Trial of Servilia. A.R. 815.

This is one of a group of drawings by British artist and book illustrator Edward Francis Burney, depicting scenes from Greek and Roman history and mythology. One of the inscriptions on the margin, May No. 6, seems to refer to the month in a calendar for which Burney created this frontispiece drawing. He executed many headpieces of this kind for pocket calendars and memorandum books between 1796 to 1829. [See correspondence between Patricia Crown and Edward Morris, in the docket file] Servilia (born about 100 BCE) was Julius Caesar's mistress for 20 years until his death in 44 BCE, and mother of one of his assassins, Marcus Brutus.