Caligula (I Claudius)

"I always knew this would happen, I always knew I was divine, Think about it when I was two I put down a mutiny in my fathers army and so saved Rome."

- Caligula to his Uncle Claudius after awakening from his coma believing himself to have undergone a "Metamorphosis" into a god.

"There'll be no pain I know it, We are Immortal Gods!"

- Caligula to his sister Drusilla before carving the foetus from her womb with a botched caesarian and swallowing it whole in an attempt to recreate the birth of Athena.

Gaius "Caligula" was the third Emperor of Rome and was portrayed by John Hurt in the 1976 BBC Serial Drama I Claudius based on the book of the same name by Robert Graves. He is portrayed as a flamboyant and outlandish character whose rule as emperor descends into perpetual madness and debauchery.

Early Life
The youngest son of Emperor Augustus's granddaughter Aggrippina the Elder and the heroic Roman general Germanicus, the young Gaius was taken along to his fathers military campaigns as the armies mascot dressed as a miniature soldier complete with "little boots" or "Caligae" hence his everlasting nickname of Caligula.