Struck under Caligula in the first year of his reign, this drachm was part of a deliberate program of dynastic legitimation. By pairing his father Germanicus — never emperor, dead since 19 AD under circumstances Romans widely attributed to Tiberius — with the deified Augustus, Caligula positioned himself as heir to two lines of authority simultaneously. Germanicus had been wildly popular; his rehabilitation was politically useful and personally charged for Caligula, who had traveled with him on campaign as a child.
RIC I 61 is a Caesarean mint issue, struck in the east rather than Rome.
Struck under Caligula in the first year of his reign, this drachm was part of a deliberate program of dynastic legitimation. By pairing his father Germanicus — never emperor, dead since 19 AD under circumstances Romans widely attributed to Tiberius — with the deified Augustus, Caligula positioned himself as heir to two lines of authority simultaneously. Germanicus had been wildly popular; his rehabilitation was politically useful and personally charged for Caligula, who had traveled with him on campaign as a child.
RIC I 61 is a Caesarean mint issue, struck in the east rather than Rome.