Caligula (lived AD 12–⁠41)

Caligula, properly Gaius, was born on August 31, AD 12. His birthplace is disputed: Antium, Tibur and Trier are named. He was the son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. He married four times and adopted Tiberius Gemellus.

He took power after Tiberius in AD 37 as the favorite of the soldiers and the people. After an illness in the same year and a conspiracy in AD 39 his relations with the Senate collapsed. The ancients considered him mad. Modern scholars are more cautious: the only eyewitness describes him as haughty, self-centered and maliciously witty, but not insane.

He was killed on January 24, AD 41, on the Palatine, struck down in a palace corridor by officers of the Praetorian Guard led by Cassius Chaerea. He was not quite 30. Claudius succeeded him. Caligula once had the aedile Vespasian’s toga stuffed with mud.