History and legend have often travelled together in Seville. One of the city's most unusual traditions claims that Julius Caesar had two sons with a Sevillian woman — and that the fate of both children would become linked to the walls of Hispalis and, ultimately, to Caesar's own death in Rome.
THE ILLUSTRATED LEGEND
Discover the story through our illustrated audiovisual version.
THE TWO SONS OF JULIUS CAESAR
A dark Sevillian legend of love, sacrifice and revenge.
According to Sevillian tradition, during the time Julius Caesar spent in Hispalis he fell in love with a young woman named Syoma Julia. The legend says that their relationship produced two sons, whose destinies would become connected with some of the most dramatic episodes attributed to Caesar.
The first child, according to the story, was sacrificed by Caesar in an attempt to gain the favour and protection of the gods. The boy was killed and buried beneath the foundations of the city wall near the Arch of La Macarena, in the belief that such a sacrifice would make both the fortifications and the city itself invincible.
Devastated by the death of her firstborn, Syoma Julia fled from Caesar and protected her second child. She concealed his true identity and raised him under another name, determined to prevent him from suffering the same fate as his brother.
The legend then gives the story its most surprising twist: that second son would later become known as Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the men who took part in the assassination of Julius Caesar in Rome on the Ides of March.
Thus, according to the Sevillian tale, the child whom Caesar did not sacrifice eventually grew into one of the conspirators responsible for his death. Tradition even connects the scene symbolically with Caesar's old rival Pompey, since the assassination took place in the complex of the Theatre of Pompey, close to a statue of the defeated Roman general.
Despite the dark nature of the legend, Seville preserved a very different memory of Caesar himself. Local tradition credited him with enlarging and strengthening Hispalis, helping transform the city into one of the great urban centres of southern Hispania.
That association remained deeply rooted in Seville's symbolic memory. Caesar appears alongside Hercules in some of the city's traditional imagery, and his statue still crowns one of the great columns of the Alameda de Hércules, placed there in the 16th century.
The result is one of Seville's most striking legends: a story in which Caesar is remembered at the same time as benefactor, father, executioner and eventual victim of the son he supposedly left behind.
BETWEEN HISTORY AND LEGEND
A traditional story built around real historical figures.
Julius Caesar had a real and important connection with Hispania and held public offices in the province before the civil wars that eventually brought him to supreme power in Rome. His association with Hispalis therefore has a genuine historical background.
The story of Syoma Julia, the two Sevillian sons and the sacrifice of the first child beneath the walls belongs, however, to local legend. There is no accepted historical evidence that Caesar fathered these two children in Seville or that a human sacrifice of this kind was carried out to protect the city's fortifications.
Likewise, Marcus Junius Brutus was not historically the son of Julius Caesar. He was a Roman senator and one of the principal conspirators involved in Caesar's assassination in 44 BC. The tradition transforms that real historical figure into Caesar's hidden Sevillian son to create a dramatic story of revenge and destiny.
The legend should therefore be understood as a Sevillian narrative built around real names, places and historical events, but reshaped through centuries of popular tradition.
SOURCE AND ADAPTATION
Adapted for Sevilla Ciudad Mágica from the Sevillian tradition collected by José María de Mena in Tradiciones y Leyendas Sevillanas.
Seville is not only discovered through its monuments and streets.
Its legends are also part of its history and cultural memory.
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