Aurelia

The Pontifex Maximus elections:

"The day of the election came, and Caesar's mother was tearfully seeing him off from the house. He embraced her, and said: 'today, mother, you will see your son either a high-priest or an exile.'" – Plutarch

"He is said to have declared to his mother on the morning of his election, as she kissed him when he was starting for the polls, that he would never return except as pontifex. And in fact he so decisively defeated two very strong competitors (for they were greatly his superiors in age and rank), that he polled more votes in their tribes than were cast for both of them in all the tribes." – Suetonius

The Bona Dea scandal:

"But his voice gave him away, and Aurelia's maid immediately gave a shriek and ran off to the lights and the crowd. 'I've found a man here,' she cried. The women were most agitated, and Aurelia immediately put a stop to the ceremony and concealed the sacred objects; she also gave instructions for the doors to be shut, while she searched the house with torches, looking for Clodius. He was found hiding in the bedroom of the servant girl who had let him in; the women saw who it was, and drove him out through the doors." – Plutarch

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"What little we know of her is such as to make us wish for more. Plutarch tells us that she was a discreet woman; and it is a pleasing guess, though no more than a guess, that some of those personal traits in Caesar's character, which place him as a man so far above the majority of his contemporaries, were due to her example and precept. On her fell the task of completing his education, and thoughout his life she seems to have remained his true friend." – Fowler

"His passionate attachment to Aurelia in after-years shows that between mother and child the relations had been affectionate and happy." – Froude

"His mother, Aurelia, was of good stock of plebeian origin, and was a woman of exceptionally fine character. . . . Aurelia devoted her life to her son's education, and by this his natural mental and moral nature enabled him to profit as few youths can. He grew to manhood with many of the best qualities of head and heart stamped upon him." – Dodge

"Fifteen is not an age at which a boy would choose to lose his father. The misfortune in Caesar's case was to some small extent alleviated by the fact that his mother was a woman of remarkable character. She was remembered for the care which she took over her son's upbringing, and all her life she had over him that strong maternal influence which more than one other outstanding man in history has experienced." – Balsdon

"Caesar's mother Aurelia was renowned for her intelligence and virtue, and for the excellent job she did raising Caesar, not only during those early years, but in continued interactions through his adolescence and young manhood. We know that Aurelia, widowed by the death of Caesar's father around 85 or 84, never remarried but continued to live with her beloved son for the remainder of her life, a prominent figure in his household until her death in 54." – Billows

"She was a formidable woman who had had a great influence on her only son, and had lived long enough to see some of his great successes." – Goldsworthy

"One point about Caesar's family ought to be emphasized: he was the product of a female household. He lost his father in his mid-teens, and knew no brother, no uncle, no grandfather, and no other leading male from within his own patrician family. His father's death thrust considerable responsibility upon him at about the same time that he became (in Roman terms) an adult. From this point he would have adopted a leadership role and made important family decisions. . . . The great historian Tacitus, who wrote around a century and a half after Caesar's death, was convinced that Caesar's mother Aurelia was one of the great ladies of the Republic. . . . Surely she proved an influential advisor as he embarked on public life." – Stevenson