In his discussion concerning the birthplace of the emperor Gaius Julius Caesar, better known as Caligula, Suetonius quotes an elegiac couplet in circulation at his accession (Calig. 8.1). It is argued that this couplet may derive from a lost poem in honour of Gaius Julius Caesar (d. AD4), the grandchild and adopted son of Augustus, but that it was circulated at the accession of his later namesake as an omen of his rule.