Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus

SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus was born on 31 August AD 12 to Agrippina and Germanicus Julius Caesar. He had two brothers, Nero and Drusus and three sisters, Julia Livia, Agrippina the Younger and Drusilla. Suetonius wrote of a condition Gaius suffered from in great detail. Suetonius stated that Gaius “as a boy he was troubled with the falling sickness” , which we now presume was epilepsy. At the age of two Gaius marched with his father, Germanicus, into several bloody campaigns in the territory of Germania. During the campaigns he wore child sized armor and boots, which led soldiers to call him Caligula meaning “little boots.” His father enjoyed a great deal of success in military campaigns in the north, making him and his family famous and loved by the people. As Germanicus gained popularity, Tiberius (the emperor at the time) conspired against him in order to weaken his influence, and poisoned him. Germanicus died soon after in Antioch in the year 19 CE.

After the death of his father, Caligula lived with his mother and siblings. Caligula's mother, Agrippina the Elder, couldn’t conceal her animosity against Tiberius in Rome for his involvement in the murder of her husband Germanicus. To silence Caligula's mother, Tiberius had her tried for treason and then, according to historian P. Roberts, “banished to Pandataria Island off the Campanian coast where she died of starvation in 33.” Along with Agrippina, Tiberius also banished Caligula's Brother Nero, who also died in exile with his mother.

The deaths of Caligula's mother Agrippina and brother Nero, however, were not enough to please Tiberius's supremacy over Roman politics. Caligula’s other brother, Drusus, who was infuriated by the death of his father,...

... middle of paper ...

...ula's reign, however, it’s easy overlook the underlying causes of Caligula's madness. Caligula did not simply turn into an insane, violent, sexual deviant overnight. In order to understand the synthesis of Caligula's madness one must explore his life leading up to his stark madness behavior as emperor. By using sources from both the past and present we can conclude Caligula's madness during his adulthood as emperor was compiled over the years of his distressing and brutal past as a child before it finally revealed itself, and it was rather a series of contingent traumatic events that led up to Caligula's increasing insanity and eventually led to his demise. With tons of emotional damage, incest, and an epileptic condition, it is very clear that Caligula was plagued with many mental problems during his childhood that would follow him into adulthood.