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| Caligula (courtesy of Daniel Voshart | voshart.com) |
August 31, 12 - Antium (Anzio, Italy) - Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus is born
May 18, 14 - Rome - Caesar Augustus sends 2-year-old Gaius Julius Caesar (Caligula) to his father in Germania
May(?) 20(?), 17 - Rome - General Germanicus Julius Caesar, his father, returns to Rome with his family after a victorious campaign in Germania
May 26, 17 - Rome - Germanicus celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Germans
January 18, 18 - Nicopolis, near Actium, Greece - Germanicus arrives at Nicopolis near the site of the Battle of Actium. He takes up his second consulship there
February(?) 1(?), 18 - Assos (Turkey, N. of Lesbos Island) - 5-year-old Caligula delivers a speech in Assos
December(?) 1(?), 18 - Cyrrhus (Syria-Turkey Border) - Spends winter in the winter quarters of Legion X "Fretensis"
January 1(?), 19 - Alexandria, Egypt - Germanicus arrives in Egypt without asking for Tiberius' permission
July(?) 1(?), 19 - Syria - Germanicus returns to Syria in the Summer
October 10, 19 - Antioch, Syria (near Antakya, Turkey) - Germanicus dies at 33 after being poisoned by an agent of Tiberius
November(?) 1(?), 19 - Brundisium (Brindisi, SE Italy) - Agrippina the Elder lands at Brundisium with her husband's ashes
December(?) 1(?), 19 - Rome - Agrippina reaches Rome. Germanicus' ashes are interred at the Mausoleum of Augustus
January(?) 1(?), 27 - Rome - Agrippina (his mother) and his older brother are placed under arrest
December(?) 1(?), 27 - Rome - moves to Livia's house on the Palatine
January(?) 1(?), 29 - Rome - Agrippina the Elder is exiled to the island of Pandataria, and her sons (except Caligula) are imprisoned by Lucius Aelius Sejanus
May(?) 30(?), 29 - Rome - Livia dies. Caligula and his sisters move to the house of their grandmother Antonia Minor
January(?) 1(?), 30 - While in Rome - His brother Drusus Caesar is imprisoned on charges of treason and his brother Nero dies from stravation or suicide on Ponza Island
October(?) 1(?), 31 - Island of Capri - Caligula is spared by Tiberius and sent to the personal care of the Emperor on Capri =(START)
October 18, 31 - While in Capri - Lucius Aelius Sejanus is executed, aged 50
January(?) 1(?), 33 - Island of Capri - 20-year-old Caligula is appointed quaestor
October 18, 33 - While in Capri - His mother Agrippina the Elder dies by starvation on Pandataria (Ventotene) Island
January(?) 1(?), 34 - Island of Capri - Naevius Sutorius Macro gains favour in the Roman Empire by prostituting his wife Ennia Thrasylla to Caligula.
January(?) 1(?), 35 - Island of Capri - Emperor Tiberius writes his Last Will and Testament - Caligula and Gemellus receive equal shares of his inheritance
January(?) 1(?), 36 - Island of Capri - Herod Agrippa, King of Judea, arrives in Capri
March 16, 37 - Misenum (Miseno, near Naples) - Emperor Tiberius dies. The Praetorian Guard in Misenum proclaims Caligula "Imperator"
March 18, 37 - Misenum - Caligula departs to Rome, accompanying Tiberius's body. At the Senate in Rome, Tiberius's Last Will and testament is considered invalid on the grounds that he had been of unsound mind when he signed it. Caligula is recognized as emperor in absentia
March 28, 37 - Rome - Caligula arrives in Rome as Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, roman Emperor
May 1, 37 - Rome - Tired of Caligula's behavior and criticisms, his grandmother, Antonia Minor, commits suicide (some say she was poisoned), aged 72
July 1, 37 - Rome - Caligula assumes his first consulship with his uncle and future emperor Claudius as co-consul
September 22(?), 37 - Rome - Caligula falls gravely ill
October 30(?), 37 - Rome - Caligula recovers
December(?) 1(?), 37 - Rome - Caligula accuses Gemellus of plotting against him, and orders him to commit suicide. The Death of Gemellus weakens Praetorian tribunes Macro and Silanus, who had become close to Gemellus when it was thought that Caligula wouldn't survive
January(?) 1(?), 38 - Rome - With the intention of having Macro executed, Caligula appoints him prefect of Egypt and replaces him with two praetorian prefects. Before he and his family embarks to Egypt, he is charged with crimes and executed (or forced to commit suicide)
January(?) 10(?), 38 - Rome - Quintus Naevius Cordus Sutorius Macro commits suicide, aged 57/58
February(?) 1(?), 38 - Rome - Silanus realizes it would be only a question of time to be charged with crimes aswell and commits suicide
March(?) 1(?), 38 - Rome - Apion heads a deputation to Emperor Caligula, to complain about the Jews in Alexandria.
June 10, 38 - Rome - His sister Drusilla dies of fever, aged 21. After her death he is said to have gone insane
June 15(?), 38 - Alban Hills, SE of Rome - Caligula withraws to his country estate in the Alban Hills and wanders through the region, letting his hair and beard grow during the unbearable pain he felt after Drusilla's death
July(?) 15(?), 38 - near Rhegium (Reggio Calabria, SW tip of Italy) - Caligula departs to Sicily. At Rhegium, he begins construction of a large port terminal with granaries , so that ships arriving from Egypt could unload their cargoes of grain there
July(?) 30(?), 38 - Syracuse, Sicily - Visit to the city of Syracuse. Caligula sponsors games in honor of Drusilla, and has repairs made to the walls and temples of the city
August 1(?), 38 - While in Syracuse - Herod Agrippa, king of Judea, arrives in Alexandria as pogroms against the jews were happening there
August(?) 15(?), 38 - Messina, Sicily - Caligula departs to Rome ahead of schedule when Mount Etna threatened to erupt
September(?) 1(?), 38 - Rome - Returns to Rome and begins the contruction of two new aqueducts to bring water to Rome from Tibur (Tivoli)
September 23, 38 - Rome - Consecration of Drusilla
October 1(?), 38 - Rome - Caligula marries Lollia Paulina
October 21, 38 - Rome - Caligula joins the Praetorian guards in putting out a fire in the Aemilian district in Rome. Flaccus is arrested and banished
January 1, 39 - Rome - Caligula and Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo become Roman consuls
January 30, 39 - Rome - Caligula resigns from consulship after just 30 days
February(?) 1(?), 39 - Rome - Caligula denounces the Senate
March(?) 1(?), 39 - Rome - Tigellinus, minister and favorite of the later Roman emperor Nero, is banished for adultery with Caligula's sister Agrippina and possibly Julia Livilla too
April(?) 1(?), 39 - While in Rome - Agrippa I, king of Judaea, successfully accuses Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, of conspiracy against Caligula. Antipas is exiled and Agrippa receives his territory.
May(?) 1(?), 39 - Rome - Caligula takes Milonia Caesonia, a pregnant woman, mother of 3, as his new bride
June(?) 1(?), 39 - Rome - Milonia Caesonia's daughter, Julia Drusilla, is born. Caligula adopts her as his own and marries her mother
July(?) 1(?), 39(?) - While in Campania - Caligula orders that a statue of himself be placed in the Temple in Jerusalem. The governor of Syria, Publius Petronius, who is responsible for erecting the statue, faces mass demonstrations by Jews of the region and manages to delay construction of the statue until the death of Caligula in AD 41.
September 1, 39 - Rome - Celebrations of the anniversary of the Battle of Actium
September 3, 39 - Rome - Caligula removes the Consuls from office
September 6(?), 39 - Rome - Caligula departs to Moguntiacum (Mainz), Germania, with his sisters and Lepidus
September 10(?), 39 - Mevania (Bevagna, S. of Perugia, Italy) - Legio XV Primigenia and XXII Primigenia are levied by Caligula for the German frontier
October(?) 5(?), 39 - Moguntiacum (Mainz, Germany) - Caligula reaches Moguntiacum. A plot agains his life (led by Cassius Chaerea) is discovered. He exiles his sisters to the Pontine Islands and has both Gaetulicus and Lepidus executed
October 27, 39 - While in Moguntiacum(?) - The senators in Rome perform a sacrifice to offer thanks that "the nefarious plans of Gnaeus Lentulus Gaetulicus against Gaius Germanicus (Caligula) were detected"
November 5(?), 39 - Moguntiacum - In the beginning of November, the season alone made a military campaign on the right bank of the Rhine unfeasible. Also, the legions stationed there were in poor shape and uncapable of carrying out fast-paced operations. Caligula decides to reorganize the units there and discharge many centurions on the grounds of age and poor physical condition. Caligula appoints the disciplinatian (and future emperor) Galba to command the Rhine army
December(?) 1(?), 39 - Lugdunum (Lyon, France) - Winter of 39/40 at Lugdunum
January 1, 40 - While at Lugdunum - Caligula enters his third consulship without co-consul
January 12, 40 - While at Durocortorum (Reims, France)(?) - A message from Caligula reaches the Senate informing that he was resigning from the consulate - (speculative place and date: To reach Valkenburg from Lyon, he probably passed through Reims, an important roman settlement at the time)
February(?) 1(?), 40 - Valkenburg, NW of Leiden, Netherlands - Caligula joins the armies in the Rhine. It is known he was at Valkenburg (Netherlands) since a wine barrel from his personal vineyards was found during excavations
March(?) 1(?), 40 - Gesoriacum (later Bononia / Boulogne-sur-Mer) - Caligula reaches Gesoriacum, preparing an invasion of Britain, for a quick victory that couldn't get in Germania. However, probably facing a mutiny of the same legions that mutinied after Augustus' death, he determines massacre the entire two legions, or at least decimate them. However, he is advised not to order it. In the end, Caligula issues orders "to make war in earnest; drawing up his army on the shore of the ocean, with his ballistas and other machines of war, and, while no one could imagine what he intended to do, on a sudden commanded them to gather up sea shells and fill their helmets and the folds of their dresses with them, calling them 'the spoils of the ocean due to the Capitol and the Palatium.' As a monument of his success, he raised a lofty tower, upon which, as at Pharos, he ordered lights to be burnt in the night time for the guidance of ships at sea" (Suetonius). He also distributes 400 sesterces to each soldier and tells them to "go your way happy; go your way rich". (probably a way to make them feel disgraced for their cowardice)
March 25, 40 - Gesoriacum - Caligula departs swiftly to Rome after receiving news of new threats against him from aristocratic circles
May(?) 5(?), 40 - Lugdunum (Lyon, France) - Probably passing through Lugdunum on his swift return to Rome
May 30(?), 40 - Vicinity of Rome - Caligula reaches the shrine of the Arval Brethren in the vicinity of Rome. First meeting with an embassy of Alexandrian Jews, led by Philo
July(?) 1(?), 40 - Baiae | Puteoli, Bay of Naples - Caligula orders a floating bridge to be built using ships as pontoons, stretching for two miles from Baiae to the neighboring port of Puteoli. With earth piled on top of the ships, the road was as solid as the Via Appia. Caligula puts on the breastplate of Alexander the Great (which had been taken from his grave) and wears a purple cloak and a crown of leaves in his head. He then crosses the bridge in front of his soldiers. The impact is greater than a Triumph in Rome. It was said that Caligula wanted to outdo the persian rulers Darius and Xerxes (who had crossed the Bosporus and the Hellespont on bridges of ships in 513 and 480 B.C.), and inspire fear on the britons and germanic peoples
August 31, 40 - Rome - Returns to Rome and is greeted with an ovation. During the next months he persecutes relentlessly the roman aristocracy, in his eyes guilty of all attempts on his life - forcing them to submit to him, exploiting them financially, humiliating them in personal relations, and exposing them to public ridicule. Caligula also reforms the "principatus" into a Hellenistic Autocracy. He distributes honors carelessly, declares himself a god and orders that all the heads of the Greek deity statues be replaced by his. In one of his famous moves to humiliate the Senate and the roman aristocracy, he appoints his race horse, Incitatus, a consul.
(One suggestion is that the treatment of Incitatus by Caligula was an elaborate prank, intended to ridicule and provoke the senate, rather than a sign of insanity, or perhaps a form of satire, with the implication that a horse could perform a senator's duties - wikipedia)
October(?) 1(?), 40 - Rome - New taxes are imposed in Rome. Caligula meets with the Alexandrian deputation again
December(?) 1(?), 40 - Rome - Several aristocrats are executed following another conspiracy against Caligula
January 1, 41 - Rome - Caligula shares consulship with Quintus Pomponius Secundus, a man who kissed his feet at a banquet
January 15(?), 41 - Rome - Caligula finishes plans to move his residence and the imperial capital to Antium, and afterwards to Alexandria, a city that fascinated him (probably by influence of his servant Helicon, born there). His departure to Alexandria was scheduled to January 25th
January 21, 41 - Palatine Hill, Rome - Theatrical performances begin in honor of Augustus, scheduled for January 21st to 24th
January 24, 41 - Palatine Hill, Rome - Caligula Arrives for the last day of Theatrical performances. He performs an animal sacrifice in honor of Augustus and takes his own seat, giving orders for expensive sweets to be thrown to the spectators. On that day, the programme was the Tragedy of Cinyras and Myrrha and a pantomine in which the leader of a band of robbers is nailed to a cross. While withrawing to the Palace, Caligula is assassinated at a side passage by two tribunes of the Praetorian Guard, Cassius Chaerea and Cornelius Sabinus, with assistance of a number of centurions, aged 28. His wife Milonia Caesonia and 1-year-old daughter Julia Drusilla are murdered hours later =(END)
~~As always, the timelines on this blog are subject to constant improvements and open to contributions from readers. To build these timelines from the Antiquity, it was necessary to dive into the detailed lives of many secondary personalities - 17 for Julius Caesar alone - to allow a more complete idea of each personality and the world around them, and even then it is not enough. There are gaps that will be filled when the time comes to dive into the lives and times of Sulla, Pompey, Mark Antony, Agrippina, Vespasian and others. L.M.C.~
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