His eyes and temples were sunken and his forehead broad and glowering.
Though by that time Tiberius was in old age and, with Gemellus still a child, it was obvious that it would be Caligula who would truly inherit the power for himself.īy AD 33 he was made quaestor, though was given no further administrative training at all.Ĭaligula was very tall, with spindly legs and a thin neck. From AD 32 onwards he lived on the island of Capreae (Capri) in the emperor’s lush residence and was appointed joint heir with Tiberius Gemellus, son of Drusus the younger. In the same year Caligula was invested as a priest. No doubt the horrendous demise of his closest relatives must have had a profound effect on the young Caligula.Īttempting to rid himself of Gaius, Sejanus, under the belief that he may be a potential successor, went too far and was alas arrested and put to death by orders of emperor Tiberius in AD 31. When he was in his late teens his mother and elder brothers were arrested and died horribly due to the plotting of the praetorian prefect Sejanus. It was a nickname which remained with him for the rest of his life. It was during his stay with his parents on the German frontier, when he was between two and four, that his miniature versions of military sandals (caligae), caused the soldiers to call him Caligula, ‘little sandal’. Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus was the third son of Germanicus (nephew of Tiberius) and Agrippina the elder and was born at Antium in AD 12.
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