcus Porcus Cato



Julia Rutila feels that she is a complete failure. Julian women are known for keeping their husbands happy, but Marcus Porcus Cato found her quite unsuitable, even if he had married her at fourteen in order to train her to his needs. He would have complained to her father about her behavior, however, Gaius Julius Rutilius died after arranging the marriage of his only child to someone who had the same ultra-conservative views.

Many people in the Roman upper classes wonder the reason for Julia’s divorce. After all, Julia walks silently, says nothing unless directly asked a question, and has a quiet voice most people have trouble hearing. She dresses simply in dull clothing and wears no jewelry. Most of her time is spent in her spinning room and her bedroom. Surely that would please even a Cato.

The Cato home was one that was well known among the best run homes on the Palentine and the Domina who was kindly and reasonably to her servants made sure that everything that was always ready in case her husband came home unexpectedly. She was well-trained by her husband to be not seen or heard, but to make clothing for the family and stay out of his way.

Those that have seen Julia claim that she has the beauty of her ancestress Venus. She is slim, tall, and pleasing to the eyes. Her simply dressed hair is as red-gold as her father’s cognomen suggests and her mother gave her eyes as aquamarine as the waters of Capri at noon.

After her divorce, Julia moved into the large villa that had been her dowry, along with her mother Claudia Pulchra, a pack of greyhounds, a lapdog, and several cats. Her fondness for animals is just one way her gentle nature chooses to show itself. She is often seen buying caged birds for the sole purposes to set them free.

She is well educated. Surprisingly, her father gave her all the non-physical training of a boy so that any grandsons would be properly taught. The marriage with Cato was a barren one, although Julia would have loved a child. Still, she is only sixteen and her future is yet to be written. Meanwhile, she spins and reads her books until her hero comes to rescue her.