Born as Gaius Caesar, he became known as Caligula (Little Boot), a childhood nickname bestowed on him by the soldiers of his father, Germanicus Caesar. The deaths of his father, of his mother and of his two elder brothers, were popularly ascribed to the machinations of Tiberius, the second emperor. Caligula and his three sisters survived. Adopting his father's distinguished name, he became Gaius Caesar Germanicus. He was held high in Tiberius' favour, but Tiberius' death was either caused or helped along by him.
Tiberius had named his grandson, Tiberius Gemellus, and Caligula joint heirs to the throne, but the Roman Senate and people chose Caligula as sole emperor. Caligula adopted Gemellus as his son but later had him murdered. He was a clement ruler for the first six months, but he became a vicious tyrant after a severe illness. Historians believe that he probably went insane but he also may have suffered from epilepsy.
After this illness he restored treason trials and showed great cruelty and quickly squandered the vast sums Tiberius had accumulated in the state treasury. To procure the revenues needed to finance his extravagances, he then resorted to the extortion of prominent Roman citizens and the confiscation of their estates. He banished or murdered most of his relatives and had people tortured and killed while he dined. He declared himself a god and had temples erected and sacrifices offered to himself. In 38 he executed the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, to whose support he owed his accession. He showed extravagant affection for his sisters and intended to establish a Hellenistic-type monarchy after the brother-sister marriages of the Ptolemies of Egypt.
Early in 40 Caligula marched with an army into Gaul, whose inhabitants he plundered thoroughly. He marched his troops to the northern shoreline of Gaul as a prelude to the invasion of Britain but then ordered them to collect seashells there, which he called the spoils of the conquered ocean. The Roman populace had by now grown weary of this mad and unpredictable tyrant, and several conspiracies were formed against him. In January 41, four months after his return to Rome from Gaul, Caligula was murdered at the Palatine Games. He was succeeded as emperor by his uncle Claudius.
