Death of a Would-Be Successor of Augustus

Germanicus and Gaius Caesar
CC Flickr User cubby_t_bear

In ancient Rome, in 19 A.D., Germanicus, the extremely popular adopted son of the Emperor Tiberius, died mysteriously. Germanicus had married Agrippina the Elder, granddaughter of Augustus, with whom he had 9 children. One of them became the mother of the last Julio-Claudian emperor, Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero. Another child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder was Gaius Caesar, who became the emperor known as Caligula.

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