10. Julius Caesar was born via a C-section, giving the procedure its name
Or, in some tellings, being named Caesar because the procedure in Latin was called Caesar. The myths can be traced to a document from the 10th century. According to the document, known as Suda, “For when his mother died in the ninth month, they cut her open, took him out, and named him for thus; for in the Roman tongue dissection is called Caesar“. In Rome at the time of Caesar’s birth, a law known as Lex Caesarea required an infant to be removed from a dead mother immediately, in hopes of saving the child. However, Caesar’s mother, Aurelia, did not die preceding or during child birth, as is claimed in Suda. She took responsibility for much of Julius’ upbringing, as her husband, also named Gaius Julius Caesar, spent long periods away from home.
The younger Julius Caesar’s first wife, Cornelia, died in childbirth, and Aurelia took over responsibility for raising her granddaughter, Julia. Until Caesar’s second marriage Aurelia presided over her son’s household. She died in 54 BCE, in Rome. Had Julius Caesar been born via a caesarian operation, Aurelia would almost certainly not have survived, given the medical abilities and techniques of the time. The Lex Caesarea required the removal of an infant from a dead mother, intended to save infants mainly during a mother’s death in childbirth. Yet the myth that Julius Caesar was delivered via a c-section remains an often cited one, despite its obvious lack of truth.