In a further display of devotion to his daughter Julia, Caesar held gladiatorial games in her memory. As such, she was the first woman to receive such an honour. An increasingly common practice in the late Republic and throughout the Empire that followed, such munera, or ‘obligations’, would be held to honour the manes, or ‘souls of deceased loved ones’. Caesar’s lavish games in remembrance of his daughter took place in September 46BC, to coincide with the ludi Veneris Genetricis, that honoured the divine ancestor of the Julian family.
