Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus was born on August 31st 12 AD (Barber 26). The exact birthplace of the future emperor is disputed. Suetonius, and other historians believe that it was Antium (Tranquillus 152). At a very young age, he received the surname Caligula, 'Bootkin", from an army joke because he grew up among the troops and wore the miniature uniform of a private soldier including the caliga, a half boot (Tranquillus 151). Despite the young Gaius not liking the surname, it obviously stuck, as it is the name we refer to the same Roman emperor today. It can be proven that Caligula was completely unfit as a ruler because of his brutality in and out of the arena, his self-absorption and his irrational and grotesque behavior.
Caligula's life as a child was far from easy. He went through many life-altering hardships that could have been the cause of his unimaginable behavior later in his life. When Caligula was still very young, Tiberius, the current Roman emperor at the time, had Caligula's entire immediate family killed, excluding his three sisters (Kennedy). The most disturbing of the killings is what Tiberius did to his mother. He exiled Caligula's mother to a remote island where she committed suicide in despair (Barber 28). When Caligula had nowhere to go, he was forced to live on the Island of Capri with Tiberius. (Kennedy) The walls of Tiberius's palace were littered with pornographic images (Kennedy). The Emperor Tiberius also liked to have prisoners killed by throwing them off the high cliffs of Capri (Kennedy), making the island a completely unfit place for a young boy to grow up. After six years Caligula was released (Kennedy). After this experience, it would have been very understandable for Caligula to be deeply disturbed, and for his mindset about life to be the worst it could possibly be. This was something that the entirety of the Roman Empire did not know about him.