Caligula

Murder Was the Case . . . From Hero to

Zero in Four Short Years
What We Know About His
Reign
 Tacitus’ account of
Caligula’s rule is missing

 Historian Suetonius has an

account

 Writers agree that his

downfall was caused by
insanity
 Early Years

 Born on 31st of August in AD 12

 Nicknamed Caligula = “little boot”

 Soldier’s footware = caliga

 Spent time on military campaigns

 Soldiers are calmed by the sight of him after

Augustus dies
 Family Ties

 Nephew of Tiberius

 His father was Germanicus (Augustus’ adopted grandson),

who died of mysterious circumstances in AD 9

 Mother was Agrippina (Augustus’ granddaughter)

 Exiled on an island by Tiberius and died of starvation

 His brothers Nero and Drusus were killed at Tiberius’ order

(starvation/suicide/poison…?)
 Ascent to Power

 Joined Tiberius on Capri in AD 31

 Tiberius dies in AD 37

 Gaius becomes emperor

 Orders the bones of his mother and brothers back
to the Mausoleum of Augustus
 Kind and Generous

 Recalls those exiled from  Drove perverts from the

Rome city

 Dismissal of criminal  Honored Tiberius’ will

charges

 Cash bonus to Praetorian  Fantastic spectacles for

Guard (1st time) entertainment

 Reimbursed those  People were happy . . . At

overcharged by tax system first
 Madness Follows

 Caligula begins to behave as though he is insane

 Demands divine honors for himself and Druscilla

 Roman troops ordered to collect sea-shells

 Wants a statue of himself in the temple at Jerusalem

 More Madness

 Treats Druscilla as if she is his wife (favorite sister)

 Made senators run for miles alongside his chariot

 Resentment: they were not used to an emperor in Rome anymore

 Spent 27 million gold pieces

 Britain invaded? (Julius Caesar had invaded 90 years before,

but left) Seashells?
 Even more…

 Ordered a pontoon bridge built across a Bay at

Baiae and rode his favorite horse across it, wearing
the breastplate of Alexander the Great.
 Like Xerxes crossing the Hellespont
 He couldn’t swim
 A soothsayer of Tiberius had said that Caligula had as
much chance of being emperor as swimming across that
bay.
Planned to make his horse a
consul
Brought an obelisk back from Egypt
 Assassination

 Praetorian Guard decides

to kill Caligula

 24 January AD 41 he is
killed along with his wife
and daughter

 Claudius found behind a

curtain and is proclaimed
emperor by the Praetorian
Guard
 Conclusion

 The fact that Caligula was murdered

underscores the fact that this was a full-
blown monarchy

 Giving up your power = death