Gaius and Lucius Caesar (grandsons of Augustus, Lucius d. AD 2, Gaius d. AD 4)

Gaius and Lucius were the sons of Agrippa and Julia. Augustus adopted them by symbolic purchase from their father, taught them to read and swim and introduced them early to public life (Suetonius, Augustus 64). Tacitus writes that they were “Princes of the Youth” and consuls-designate before they had put off boys’ clothing (Annals 1.3).

Lucius died in Massilia and Gaius in Lycia, within eighteen months (Augustus 65). Tacitus records that they died “by fate or by the treachery of their stepmother Livia,” but presents no evidence.