Cornelia

So Caesar grew up as a nephew of the most famous soldier in the Republic, which was an advantage right up until the other side won.

Around 84 BC, he married Cornelia, the daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who was Marius' ally, and once Marius was dead, the most powerful man in Rome.

That marriage tied him to the Marian cause about as tightly as a young man could have been tied to anything.

Then Sulla came back from the East with his army, and everything that had protected Caesar turned into a liability more or less overnight.

If you watched the Sulla episode, you'll remember the proscription list going up in the Forum, with rewards paid to anyone who killed the men whose names were on them.

Sulla ordered Caesar to divorce Cornelia sometime around 82 BC.

Other men in the same position did what they were told, because a wife from the wrong family seemed like a small price when your life was on the line.

Caesar refused, and went into hiding in the countryside, moving from place to place, and for a while looked like he was going to end up as one more young aristocrat who didn't make it through the purges.