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Caligula
An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors mapDIR Atlas
Gaius (Caligula) (A.D. 37-41)
Garrett G. Fagan
Pennsylvania State University

A Bust of theEmperor Caligula
Introduction
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (b. A.D. 12, d. A.D. 41, emperor A.D. 37-41) represents a turning point in the early history of the Principate. Unfortunately, his is the most poorly documented reign of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. The literary sources for these four years are meager, frequently anecdotal, and universally hostile.[[1]] As a result, not only are many of the events of the reign unclear, but Gaius himself appears more as a caricature than a real person, a crazed megalomaniac given to capricious cruelty and harebrained schemes. Although some headway can be made in disentangling truth from embellishment, the true character of the youthful emperor will forever elude us.
Gaius's Early Life and Reign
Gaius was born on 31 August, A.D. 12, probably at the Julio-Claudian resort of Antium (modern Anzio), the third of six children born to Augustus's adopted grandson, Germanicus, and Augustus's granddaughter, Agrippina. As a baby he accompanied his parents on military campaigns in the north and was shown to the troops wearing a miniature soldier's outfit, including the hob-nailed sandal called caliga, whence the nickname by which posterity remembers him.[[2]] His childhood was not a happy one, spent amid an atmosphere of paranoia, suspicion, and murder. Instability within the Julio-Claudian house, generated by uncertainty over the succession, led to a series of personal tragedies. When his father died under suspicious circumstances on 10 October A.D. 19, relations between his mother and his grand-uncle, the emperor Tiberius, deteriorated irretrievably, and the adolescent Gaius was sent to live first with his great-grandmother Livia in A.D. 27 and then, following Livia's death two years later, with his grandmother Antonia. Shortly before the fall of Tiberius's Praetorian Prefect,



Bibliography: Balsdon, J.P.V.D. The Emperor Gaius. Oxford, 1934. ________. "The Principates of Tiberius and Gaius." ANRW 2.2 (1975): 86-94. Barrett, A.A. Caligula: The Corruption of Power. New Haven, 1989. ________. Agrippina. Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire. New Haven, 1996. Benediktson, D.T. "Caligula 's Madness: Madness or Interictal Temporal Lobe Epilepsy?" Classical World 82 (1988-89), 370-5. Bicknell, P. "The Emperor Gaius ' Military Activities in AD 40." Historia 17 (1968): 496-505. Bilde, P. "The Roman Emperor Gaius (Caligula) 's Attempt to Erect his Statue in the Temple of Jerusalem." STh 32 (1978): 67-93. Boschung, D. Die Bildnisse des Caligula. Berlin, 1989. Charlesworth, M.P. "The Tradition About Caligula" Cambridge Historical Journal 4 (1933): 105-119. Davies, R.W. "The Abortive Invasion of Britain by Gaius." Historia 15 (1966): 124-28. D 'Ecré, F. "La mort de Germanicus et les poisons de Caligula." Janus 56 (1969): 123-48. Ferrill, A. Caligula, Emperor of Rome. London, 1991. Gelzer, M. "Iulius Caligula." Real-Enzyclopädie 10.381-423 (1919). Grant, M. The Roman Emperors. A Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome 31 BC - AD 476 (New York, 1985), 25-28. Hurley, D.W. "Gaius Caligula in the Germanicus Tradition." American Journal of Philology 110 (1989): 316-38. ________. An Historical and Historiographical Commentary on Suetonius ' Life of C. Caligula. Atlanta, 1993. Jerome, T.S. "The Historical Tradition About Gaius," in id., Aspects of the Study of Roman History. New York, 1923. Katz, R.S. "The Illness of Caligula." Classical World 65 (1971-72): 223-5 McGinn, T.A.J Massaro, V. and I. Montgomery. "Gaius: Mad Bad, Ill or All Three?" Latomus 37 (1978): 894-909 ________ Maurer, J. A. A Commentary on C. Suetoni Tranquilli, Vita C. Caligulae Caesaris, Chapters I-XXI. Philadelphia, 1949. Morgan, M.G. "Caligula 's Illness Again." Classical World 66 (1972-73): 327-9 Philips, E.J Simpson, C. J. "The 'Conspiracy ' of AD 39." In Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History II, edited by C. Deroux, 347-66. Brussels, 1980. Smallwood, E.M. (ed.). Documents Illustrating the Principates of Gaius, Claudius and Nero. Cambridge. 1967. Wardle, D. Suetonius ' Life of Caligula: A Commentary. Brussels, 1994. Woods, D. "Caligula 's Seashells." Greece and Rome 47 (2000): 80-87. Wood, S. "Diva Drusilla Panthea and the Sisters of Caligula." AJA 99 (1995): 457-82. [[8]] Mauretania: Dio 59.25.1; see also Barrett, Caligula, 115-20. Agrippa: Jos. AJ 18.228-37; Phil Leg. 324-26; see also E. M. Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1976), 187-200. Alexandrian riots: Philo Flacc and Leg.

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