Person

Caligula

12–41 CE · 1st century · Also known as Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus

Caligula, properly Gaius Caesar, was Roman emperor from 37 to 41 CE, the son of Germanicus and successor of Tiberius. Popular at first, his reign became notorious in the ancient sources for cruelty, extravagance and claims to divine honours. He made and remade client kingdoms, giving lands to Herod Agrippa and Polemon II and executing Ptolemy of Mauretania. He was murdered by officers of the Praetorian Guard.

Caligula
Image: Sergey Sosnovskiy from Saint-Petersburg, Russia · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 profile

Africa ProconsularisMilitary

Mentioned in 5 state histories

Kingdom of MauretaniaPolemonid PontusTetrarchy of Galilee and PeraeaTetrarchy of PhilipKingdom of Herod Agrippa

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Caligula. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/caligula
MLA
“Caligula.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/caligula. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Caligula.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/caligula.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Caligula’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/caligula (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻