On This Day in Ancient History - Caligula Was Born

On This day in A.D. 12, the future Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus aka Caligula was born. Known affectionately as Caligula, meaning "little [military] boots", Gaius had traveled as a young boy with his father, the very popular Germanicus, while on campaigns. When Caligula became emperor on March 16, 37, following the death of the second Roman emperor, Tiberius, he acted to win the support of the people, with piety, entertainment, and tax help, but he soon became a horror and was assassinated within 4 years. One of the most peculiar of his acts was to take sea shells as the spoils of war. Here is Suetonius' description:

XLVI. At last, as if resolved to make war in earnest, he drew up his army upon the shore of the ocean, with his balistae and other engines of war, and while no one could imagine what he intended to do, on a sudden commanded them to gather up the sea shells, and fill their helmets, and the folds of their dress with them, calling them "the spoils of the ocean due to the Capitol and the Palatium." - Suetonius - Life of Caligula

The photograph (Public Domain courtesy of Wikipedia) shows the hull of one of two boats found at the bottom of Lake Nemi that is described as having been built for Caligula.

Read more about Caligula:

• Caligula
• The Divine Caligula
• "Caligulan Politics": The Consistent Agenda of a Mad Emperor, by Jay Key
• Suetonius - Life of Caligula