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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Caligula (History for Kids)

Caligula's real name was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (after his ancestor Julius Caesar and Augustus), but everyone called him Caligula, because when he was a boy, he lived in military camps, where his father was General, and he went a little soldier's boots as the soldiers called him "Little Boots" as Caligula in Latin.

Caligula's father, Germanicus, adopted son was short and the mother of Caligula, Agrippina the Elder, was a granddaughter of Auguste Auguste. Caligula was born August 31, 12 AD. He had four brothers and three sisters. Two of his brothers died before he grew up. Caligula's father is dead when Caligula was not until September it is possible that the Emperor Tiberius and Caligula's father poisoned out of the way. After his father died, Caligula's mother Agrippina entered a long battle with Tiberius asked him if there really was poisoned.

Since this battle, Tiberius seems Caligula wanted more under his control. In 27 AD, when Caligula was fifteen, he and his three sisters, my grandmother went to live with his mother Livia, who was the mother of Tiberius. Imagine what it would feel to live in his mother poisoned your father! The children were there for two years, until Caligula was seventeen. Then Tiberius concluded his argument with Agrippina arrest him and keep him prisoner on the island, where guards beat him and abused him. Tiberius to Caligula was murdered by two older brothers. Caligula's brother Nero, or murdered or killed himself. Another brother Caligula, Drusus, was locked in the dungeon, and starve to death - in the end, tried to eat a filling in his mattress because he was so hungry.

After all this, went Caligula and his sisters to live with their mother's mother, Antonia. All the while they were teenagers virtually prisoners, and had only each other to friends. Suetonius and other Roman historians say Caligula and his sister Drusilla was more like boyfriend and girlfriend, but we know that for sure.

After two years, 31 AD, Tiberius, Caligula was coming to live with him on the island of Capri. At the time, Caligula was nineteen. Suetonius writes at this time, if two boys have never had a party, drink and hang out with beautiful girls and handsome boys, but may be wrong on this. Caligula seems to have been a very good side grip Tiberius', unlike his other relatives. AD 33, his mother, Agrippina were starved to death (or maybe they were starving).

Tiberius died in 37 AD, when Caligula was a 25-year-old. His will, Tiberius left the control of the Roman Empire together with Caligula and grandson of Tiberius', Twin Tiberius, Caligula, but took all the power for himself. At first everyone loved Caligula. The priests sacrificed hundreds of cows and sheep and pigs in his honor.

However, in 39 AD, Caligula was clear that amental suffered a disease that may have been a rare condition called Wilson's disease, and that made him even more bizarre and strange act. They seem to have begun to think of himself as a god. Caligula's mental illness took over his life more and more as he aged. Suetonius says that Caligula made his horse to a priest, ordained the sun rises in the middle of the night, and forced to flee with the senators from your car. In the time it was 29, Caligula was deactivated so that people around him thought it was impossible for him to govern. But there was no way to stop being emperor, to die, because the Senate had voted powers Caligula him for life. So Caligula in AD 41 guards stabbed him to death, and made his uncle Claudius in place.

Source : http://www.historyforkids.org  

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