Julia was probably born around 76 BC. Her mother died in 69 BC when Julia was only seven years old, after which she was raised by her paternal grandmother Aurelia Cotta. Her father engaged her to a Servilius Caepio. There has been a notion that it could have been Marcus Junius Brutus (Caesar's most famous assassin), who, after being adopted by his uncle, was known as Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus for an unknown period of time. This is just conjecture. Caesar broke off this engagement and married her to Pompey in April 59 BC, with whom Caesar sought a strong political alliance in forming the First Triumvirate. This family-alliance of its two great chiefs was regarded as the firmest bond between Caesar and Pompey, and was accordingly viewed with much alarm by the "optimates" (the oligarchal party in Rome), especially by Marcus Tullius Cicero and Cato the Younger.