diff --git a/var/spack/packages/julia/package.py b/var/spack/packages/julia/package.py
index 40f94269abb..80a58ab7457 100644
--- a/var/spack/packages/julia/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/packages/julia/package.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ class Julia(Package):
     # depends_on("awk")
     # depends_on("m4")
     # depends_on("pkg-config")
+    depends_on("python @2.6:2.9")
 
     # I think that Julia requires the dependencies above, but it builds find (on
     # my system) without these. We should enable them as necessary.