Seashells on the Ocean Shore (AD 40)

In AD 39–⁠40 Caligula set out for Gaul and Germania. On the shore of the Ocean he drew up the army in battle order, and then ordered it to gather shells as spoils of the Ocean for the Capitol and the Palatine (Suetonius, Caligula 46; Dio 59.25). He built a lighthouse tower and gave each soldier a hundred denarii.

Winterling sees in this a humiliation of the soldiers; Fagan links the expedition to the discovery of Gaetulicus’s conspiracy. In August AD 40 the emperor entered Rome with an ovation.