Caligula | Page 3

have given him birth. Cneius
Lentulus Gaetulicus [385] says that he was born at Tibur; Pliny the
younger, in the country of the Treviri, at a village called Ambiatinus,
above Confluentes [386]; and he alleges, as a proof of it, that altars are
there shown with this inscription: "For Agrippina's child-birth." Some
verses which were published in his reign, intimate that he was born in
the winter quarters of the legions,
In castris natus, patriis nutritius in armis, Jam designati principis omen
erat.
Born in the camp, and train'd in every toil Which taught his sire the
haughtiest foes to foil; Destin'd he seem'd by fate to raise his name,
And rule the empire with Augustan fame.
I find in the public registers that he was born at Antium. Pliny charges
Gaetulicus as guilty of an arrant forgery, merely to soothe the vanity of

a conceited young prince, by giving him the lustre of being born in a
city sacred to Hercules; and says that he advanced this false assertion
with the more assurance, because, the year before the birth of Caius,
Germanicus had a son of the same name born at Tibur; concerning
whose amiable childhood and premature death I have already spoken
[387]. Dates clearly prove that Pliny is mistaken; for the writers of
Augustus's history all agree, that Germanicus, at the expiration of his
consulship, was sent into Gaul, after the birth of Caius. Nor will the
inscription upon the altar serve to establish Pliny's opinion; because
Agrippina was delivered of two daughters in that country, and any
child-birth, without regard to sex, is called puerperium, as the ancients
were used to call girls puerae, and boys puelli. There is also extant a
letter written by Augustus, a few months before his death, to his
granddaughter Agrippina, about the same Caius (for there was then no
other child of hers living under that name). He writes as follows: "I
gave orders yesterday for Talarius and Asellius to set out on their
journey towards you, if the gods permit, with your child Caius, upon
the fifteenth of the calends of June [18th May]. I also send with him a
physician of mine, and I wrote to Germanicus that he may retain him if
he pleases. Farewell, my dear Agrippina, and take what care you can to
(256) come safe and well to your Germanicus." I imagine it is
sufficiently evident that Caius could not be born at a place to which he
was carried from The City when almost two years old. The same
considerations must likewise invalidate the evidence of the verses, and
the rather, because the author is unknown. The only authority, therefore,
upon which we can depend in this matter, is that of the acts, and the
public register; especially as he always preferred Antium to every other
place of retirement, and entertained for it all that fondness which is
commonly attached to one's native soil. It is said, too, that, upon his
growing weary of the city, he designed to have transferred thither the
seat of empire.
IX. It was to the jokes of the soldiers in the camp that he owed the
name of Caligula [388], he having been brought up among them in the
dress of a common soldier. How much his education amongst them
recommended him to their favour and affection, was sufficiently
apparent in the mutiny upon the death of Augustus, when the mere
sight of him appeased their fury, though it had risen to a great height.

For they persisted in it, until they observed that he was sent away to a
neighbouring city [389], to secure him against all danger. Then, at last,
they began to relent, and, stopping the chariot in which he was
conveyed, earnestly deprecated the odium to which such a proceeding
would expose them.
X. He likewise attended his father in his expedition to Syria. After his
return, he lived first with his mother, and, when she was banished, with
his great-grandmother, Livia Augusta, in praise of whom, after her
decease, though then only a boy, he pronounced a funeral oration in the
Rostra. He was then transferred to the family of his grandmother,
Antonia, and afterwards, in the twentieth year of his age, being called
by Tiberius to Capri, he in one and the same day assumed the manly
habit, and shaved his beard, but without receiving any of the honours
which had been paid to his brothers on a similar (257) occasion. While
he remained in that island, many insidious artifices were practised, to
extort from him complaints against Tiberius, but by his circumspection
he avoided falling into the snare [390]. He affected to take no more
notice of the ill-treatment of his relations, than if nothing had befallen
them. With regard to his