Caligula, formally known as Gaius, was the third Roman emperor, ruling from AD 37 until his assassination in AD 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, Augustus' granddaughter. Caligula was born into the first ruling family of the Roman Empire, conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
The Julio-Claudian dynasty comprised the first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father was the politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his mother was Livia Drusilla, who would eventually divorce his father, and marry the future-emperor Augustus in 38 BC. Following the untimely deaths of Augustus' two grandsons and adopted heirs, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius was designated Augustus' successor. Prior to this, Tiberius had proved himself an able diplomat, and one of the most successful Roman generals: his conquests of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and (temporarily) parts of Germania laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier.
This article concerns the period 29 BC – 20 BC.
Livia Drusilla was Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of emperor Augustus. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14.
Marcus Agrippa Postumus, later named Agrippa Julius Caesar, was a Roman nobleman who was the youngest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, the daughter and only biological child of Roman Emperor Augustus, who initially considered Postumus as a potential successor and formally adopted him as his heir. However, Augustus banished him from Rome in AD 6 on account of his ferocia. In effect though not in law, the action cancelled his adoption and virtually assured Tiberius' emplacement as Augustus' sole heir. Postumus was ultimately executed by his own guards shortly after Augustus' death in AD 14.
I, Claudius is a historical novel by English writer Robert Graves, published in 1934. Written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius, it tells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the early years of the Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41. Though the narrative is largely fictionalized, most of the events depicted are drawn from historical accounts of the same time period by the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus.
Gaius Caesar was the grandson and heir to the throne of Roman emperor Augustus, alongside his younger brother Lucius Caesar. Although he was born to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, Augustus' only daughter, Gaius and his younger brother, Lucius Caesar, were raised by their grandfather as his adopted sons and joint-heirs to the empire. He would experience an accelerated political career befitting a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, with the Roman Senate allowing him to advance his career without first holding a quaestorship or praetorship, offices that ordinary senators were required to hold as part of the cursus honorum.
The gens Julia was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC. The gens is perhaps best known, however, for Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator and grand uncle of the emperor Augustus, through whom the name was passed to the so-called Julio-Claudian dynasty of the first century AD. The nomen Julius became very common in imperial times, as the descendants of persons enrolled as citizens under the early emperors began to make their mark in history.
Pater Patriae, also seen as Parens Patriae, is a Latin honorific meaning "Father of the Country", or more literally, "Father of the Fatherland".
Drusus Julius Caesar was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19.
Marcus Claudius Marcellus was the eldest son of Gaius Claudius Marcellus and Octavia Minor, sister of Augustus. He was Augustus' nephew and closest male relative, and began to enjoy an accelerated political career as a result. He was educated with his cousin Tiberius and traveled with him to Hispania where they served under Augustus in the Cantabrian Wars. In 25 BC he returned to Rome where he married his cousin Julia, who was the emperor's daughter. Marcellus and Augustus' general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa were the two popular choices as heir to the empire. According to Suetonius, this put Agrippa at odds with Marcellus, and is the reason why Agrippa traveled away from Rome to Mytilene in 23 BC.
Julius Caesar is a 2003 miniseries about the life of Julius Caesar. It was directed by Uli Edel and written by Peter Pruce and Craig Warner. It is a dramatization of the life of Julius Caesar from 82 BC to his death in 44 BC. It was one of the last two films of Richard Harris, released in the year of his death. The series was originally broadcast on TNT in two parts, airing June 29 and 30, 2003. The tagline for the miniseries was His Time Has Come. The miniseries was nominated for 2 Emmys for Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries, and Outstanding Sound Editing.
Imperium: Augustus is a 2003 joint British-Italian production, and part of the Imperium series. It tells of the life story of Octavian and how he became Augustus. Half the film takes place in the past and the other half takes place in the later life of Augustus.
The Iron Hand of Mars is a 1992 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the fourth book of the Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries series. Set in Rome and Germania during AD 71, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. The iron in the title refers to the standard, shaped like a giant hand made of iron, which Falco is required to deliver to the imperial legions in Germany.
A Dying Light in Corduba is a 1996 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the eighth book of the Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries series. Set in Rome and Imperial Spain during the spring and summer of AD 73, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. The title refers to the setting of much of the action, Corduba, as well as to the olive oil which features heavily in the plot, one use of which is for lamp oil.
The Last Legion is a 2007 historical action adventure film directed by Doug Lefler and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. It is based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. It stars Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Peter Mullan, Kevin McKidd, John Hannah, and Iain Glen. It premiered in Abu Dhabi on 6 April 2007.
The history of the Roman Empire covers the history of ancient Rome from the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC until the abdication of Romulus Augustulus in AD 476 in the West, and the Fall of Constantinople in the East in AD 1453. Ancient Rome became a territorial empire while still a republic, but was then ruled by Roman emperors beginning with Augustus, becoming the Roman Empire following the death of the last republican dictator, the first emperor's adoptive father Julius Caesar.
Roman Empire is a television docudrama based on historical events of the Roman Empire. The show is in the anthology format with each season presenting an independent story. Season 1, "Reign of Blood", is a six-part story about Emperor Commodus. Jeremiah Murphy and Peter Sherman collaborated on writing the first season, with Richard Lopez directing. It premiered on Netflix on November 11, 2016. Season 2, "Master of Rome", premiered on July 27, 2018; it is a five-part story about the rise of Dictator Julius Caesar and the fall of the Roman Republic. Season 3, "The Mad Emperor", premiered on Netflix on April 5, 2019, and is a four-part story about Emperor Caligula.
