Gaius Caesar

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See also Gaius Julius Caesar, for others of the same name.
Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Chronology
Augustus 27 BC14 AD
Tiberius 14 AD37 AD
Caligula 37 AD41 AD
Claudius 41 AD55 AD
Nero 55 AD68 AD
Family
Gens Julia
Gens Claudia
Julio-Claudian family tree
Category:Julio-Claudian Dynasty
Succession
Preceded by
Roman Republic
Followed by
Year of the Four Emperors

Gaius Julius Caesar (20 BC - AD 4), most commonly known as Julius Caesar, was the oldest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder.[1]. He was born with the name Gaius Vipsanius Agrippa, but when he was adopted by his maternal grandfather Roman Emperor Augustus, his name was changed to Gaius Julius Caesar.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Cast of a portrait of Caius Caesar
Cast of a portrait of Caius Caesar

Gaius was adopted along with his brother Lucius Caesar in 17 BC by their maternal grandfather, the Roman Emperor Augustus, who named the two boys his heirs. In 6 BC the Roman plebs agitated for Gaius to be created consul, despite the fact that he was only 14 and had not yet assumed the toga virilis. As a compromise, it was agreed that he should have the right to sit in the Senate House, and he was made consul designatus with the intention that he should assume the consulship in his twentieth year. Gaius was at this point created "Prince of Youth" ("princeps iuventutis"), an honorific that made him one of the symbolic heads of the equestrian order. Lucius, three years his junior, was granted the same honours after the appropriate interval had elapsed. Temples and statues were erected in their honour (as in the case of the Maison Carrée in Nimes). In 1 BC he was made army commander and with the king Ariobarzanes, whom he gave power over the Armenians and offered an island to the Euphrates. In 1 AD, he was made Consul with Lucius Aemilius Paullus as his colleague.

Gaius Caesar
Gaius Caesar

In 1 BC, he married his relative, Livilla, daughter of Drusus the Elder and Antonia Minor. This union had no issue.[2]

Lucius died in AD 2 and Gaius died two years later in Lycia at the age of 24, after being wounded during a campaign in Artagira, Armenia.[3]

The death of both Gaius and Lucius, the Emperor's two most favored heirs, compelled Augustus to adopt his stepson, Tiberius, and his sole remaining grandson, Postumus Agrippa as his new respective heirs.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wood, Susan. (1999) Imperial Women: A Study in Public Images, 40 B.C. - A.D. 68 "Brill Academic Publishers". p. 321. ISBN 90-04-11969-8.
  2. ^ Hazel, John. (2002) Who's Who in the Roman World "Routledge (UK)". p. 48. ISBN 0-415-29162-3.
  3. ^ Mommsen, Theodore. (1996) A History of Rome Under the Emperors "Routledge (UK)". p. 107. ISBN 0-415-10113-1.
Preceded by
Cossus Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Calpurnius Piso
Consul of the Roman Empire together with Lucius Aemilius Paullus
1
Succeeded by
Publius Vinicius and Publius Alfenus Varus

[edit] External links

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