His father, C. Iulius Caesar, was praetor in B.C. 84, and died in the same year; Aurelia, his mother, took great interest in his education (Tac. _Dial._ 28). From the first Caesar was connected with the leaders of the democratic party in the State. Marius, who had married his father's sister Julia, conferred on him the office of _flamen Dialis_ before he was sixteen years of age; and his first wife was Cornelia, daughter of Cinna. His refusal to divorce her at the bidding of Sulla drew down upon him the enmity of the dictator; and he fled in disguise to the Sabine mountains, where he remained until Sulla reluctantly consented to spare his life. Caesar obtained his first experience of military service as a member of the staff of M. Thermus, propraetor of Asia, who conferred on him the _civica corona_ for saving the life of a fellow-soldier at the siege of Mytilene. After serving for a short time under Servilius Isauricus against the pirates in Cilicia, he returned to Rome on the news of Sulla's death in 78, and in the following year commenced his career as an orator with the prosecution of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella, proconsul of Macedonia, for extortion. Towards the end of that year Caesar left Rome for Rhodes--on his way thither being captured by pirates near Miletus--and studied for a year under the famous rhetorician Molo, taking part also in some operations on the mainland against one of the officials of Mithradates. Having been elected one of the _pontifices_ in the room of his uncle, C. Aurelius Cotta, he returned to Rome in 74, and soon became a _tribunus militum_. In the agitation for the restoration of the powers of the tribunes of the _plebs_, Caesar took a prominent part; he also supported the _Lex Aurelia_ of 70, which gave the _equites_ a share in the _iudicia_, and the _Lex Plautia_, granting an amnesty to the adherents of Lepidus and Sertorius. The year 68 he spent as quaestor in Farther Spain, and on his return to Rome strenuously advocated the claims of the Transpadane Gauls to the Roman franchise. His first wife having died, he married Pompeia, daughter of Q. Pompeius Rufus, and granddaughter of Sulla, whom he divorced five years later on account of her alleged adultery with P. Clodius. In 67 and 66 the bills of Gabinius and Manilius, conferring extensive military powers upon Pompey, were supported by Caesar and the other leading democrats.