The Julian family claimed Venus as its divine ancestor. The gens Julia traced its ancestry through Julus, also called Ascanius, the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who was believed to be Venus’s son.
According to Roman tradition, Aeneas escaped the destruction of Troy and eventually became an ancestor of the Roman people. His son Julus was then presented as the founder of the Julian line. This genealogy gave the family an unusually prestigious and divine origin, linking Julius Caesar to both Troy and the goddess Venus.
Caesar emphasized this connection in public religious and political imagery. He dedicated the Temple of Venus Genetrix, meaning Venus the Ancestress or Mother, in the Forum of Caesar. Roman coins and monuments also associated Venus with the Julian family. Venus was therefore not merely a patron deity in Caesar’s propaganda: she was presented as the literal divine foremother of his lineage. The family’s legendary descent should be understood as a political and mythological claim, not a verifiable biological genealogy.