Caligula

Caligula , AD 12-AD 41, Roman emperor (AD 37-AD 41); son of Germanicus Caesar and Agrippina the Elder . His real name was Caius Caesar Germanicus. As a small child, he wore military boots, whence his nickname [ caligula =little boot]. On the death of Tiberius the army helped make Caligula emperor. Shortly afterward he became severely ill; it is widely believed that he was thereafter insane. He earned a reputation for ruthless and cruel autocracy, and torture and execution became the order of the day. He was responsible for serious disturbances among the Jews, and he nearly caused a rebellion in Palestine by attempting to erect a statue of himself in their temple. He was assassinated by a tribune of the Praetorian Guard and succeeded by Claudius I .

Bibliography: See J. P. V. D. Balsdon, The Emperor Gaius (1934), and A. A. Barrett, Caligula: The Corruption of Power (1996).

Caligula (born Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus) (12–41 AD) Roman emperor (37–41). Brought up in a military camp, he gained the nickname Caligula (Latin for ‘little boot’) as an infant on account of the miniature military boots he wore. Caligula's brief reign as emperor, which began when he succeeded Tiberius and ended with his assassination, became notorious for its tyrannical excesses.