Ancient Rome - 37-41 CE Caligula AR Denarius NGC Choice Fine

(L) Bust of Emperor Caligula, date unknown. (R) Bust of Agrippina the Elder in Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

Agrippina, the mother of Caligula, born in 14 BC, was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. Until their untimely deaths, her brothers Lucius and Gaius Caesar were Augustus' adopted heirs. Thereafter Augustus required that her cousin Germanicus be made the adoptive son of his new heir, Tiberius. He then had Agrippina marry Tiberius. Traveling with him while on campaign, she always brought her children along. She enjoyed dressing her son Gaius in a soldier's uniform, with small boots. This led to his pet name "Caligula"--"little soldier's boots."

The family returned to Rome in 17 AD. The year 19 AD saw her beloved cousin Germanicus poisoned while serving as a general in Roman Syria. That resulted in Agrippina stoking the fire against her husband Tiberius, who became emperor in 14 AD. Both Tiberius and the empress dowager Livia did not attend the funeral of Germanicus, pointing to their likely role in his death. Agrippina took the cause of dissident Roman Senators who opposed Tiberius, Livia, as well as the Preatorian Guard prefect Sejanus, who was gaining power as a grey eminence. Agrippina believed that Tiberius murdered Germanicus in order to prop up his son, Drusus Julius Caesar, as the heir to the throne. After Germanicus' death, she promoted the succession claims of her own sons, Nero Julius Caesar and Drusus Caesar. Sejanus charged her supporters of treason and sexual transgressions after 26 AD, thereby purging her faction. The year 29 AD saw Agrippina and her son Nero exiled, and she starved to death in 33 AD on the island of Pandateria.