Gaius Caesar

Gaius Caesar
Princeps iuventutis
Born20 BC
Rome, Roman Empire
Died21 February 4 AD (aged 23)
Limyra, Lycia, Anatolia
Burial
SpouseLivilla
Names
Gaius Vipsanius Agrippa
Gaius Julius Caesar (17 BC)[1]
DynastyJulio-Claudian
FatherMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Augustus (adoptive)
MotherJulia the Elder

Gaius Caesar (/ˈszər/; 20 BC – 21 February 4 AD) was a 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 Lucius were raised by their grandfather as his adopted sons and joint-heirs. He experienced 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.[2]

In 1 BC, Gaius was given command of the eastern provinces, after which he concluded a peace treaty with King Phraates V of Parthia on an island in the Euphrates. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed to the office of consul for the following year, 1 AD. The year after Gaius' consulship, Lucius died at Massilia in the month of August. Approximately eighteen months later, Gaius died of an illness in Lycia. He was married to his second cousin Livilla but they did not have children. In 4 AD, following the deaths of Gaius and Lucius, Augustus adopted his stepson, Tiberius, as well as his sole-surviving grandson, Agrippa Postumus.

  1. ^ PIR2 I 216
  2. ^ Rowe 2002, p. 45