Gaius Caesar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: Gaius Julius Caesar

Gaius Caesar

Gaius Caesar

Born 20 BC

Rome

Died 21 February 4 AD

Lycia

Burial Mausoleum of Augustus

Spouse Livilla

Full name

Birth to adoption: Gaius Vipsanius Agrippa

After adoption: Gaius Julius Caesar

Father
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

Augustus (adoptive)
 Mother Julia the Elder

Roman imperial dynasties

Julio-Claudian dynasty

Chronology

Augustus 27 BC 14 AD

Tiberius 1437 AD

Caligula 3741 AD

Claudius 4154 AD

Nero 5468 AD

Family

Gens Julia
Gens Claudia
Julio-Claudian family tree
Category:Julio-Claudian dynasty

Succession

Preceded by Followed by
Roman Republic Year of the Four Emperors

Gaius Julius Caesar (20 BC 21 February AD 4), most commonly known as Gaius
Caesar or Caius Caesar, was the oldest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder.
[1]
He was born between 14 August and 13 September 20 BC or according to other sources on 23
September 20 BC. Originally named Gaius Vipsanius Agrippa, when he was adopted by his
maternal grandfather the Roman emperor, Augustus, of the Julian gens, his name was
accordingly changed to Gaius Julius Caesar.
Although Roman adoption practices may imply the use of the cognomen Vipsanianus, there is
no literary or material evidence to indicate that this cognomen was ever used by any of Agrippa's
sons adopted by Augustus.

Contents
 [hide]

1Early life

2In popular culture

3See also

4References

5External links

Early life[edit]

Gaius 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 as 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 "Youth Leader" ("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
Carre in Nmes).
In 1 BC he was made army commander in the East and made a peace treaty with Phraates V on
an island in the river Euphrates. In the same year, he married his second cousin, Livilla, daughter
of Drusus the Elder and Antonia Minor. This union had no issue.[2]
In 1 AD, he was made Consul with Lucius Aemilius Paullus as his colleague.
Lucius died at Massalia in Gaul on 21 or 22 February AD 2 and his cenotaph is situated there.
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, led Augustus to
adopt his stepson, Tiberius, and his sole remaining grandson, Postumus Agrippa as his new
heirs.
Tacitus suggested that there may have been foul play involved in the death of Gaius and that
Gaius's step grandmother Livia may have had a hand in his death. Livia's presumed motive may
have been to orchestrate the accession of her own son Tiberius as heir to Augustus.[4]

In popular culture[edit]
Gaius was played by Earl Rhodes in the 1976 TV series I, Claudius.

[show]

See also[edit]
Agrippa Postumus

Julio-Claudian family tree

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ 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. Jump up^ Hazel, John. (2002) Who's Who in the Roman World "Routledge (UK)". p.
48. ISBN 0-415-29162-3.

3. Jump up^ Mommsen, Theodore. (1996) A History of Rome Under the

Emperors "Routledge (UK)". p. 107. ISBN 0-415-10113-1.