Who was after Caligula? Caligula: ten little-known facts from the life of the most cruel and scandalous emperor of Rome. Family relations in the family of Emperor Augustus

10:29 — REGNUM Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known by his nickname Caligula, went down in history as perhaps the most terrible of all Roman rulers of the imperial era. There is no end in sight to the list of his atrocities, and it seems surprising that it is possible to do such a thing in less than four years of his reign.

Although, as you know, Caligula began his vicious path in very early childhood, as the famous Roman historian eloquently tells Gaius Suetonius Tranquil.

“He lived in a criminal relationship with all his sisters, and at all dinner parties they alternately reclined on the bed below him, and his legal wife above him. They say that he deflowered one of them, Drusilla, when she was still a teenager, and the grandmother Antonia, with whom they grew up, once caught them together.”, writes Suetonius, without specifying who spread such rumors.

So, with the light hand of a Roman historian, born 30 years after the death of Caligula, the whole world has been cursing the fourth Caesar as a shameful libertine for 2 thousand years.

But the testimony of Suetonius, this outstanding writer, personal secretary of Emperor Hadrian, is the most valuable source for the biography of Guy Caligula, as well as other Caesars. It is from them that we draw the lion's share of evidence about rulers distant from us.

It is noteworthy that of the four dynasties of the Principate era, only one was highly valued by contemporaries and, as a consequence, by many generations of future historians, who in their works were forced to be guided by a narrow list of sources. We are talking about the Antonines, who went down in history as a dynasty of “good emperors.”

Quote from the film "Caligula". Dir. Tinto Brass. 1979. UK, USA, Italy

The rest of the dynasties, presumably, were bad. It is not difficult to guess that the assessment depended on the personal opinion of the author telling us the story. From the personal opinion of Suetonius, from the personal opinion Lucia Annaea Seneca, from the personal opinion of everyone else, those few whose works have survived to this day.

Not surprisingly, the writings of representatives of the upper strata of Roman society have reached us, so their sympathies were often of a class nature, and the assessment of the work of a particular emperor was based on the question: “What have you done for the senatorial class?”

Quote from the film "Caligula". Dir. Tinto Brass. 1979. UK, USA, Italy

It is not necessary to study the work of the Antonine dynasty to understand that in its policies it relied on the Roman Senate: you can guess this anyway. That is why we remember it as a good dynasty. From here it is easy to conclude that the Julio-Claudians were looking for support in other environments. It is no coincidence that half of the representatives of this dynasty died violently, as a result of conspiracies.

Caligula lasted the longest on the throne. According to sources, the conspiracy was extensive in scope, which means that the ruler incurred great hatred from the ruling class.

As Suetonius notes, during the first months of his reign he was moderate in his actions and did not demonstrate a violent temper. It all started after he suffered from an illness. It is noteworthy that in his biography of the Caesars, the historian more than once uses a similar explanatory technique, when a normal, restrained ruler suddenly turns into a madman. Thus, Emperor Tiberius turned into a monster after the death of his son. The biographies of other rulers also look unconvincing due to their striking contrast.

In reality, the whole point is not Caligula’s illness, but the fact that during the first period of his reign he did not take any active steps against the Senate. But as soon as it began, it became a reason to think about the mental well-being of the princeps. Indeed, only a madman would care about the mob.

One of the emperor's first decisions was an attempt to return to the people the right to choose officials. This privilege was transferred by Tiberius to the Senate. Such a start, which, however, was not successful, could not but alert the fathers of Rome.

He also loved to make fun of noble people in the presence of slaves and freedmen, and favored the plebeians.

“At theatrical performances, wanting to quarrel between the plebeians and the equestrians, he distributed free passes ahead of time so that the mob would also seize the equestrian seats.”“, notes Suetonius with obvious dissatisfaction towards the “rabble”.

It is noteworthy that the court historian Antoninov admits that Caligula’s reign was a time of general prosperity in the empire, but even this he blames the emperor.

“He did not even hide how he regretted that his time was not marked by any national disasters: the reign of Augustus was remembered for the defeat of Varus, the reign of Tiberius for the collapse of the amphitheater in Fidenae, and his reign will be forgotten because of the general well-being.”, writes Suetonius.

Quote from the film "Caligula". Dir. Tinto Brass. 1979. UK, USA, Italy

It seems that Caesar's chief accuser is not trying at all to hide the fact that Caligula enjoys sympathy among the common people and the horsemen. It is obvious to him that the real crime is disrespect only towards the Senate.

“And in the edict he declared that he was returning only for those who wished him - for the horsemen and the people; for the Senate he will no longer be either a citizen or a princeps.”, says Suetonius, mentioning another eloquent episode in the biography of Caligula, when he abandoned his own triumph.

Not only Suetonius threw mud at Caligula, another writer known to us, Seneca, also did this, who, unlike the first, was a contemporary of our hero.

The most remarkable may seem to be the description of the emperor’s appearance, which tells us more about the philosopher’s attitude towards his royal contemporary than about his appearance:

“Disgusting pallor, betraying madness; the wild look of eyes deeply hidden under the senile forehead; an irregularly shaped, ugly bald head with pathetic little hairs sticking out here and there; add to this a neck overgrown with thick stubble, thin legs and monstrously huge feet.”“, writes Seneca, obviously wanting to insult rather than capture the ruler.

Probably, this attitude was caused by the emperor’s skeptical attitude towards Seneca’s philosophical exercises, especially towards his sententious style of narration.

“He called the works of Seneca, who was then at the height of his fame, “pure scholarship” and “sand without lime.”, writes Suetonius.

The apotheosis of madness was Caligula’s accusation that he allegedly wanted to make his horse Incitatus consul, which did not happen only because of the emperor’s imminent death at the hands of the conspirators.

This anecdote is still widely quoted today when talking about the ancient Roman ruler. Modern researchers give different interpretations of this episode, but still generally agree that it should not be taken literally. As a result, it turns out that our judgments about the ruler who died 2 thousand years ago are based on the speculation of his ill-wisher, which we simply could have misinterpreted.

Ultimately, he was killed, some historians note that the conspirators feared popular reprisals, since Caligula's popularity was great, some of them could not avoid execution, including one of the leaders of the conspiracy Cassius Chaerea, ironically had the same name as the killer Guy Julius Caesar.

In conditions where history is written by the aristocracy, such rulers will always be villains, murderers and criminals, which is probably why this term subsequently acquired a negative connotation.

But who was he really, Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Caligula? I think neither a hero nor a villain, but rather an ordinary person who, by the will of fate, became the ruler of the world. Dying at the hands of the conspirators, he seemed to say “I’m still alive!” In a sense, this was really so, only the man Caligula died in order to open the way into history for the myth about him. The man lived only 28 years; today the myth turns 2006 years old. Into history, Caligula, into history!

On January 24, 41 AD, conspirators killed the Roman emperor Gaius Caesar Germanicus, nicknamed Caligula. The emperor went down in history as a libertine and tyrant, capable of executing his subjects for his own pleasure, taking their wives and wasting government money on fleeting whims. Gaius Caesar Germanicus received the nickname Caligula (“Boot”) in childhood, because he grew up among warriors and from a young age wore military boots.

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus /lat. Gaius Iulius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , also known by its agnomen (nickname) Caligula . Lived: August 31, 12, Antius - January 24, 41, Rome - Roman Emperor (since March 18, 37). Third representative of the Julio-Claudian dynasty; also - the great pontiff, tribune, Father of the Fatherland (from 38), four times consul (37, 39-41).

Modern historians recognize Caligula's good intellectual abilities, but emphasize his cunning, deceit, cruelty, delusions of grandeur, recklessness, greed, insolence, arrogance, and in some cases, infantility.

After the death of his great-uncle Tiberius Augustus (whom he probably helped die), Caligula became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. His first orders were very noble: the emperor freed all those convicted and expelled by Tiberius, burned all papers containing denunciations, and allowed the storage and reading of previously prohibited books. When Germanicus fell ill, it became a grief for the people, and many people swore an oath that they would give their lives for the recovery of the ruler. Later they were forced to fulfill their promise.

Having recovered from his illness, Caligula embarked on the path of debauchery and wastefulness. He was in an incestuous relationship with all his sisters. One of them, Drusilla, who died in the year 38, Caligula ordered to be revered as a deity. In Rome, twenty priests and priestesses served her cult. He sometimes gave two other sisters, Livilla and Agrippina the Younger, for the amusement of his favorites, and in the end he exiled to the islands.

At feasts, he closely examined the wives of his guests and immediately took advantage of those he liked, after which he shared his impressions with the public. Three times in two years, Caligula declared noble women whom he had taken from their legitimate husbands to be his wives. During the same time, he managed to drive away two of them, forbidding them to return to the family. The third, Caesonia, who was not distinguished by either beauty or youth, but who managed to bind him to her with exceptional voluptuousness, was either brought out in a cloak, helmet, with a shield and on a horse to the troops, or showed naked to his tablemates. According to the ancient Roman historian Suetonius, Caligula could have had relationships with several men, and “a young man from the consular family” Valerius Catullus complained that his lower back hurt because of the insatiable emperor.

Caligula was distinguished by his great bloodthirstiness, which forced him to brand his own citizens with hot irons and feed them to animals simply because they did not praise his genius or spectacle. He never missed the opportunity to cut someone with a saw. The feast was not a joy for the emperor if there were no interrogations, tortures and executions. He forced fathers to watch their sons being killed, and then invited them to the table, where they were supposed to have fun and joke.

Caligula prosecuted those who dared to look down on his prematurely balding head from higher ground. He opened a brothel in his palace, where Roman matrons, their daughters and freeborn youth were hired out for money.

The emperor loved himself very much and awarded nicknames like “pious”, “father of the army”, “Good and Greatest Caesar”. He built himself a temple, where there was a statue of him in the form of Jupiter of Latium, which was dressed daily in the same clothes that the emperor was wearing. To establish his divinity, Caligula periodically appeared in the garb of Bacchus, Apollo, Jupiter, Venus and Diana (he had a certain weakness for women's clothing). Caligula appointed his horse to the staff of the priests of the temple named after himself, which was later promoted to the post of consul.

For his horse Incitatus, he created a luxurious marble stable with furniture and a staff of servants. The horse's night sleep was protected by the emperor's law on maintaining dead silence (in the area where the stall was located). He was not interested in how long a person could be without sleep - death awaited those responsible for disturbing the peace.

In his own temple, Caligula created a life-size golden statue of himself, which was dressed daily in clothes similar to those he wore. In this temple, flamingos, peacocks, black grouse, guinea fowl and pheasants were offered as sacrifices to Caligula.

The need to live beautifully quickly ruined the treasury - in less than a year there was no inheritance of 2.7 billion sesterces. To replenish the budget, Caligula invented taxes, forced the Romans to include themselves in their wills, and forcibly sold at auction everything that was left after the spectacles. The emperor had one weak side: he was very afraid of thunderstorms and hid under the bed from the rumbles of thunder.

(96-98), Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus Pius (138-161), Marcus Aurelius (161-180), Commodus (180- 192), Pertinax (193), Didia Juliana (193), Septimius Severa (193-211), Caracalla (211-217)

Character of Emperor Caligula

Caligula's campaign in Gaul

To eclipse the glory of Caesar, Caligula set out on a campaign against the British. When the emperor came to the Gallic coast, the son of one of the British kings, driven away by his father, appeared with several companions in his camp and asked for his protection. This was enough for Caesar's rival to send a message to the Roman Senate that Britain had submitted. After that, Caligula ordered the soldiers of the legions to collect shells on the shore, collect their full helmets, and collect them in their bosoms, because this is the prey that they take from the ocean. The soldiers grumbled, the emperor calmed them down with gifts. To obtain a pretext for a brilliant triumph, Caligula sent troops along the banks of the Rhine, recruited tall Gauls and captured Germans who were to appear in the procession of his triumphal entry into Rome. The emperor ordered the Gauls to let their hair grow and dye it red in order to look like the Germans. The thought involuntarily arises that this was a mockery of Rome.

Informers and the Senate under Caligula

Covered in shame, Emperor Caligula, on his birthday, entered Rome in a triumphal procession (40) to resume his abominations and ferocity there. Real or imaginary conspiracies served him as a pretext to kill the guilty and the innocent. Day and night the instruments of torture worked at the executioners in front of the eyes of the villainous emperor, who enjoyed the sight of suffering and cared only that the tortured suffered for a long time. The Roman Senate tolerated these furies with slavish obedience. One day the senators themselves replaced the executioners. One of the most terrible informers, Protogenes, who always carried with him, as they say, two lists of names, one of which was entitled “sword” and the other “dagger,” called one of the senators who was there an enemy of Emperor Caligula at a meeting of the Senate. Other senators rushed at the unfortunate man and killed him with their styles, sharp sticks with which the Romans wrote on tablets covered with wax. After this, the senators decided that the divine emperor would sit in the Senate on such a high throne that it was impossible to reach him and that armed guards would always stand around him. Caligula directed the most brutal persecution against the Roman equestrian class, whose wealth the emperor needed. When the robbery of individuals proved insufficient to satisfy Caligula's extravagance, he imposed heavy and vile taxes. A duty was levied on all foodstuffs sold in Rome; porters had to give an eighth of their earnings, and a certain fee was also taken from all lawsuits; prostitutes and their keepers paid a fee on their craft. Suetonius says that Caligula set up several rooms in his palace in which women and young men of noble families were forced to sell themselves to libertines for a fee that went into the emperor's treasury.

Roman Emperor Caligula. Bust of the 1st century BC

Assassination of Caligula

The measure of Caligula's infamy has overflowed. Some of the noble Romans who belonged to the imperial court, tired of endless executions, confiscations, all kinds of robberies and fearing for their lives, formed a conspiracy. The military tribunes of the Praetorians Chaerea and Sabinus stabbed the extravagant tyrant in the corridor of the theater (January 24, 41), then killed his wife Caesonia and her little daughter. Thus died the Roman Emperor Caligula after a reign of slightly less than four years.

This was a man in whom all human qualities were distorted by vices, not softened by anything good. Caligula was dizzy with the intoxication of power; he was a slave of vulgar passions, not knowing any law except his own will, envious of every good quality in others, considering the glory of others to be a diminution of his own greatness. With boundless extravagance in games and buildings, with unheard-of excesses of gluttony and debauchery, Caligula’s main motivation was not the actual desire for extravagance and sensual pleasures, but a vain desire to show that for him nothing is impossible, there are no limits to law, nature, shame, decency. Placed by the accident of birth at the top of imperial power, Caligula went mad in delight at the infinity of his power, showing his strength by desecrating everything. There is some demonic irony in the way this Roman emperor played the role of God before the Senate and people who were reduced to dust, proclaiming in words and proving in deeds that he was a supernatural being. One day at a feast, Caligula suddenly burst out laughing; two consuls, between whom there was his place on the couch, asked what he laughed about; The emperor answered: “I laugh at the thought that with one word I can order you both to be strangled.” One day, kissing his lover’s neck, he said: “What a beautiful neck; and if I command, it will be cut down.”

There are several anecdotes about this demonic playfulness of the Emperor Caligula; her features were etched in the memory of the people deeper than the ferocity committed in fits of rage by the despot, who was constantly in feverish excitement and tormented by insomnia. There was no person who would regret Caligula. His memory was cursed; his temples were destroyed, his name was erased from monuments. In Roman history, Caligula is branded with eternal shame. Caligula's successor was his uncle,

1. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the third of six sons Germanika, Roman military leader and consul. Germanicus took his son on military campaigns, where he wore children's boots like army caligas - a special kind of soldier's footwear. It was then that the nickname “Caligula” appeared, which means “boot”. The emperor himself did not like it, but it haunted him all his life and remained with him forever in history.

2. Caligula's father, Germanicus, was so loved in Rome that when he died (presumably from poison), the Romans angrily burst into the temples and dropped the altars - because the gods allowed the death of the popularly adored consul. Having learned that the son of their beloved Germanicus would rule, the Romans enthusiastically welcomed Caligula, believing that if he inherited at least some of his father’s virtues, he would become an excellent ruler.

3. The emperor appointed Caligula as heir to the empire Tiberius- the “boot” was his great-nephew. It is still unknown how Tiberius died - some sources claim that Caligula personally strangled him, others “sin” on the praetorian prefect (that is, the head of the guard) Quinta Macron. Still others believe that Tiberius died of natural causes.

4. Caligula, the third emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, was 24 years old when he came to power. Despite the fact that he is now one of the most famous Roman emperors, his reign lasted less than four years.

5. One of the most famous stories about Caligula is the appointment of the emperor’s favorite horse named Incitat (“Swift-footed”) as a senator. This act is explained by Caligula's unlimited power, which he abused, and his madness. However, a number of historians believe that Caligula, who was in conflict with the Senate, took this step in order to demonstrate his attitude towards the senators, who were proud of their position, and to ridicule them.

Caligula's sister Julia Drusilla. Source: Public Domain

6. The perception of the emperor’s personality was influenced by the scandalous play “Caligula” Camus and the film of the same name directed by Tinto Brassa With Malcolm McDowell starring. There, the theme of the emperor's sexual adventures was brought to the fore. However, assessments of Caligula's behavior vary widely. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to establish for certain which of the rumors about his promiscuity is true and which is a lie. In particular, Caligula was accused of cohabiting with his three sisters. In any case, one of them Julia Drusilla, he really was incredibly loving. He printed her image on coins and even wanted to make her his heir. And when she died, he ordered her to be deified and for a long time could not come to his senses. Subsequently he named his only daughter Julia Drusilla.

7. A number of Caligula’s decisions do not at all fit with his image of a tyrant, thinking only about how to worsen the lives of his subjects. He repealed the “Lese Majesty Law,” on the basis of which his predecessor Tiberius repressed many of his opponents and simply rich people for the sake of their property. He rehabilitated those previously convicted under this law and returned their rights to property. He even tried to restore the already abolished direct elections of magistrates (government officials) by citizens, and also abolished censorship bans on the works of writers.

8. Many historians note the incredible cruelty of Caligula. It was reported that the emperor always had a servant with him, keeping two “notebooks” in which the names of people subject to persecution, torture or execution were written down. One notebook was called "Dagger", the other - "Sword". But at the same time, Caligula was very afraid of thunder and lightning; during a strong thunderstorm, he even crawled under his bed, not getting out of there until the heavens calmed down.

9. Caligula, despite the brevity of his reign, is remembered as an active builder. Under him, two new aqueducts were laid to improve the water supply of Rome. The emperor paid special attention to the road network - Caligula removed road supervisors from office if the areas entrusted to them were in poor condition. Those caught stealing funds allocated for road construction were severely punished.

10. Like Julius Caesar, Caligula died from the knives of the conspirators. The leader of the conspiracy is considered to be a praetorian (guards) officer Cassius Chaerea, whom the emperor reportedly mocked in every possible way. On January 24, 41, Caligula was ambushed on the way to the baths and stabbed more than thirty times. His wife was killed along with the emperor Caesonia and the only daughter, Julia Drusilla, who was not even a year old. It is believed that the last words Caligula spoke were “I’m still alive!”

Caligula, one of history's most notorious bad guys, ruled Rome for only four years, but his cruelty and insanity earned him a reputation among his descendants. But is this true? It turns out that most of what we know about the notorious emperor comes from very dubious sources. Suetonius and Dion, who described Caligula's wildest acts, lived decades after his reign. Below you will find seven facts about Caligula that are probably closer to the truth than others.

Caligula is a nickname

Parents loved to dress their children in miniature copies of adult clothing at all times, even in the Roman Empire. Therefore, when the respected general Germanicus brought Gaius, his son, to the court, the guy sported soldier’s shoes and caligas, which were specially reduced to his size. Some historians agree that Germanicus' wife Agrippina (who was the granddaughter of Emperor Augustus) chose this outfit specifically to remind everyone that her son had imperial ancestry. It is unknown whether it was with affection or mockery, but the soldiers from Germanicus’s army began to call the boy Caligula. The nickname stuck, but, according to historians, Guy hated it.

His mother was very cruel

As a child, Agrippina closely communicated with her grandfather, as already mentioned, Emperor Augustus, and he personally supervised her education. After her marriage to Germanicus, she defied tradition by accompanying him on military campaigns. They even say that she acted as his personal adviser and diplomat. Germanicus died under rather mysterious circumstances, and Agrippina was not afraid to accuse one of her rivals of poisoning her husband. She was a prominent figure in political circles and even opposed Tiberius, the successor of Augustus, whom she hated. The emperor did not put up with this incitement and ordered Agrippina to be flogged. As a result, she lost her sight. Four years before Caligula's reign began, she died in prison, having starved herself to death.

Reports of incest have been greatly exaggerated

Suetonius was the first to accuse Caligula of incest with his sisters. He added that such meetings could even take place during banquets, in front of Caligula's guests and wives. However, Suetonius wrote the Life of the Caesars in 121 AD. BC, eight decades after Caligula was assassinated. Earlier chroniclers who lived during the emperor's reign, such as Seneca and Philo, never mentioned this, despite harsh criticism of his policies. Moreover, Tacitus, during a long debate when he accused Caligula’s sister Agrippina, who was also the wife of Emperor Claudius, of incest with his own son, never mentioned the name of her brother.

He may not have built the famous bridge. But he launched barges on Lake Nemi

According to the same Suetonius, Caligula, who was famous for his endless extravagance, once built a temporary bridge across the Bay of Bailly in order to solemnly travel from one end to the other. No material evidence of the existence of this bridge could ever be found, so most historians have dismissed this claim as a myth. However, evidence of the ruler's extravagant lifestyle emerged on Lake Nemi, where two massive pleasure barges were found in the 1920s and 1930s. They have preserved marble decor and mosaic floors and statues. On one of the fragments an inscription was found: “Property of Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.” In 1944, the found ships were significantly damaged due to fire.

He started the conquest of Britain

Caligula is often remembered as a selfish and capricious ruler who weakened Rome in just four years of his reign. But even though his leadership skills were so terrible, some historians claim that he planned to conquer new provinces, expand the western borders of his empire, and even developed a possible plan that would allow him to conquer Britain. Although Caligula did not make it further than the English Channel and was killed soon after, his preparations for the invasion allowed Claudius to begin Rome's successful conquest of Britain in 43 AD. e.

If Caligula was actually crazy, the reason could lie in physical illness

These days, many scholars reject the idea that Caligula terrorized ancient Rome with his unbridled madness, talking to the moon, executing innocents, and trying to appoint his horse as consul. It must be borne in mind that his fellow legislators made sure that he had no real power to commit such follies. But if we assume that all this is not the slander of the chroniclers, some scientists argue that the cause could be an illness that forced him to take it out on others. Presumable diagnoses are temporal lobe epilepsy, hyperthyroidism, or Wilson's disease. It is a hereditary disorder that can lead to mental instability.

The most famous film about the life of Caligula is still banned in Canada and Iceland

In 1979, director Tinto Brass made a film called Caligula starring Malcolm McDowell. This picture shocked the whole world with its depiction of the cruel and obscene antics of the emperor. It was the first major motion picture to juxtapose scenes of respected actors with blatantly pornographic images. The film is still considered highly controversial and remains banned in some countries.