Gaius Caesar

See also Gaius Julius Caesar (disambiguation), for others of the same name.
Gaius Caesar
Spouse Livilla
Full name
Birth to adoption: Gaius Vipsanius Agrippa
After adoption: Gaius Julius Caesar
Father Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Mother Julia the Elder
Born 20 BC
Rome
Died 21 February 4 AD
Lycia
Burial Mausoleum of Augustus
Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Chronology
Augustus 27 BC – 14 AD
Tiberius 14 AD – 37 AD
Caligula 37 AD – 41 AD
Claudius 41 AD – 54 AD
Nero 54 AD – 68 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 – 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 in 23 September 20 BC 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

Early life

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 Nîmes). 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 1 AD, he was made Consul with Lucius Aemilius Paullus as his colleague.

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

Lucius died at Limyra in Lycia on the 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, compelled Augustus to adopt his stepson, Tiberius, and his sole remaining grandson, Postumus Agrippa as his new respective heirs.

Ancestry

See also

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

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gaius_Caesar Gaius Caesar] at Wikimedia Commons