ABSTRACT
WHEN THE FUTURE emperor Gaius Caligula was born, in AD 12, he came into a Roman world that had been dominated by a single individual for some forty years. The Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the defeat of the combined forces of Marc Antony and Cleopatra brought an end to almost a century of unrest and political violence. The victor, Octavian (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus), adopted son of the murdered Julius Caesar, emerged from it as the most powerful figure in the state. In 27 BC he began the process by which the traditional form of the Roman republic could be theoretically restored while he, in practical terms, remained firmly in power. Thus he resigned the extraordinary powers he had accumulated, receiving certain others in return, nominally bestowed by the senate and the Roman people. Augustus, as he henceforth was known, sought to present his role as that of princeps ‘first citizen’, one magistrate among many others, with greater powers than they but not inherently superior or different. By holding significant offices concurrently, however, with extensions of the powers that he held, he effectively controlled political and military life in Rome and the provinces.
