Gaius Caligula 37-41 AD

"He has all of Sulla's vices with none of his virtues" - Tiberius

Succession Choices
In the latter years of Tiberius' life, the question of succession arose again. Tiberius had three choices from within the Imperial Family

• Claudius - Tiberius' nephew (his brother Drusus' son), Claudius was the eldest male in the family but was considered the "black sheep" due to his physical problems and personality
• Tiberius Gemellus - Tiberius' grandson (his son Drusus and Livilla's child), however, he was still only a child
• Gaius Caligula - The son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, despite Tiberius' hostility to Agrippina he was still widely popular with the people due to his father's reputation

Gaius Caligula

• As a young boy, Gaius had accompanied his father in his campaigns in Germania, earning the affectionate nickname "Caligula" from the soldiers who would often see him parading the camp in tiny military attire (Caligula means "Little-Boots")
• When Germanicus had died, he had temporarily lived with his mother Agrippina. After her banishment he lived with Livia until her death and then his other grandmother Antonia
• Caligula's older brothers were exiled and killed under the charges of treason. Caligula only being spared because of his youth
• In the latter years of Tiberius' life, Caligula had lived with him on the island of Capri, essentially under house arrest alongside his three sisters

Joint Heirs

• Tiberius decided upon appointing Gemellus and Caligula as joint heirs
• However, Gemellus was still too young to rule when Tiberius finally died in 37 AD, and so the appointment of Princeps fell to Caligula
• Suetonius describes the joy felt upon Caligula's appointment following Tiberius' death:
• "By thus gaining the throne he fulfilled the highest hopes of the Roman people, or I may say of all mankind, since he was the prince most earnestly desired by the great part of the provincials and soldiers, many of whom had known him in his infancy, as well as by the whole body of the city populace, because of the memory of his father Germanicus and pity for a family that was all but extinct. Accordingly, when he set out from Misenum, though he was in mourning garb and escorting the body of Tiberius, yet his progress was marked by altars, victims, and blazing torches, and he was met by a dense and joyful throng, who called him besides other propitious names their "star," their "chick," their "babe," and their "nursling"

Tiberius' Will Snubbed

• So fervent were the people for Caligula's accession that Macro and Caligula used this opportunity to overthrow Tiberius' will
• "full and absolute power was at once put into his hands by the unanimous consent of the Senate and of the mob, which forced its way into the House, and no attention was paid to the wish of Tiberius, who in his will had named his other grandson, still a boy, joint heir with Caligula" - Suetonius

Caligula's Popularity Strengthened

Caligula took further steps to secure his popularity with the Roman people:

• He held a series of games
• He recalled all exiles and dismissed all pending criminal charges made under Tiberius
• He made a public statement reunifying the imperial household, adopting Tiberius Gemellus as his heir and honouring his grandmother Antonia with the title Augusta
• He sailed to Pandataria and brought his brother and mother's remains to the Mausoleum of Augustus
• He also played heavily on his father's popularity, as seen on coins depicting Germanicus on one side and Caligula on the other

Gaius' Change

• Suetonius: "So much for Gaius the Emperor, the rest of this history must needs deal with Gaius the monster"
• After six months of a seemingly optimistic rule, the more sadistic elements of Caligula's behaviour, which as of yet had been suppressed, gradually began to surface
• In late October 37 AD, Caligula fell seriously ill. Though the illness itself is still unknown (Historians suspect perhaps serious bipolar disorder caused by epilepsy, which many in the Julio-Claudian family suffered from)), when Caligula recovered he was never quite the same

Caligula the Monster

What were Caligula's characteristics according to the sources?

• Suetonius:
• Sadistic - "let them know that they are dying"
• Unpredictable - Caligula attacked a priest instead of the animal during a sacrifice - He also joked at dinner that he could have the consuls' throats cut
• Cruel - Made families watch their relatives' executions
• Narcissistic - forced Senators to grovel or face execution if they criticised his plays or refused to worship his genius
• Threatened by the Senators - Ones who opposed him were killed. Plebians more generally spared - "If only all of Rome had a single neck"
• Rules through fear - "let them hate me so long as they fear me"
• Caligula considered his own best characteristic to be his "inflexibility"
• Cassius Dio:
• "Monarchial"
• "Most lustful of men" - seized a woman at her wedding and "snatched" others who were already married
• "Surpassed Tiberius' licentiousness and bloodthirstiness"
• Short tempered, fickle and unstable - hated people for negative comments about Tiberius, but also hated those who praised him. He initially refused statues and sacrifices dedicated to him, but then wanted them
• Dishonest/Sly - pretended to burn incriminating letters, but they turned out to only be copies
• Josephus:
• "Gaius' madness was now an offence to god and man"
• "A flawed character, who had turned viciousness into a fine art"
• Seneca:
• "Nature spawned (him) to be the ruin and disgrace of all humanity"
• "With an inconsistency born of madness" - he would grow his hair and then shave it randomly
• He "inflicted the most savage punishments on those whose grief (for his dead sister) he deemed inadequate"
  

Caligula's Assassination - 41 AD
Resistance:

• Caligula's brutality, particularly to the Senatorial and Equestrian classes, had antagonised almost everyone in Rome against him
• Unsurprisingly, a conspiracy to eliminate the Princeps was organised, led by a group of conspirators including:
1. Aemilius Regulus (Proconsul of Spain)
2. Cassius Chaerea (Head of the Praetorian Guard)
3. Annius Vinicianus (a senator)
4. Callistus (an imperial freedman)
5. Cornelius Sabinus (Praetorian Tribune)
6. Marcus Clemens (Praetorian Prefect)
• The head of the conspiracy was Chaerea, who had been elevated to the commander of the Praetorian Guard after Macro had fallen out of Caligula's favour and committed suicide out of fear of reprisals

The Plot:

• The plot was to take place during a festival held on the Palatine Hill, the palatial district of the emperors
• Chaerea and the Praetorians, who had the closest access to the emperor, would lead him away from the crowds and down into the cryptoporticus, a labyrinth of tunnels running under the imperial palace that allowed the emperor to move around the district out of sight
• The others would be waiting for him...

Caligula's Death: Activity

What do the sources say about the motives of the conspirators in wishing to kill Caligula?

• Suetonius:
•  The two tribunes that killed him had previously been "accused of being implicated in a previous plot and, although innocent, realized that Gaius hated and feared them" - they basically wanted to kill him before he killed them
• Cassius Dio:
•  The whole of Caligula's entourage were persuaded to take part, "both to further their own interests and to benefit the state" and those who did not want to join the conspiracy "concealed their knowledge of it"
• Cassius Chaerea was angry with Caligula because Caligula kept accusing him of being effeminate
• Josephus:
• "The reasons for their hatred varied"
• Aemilius Regulus - "general sense of outrage and a hatred of the injustice of Gaius' actions"
• Annius Vinicianus - wanted revenge for Lepidus - "one of his closest friends and one of the best of Romans" - Gaius had put Lepidus to death
• Chaerea - "felt deeply offended at the insults regularly cast upon his manhood by the emperor" - he also "regarded it as the duty of a free man to bring about his demise"

What can we learn from the sources about how different groups in Rome (the people, the Praetorian Guard, the Senate etc) reacted to the news of Caligula's assassination?

• Suetonius:
• The people were reluctant to believe that he had been assassinated, instead believing he had invented the story to see what they thought of him. The conspirators, some bent on restoring the republic, met the senate in the Capitol rather than the Julian Senate House. Some wanted all statues and temples of the Caesars to be destroyed
  
• Cassius Dio:
• The people now spat on him, ripped down honours to him, and the Germanic bodyguard rioted and caused some deaths. The Praetorians tried to find the murderers, until a consular shouted "I wish that I had killed him", which stopped them
• Josephus:
• The Consuls denounced Gaius, but the people rioted about the murder. They were stopped by the aforementioned consular. They couldn't decide between a republican government or a single ruler