Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus ("Caligula")
Born 12 A.D., Emperor of Rome, 37-41 A.D.
Copper As, 28 mm, 10.4 grams
O: Caligula facing left.
R: Vesta veiled and seated left, pouring from a patera.
Rome mint.
Caligula grew up in a military camp where his father's soldiers nicknamed him Caligula ("Little boots"), but his official name as emperor was Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus. His father died in 19 AD, and his mother and two elder brothers perished in the purge organized by Tiberius. Caligula succeeded, however, in gaining the confidence of Tiberius, and from 32 AD he lived with the recluse emperor on Capri.
Upon the death of Tiberius, Caligula became the third emperor of Rome. He pledged cooperation with the Senate, but he soon began to rule in an autocratic manner. Senatorial propaganda asserted that after an illness in October 37 AD he became mentally unbalanced. To denigrate the senators, he bestowed the consulship on his horse. His military operations on the Rhine in 39-40 AD were totally ineffective. He was murdered in a plot conceived by an officer of the Praetorian guard and was succeeded by his uncle Claudius I.