master of the detestable old man. He was, however, not a whit more faithful to him. C. Cæsar, the son of Germanicus, generally known by the name of Caligula, linked himself to Macro by the most infamous tie; and assured him that he should hold under him the very highest power, just as he had under Tiberius, if he would but rid him and his family of the old man. And there is scarcely any doubt but that the death of Tiberius, who in his seventy-eighth year lay sick not far from the headland of Misenum, was hastened, either by poison which the physicians gave him, or by strangulation. In fact they thought him dead; and when he rallied, he is said to have been strangled. This was in the twenty-third year of his reign (37 after Christ). CAIUS CÆSAR, OTHERWISE CALIGULA. Germanicus and Agrippina had three sons and three daughters: of the sons, two had been murdered in the reign of Tiberius; the youngest only, Caius, survived. Caius was not born on the banks of the Rhine; but, as Suetonius satisfactorily proves, at Antium, and thence he was sent out to his father’s camp: so that the history of his childhood is indeed connected with this neighbourhood. After the death of his father, he got into the power of his adoptive grandfather Tiberius; and this old man, who, after all had never lost his judgment, very soon recognised in him the monster which he really was; nor did he make any secret of it. Caius could not hide from himself that his life was in danger, and it may be that fear had very early made him mad; but his madness was so malignant and wicked as to leave no doubt of the utter baseness of his nature. He saved his life by the greatest servility towards Tiberius and those who were in power, which, as matters stood, was the most sensible thing that he could have done. Afterwards he attached himself to Macro, and with his aid he rid himself of Tiberius. He had been little seen in public. He was a handsome young man, very like his father, and he was in his twenty-sixth year: the memory of his father, and his own good looks, got for him a most favourable reception; so that no one was so enthusiastically welcomed as he was. The nickname of Caligula, like that of Caracalla, has passed into common use; but neither of them is to be met with in ancient writers instead of the real name: no contemporary called the son of Septimius Severus, Caracalla. The name of Caligula was only given him by the soldiers when a child; his real name was Caius Cæsar, and the former one is beneath the dignity of history. All who had seen much of Caius at the court of Tiberius, perceived a deep cunning in him, and foreboded the worst wickedness: yet they were but very few. His first acts were, on the contrary, such as to give the public at large great hopes of him. The illusion, however, very soon vanished. Suetonius is very explicit with regard to him: he is a writer who has little of