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Gaius Caesar

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See also Gaius Julius Caesar (disambiguation), for others of the same name.
Gaius Caesar
Born20 BC
Rome
Died21 February 4 AD
Lycia
Burial
Mausoleum of Augustus
SpouseLivilla
Names
Birth to adoption: Gaius Vipsanius Agrippa
After adoption: Gaius Julius Caesar
FatherMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa
MotherJulia the Elder
Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Chronology
27 BC – AD 14
AD 14–37
AD 37–41
AD 41–54
AD 54–68
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.

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 "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 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.

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 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, compelled Augustus to adopt his stepson, Tiberius, and his sole remaining grandson, Postumus Agrippa as his new respective heirs.

It has been suggested by Tacitus that there may be been foul play involved in the death of Gaius and that Gaius' step mother 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]

Family of Gaius Caesar
4. Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa
2. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
1. Gaius Caesar
24. Gaius Octavius
12. Gaius Octavius
6. Augustus
26. Marcus Atius
13. Atia Balba Caesonia
27. Julia Caesaris
3. Julia the Elder
14. Lucius Scribonius Libo
7. Scribonia
15. Sentia

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.
  4. ^ Tacitus, The Annals 1.3
Preceded by Consul of the Roman Empire together with Lucius Aemilius Paullus
1 		Succeeded by

Media related to Gaius Caesar at Wikimedia Commons

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