Caligula Essay Research Paper Caligula The Madness

Caligula Essay, Research Paper

Caligula: The Madness of a Goat

Many studies have been made on the emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, or .Caligula.. He was professed to be the maddest, and cruelest of all Roman emperors. As emperor, Caligula put the imperial treasury in severe debt, performed acts of insanity, and committed scandalous sexual acts. The ludicrous deeds he participated in, and carried out left the Roman Empire in infamy.

During the reign of Tiberius, the captain of his bodyguards Sejanus began a campaign of extreme and devious means. He desired the Roman throne and so, started to eliminate his competition. The first to go was Drusus, Tiberius.s heir. Sejanus then took out other key contenders for the throne including Germanicus Caesar, his wife Agrippina the Elder, and three of his four sons. The sole survivor was Gaius Caesar, more famously (or infamously) known as Caligula.

Caligula grew up in a military camp. His name stemmed from the soldiers nickname, .Little Boots. for the .child size military boots he always wore.. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). Being so close to the throne required that he spend his adolescence in Capri with the aging emperor, Tiberius. Though he attempted to .play the part of a dutiful and upright young man, he could not fool Tiberius. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). The emperor frequently called him a .serpent. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). He is

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also quoted as saying There was never a better slave nor a worse master than Caligula..

.Tiberius tried to draw him out by telling him things which might make him betray resentment, but he never gave him a cause for suspicion. Caligula appeared to remember nothing of his family.s fate. (Lissner 92). He was frowned upon though by the emperor for his visits to disreputable taverns and brothels. .Tiberius commented that .Gaius has survived to the detriment of myself and everyone else.. (Lissner 92). Tiberius was ill. It is believed that Caligula was poisoning him all along, but that has been disputed. At one point in his illness he collapsed into a coma on March 16, 37 AD.

The word .Tiberius is dead,. was passed from mouth to mouth. Caligula had just begun to accept congratulations when word came that Tiberius wasn.t dead. Having just seen his dearest wish fulfilled, he would now have to go on waiting for the death of a man who simply refused to die. He ordered heavy rugs to be thrown over Tiberius, and the old man died of suffocation (Lissner 91).

Tiberius had left Caligula and his grandson Tiberius Gemellus joint heirs in his will. As Gemellus was but a young man, Caligula adopted him. .He gave him the title Prince of the Youth, and sixth months later, had him carry out his own death sentence. (Lissner 93). Allegedly this was demanded after Gemellus .drank cough medicine which Caligula mistook for an antidote to poison. When accused, the youth replied .Antidote- how could one take an antidote against Caesar. . (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome).

The beginning of Caligula.s reign was mild and beloved. When he fell ill, .anxious crowds besieged the place and some swore that they would fight like gladiators if the gods would allow him to recover; others even carried placards volunteering to die instead of him. (Gaius Caligula). .He was a clement ruler for the first sixth months. (Caligula),

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The sexual crimes Caligula participated in rocked the foundation of Rome, and destroyed any pretense of imperial advocated morals that the empire may have harbored. To begin with, he committed incest of immeasurable degree. .He was caught in bed with his sister Drusilla before he had even come of age. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). She was forced to live with him when he took the throne and act as his wife. The .extravagant affection for his sisters is shown in his intent to establish a Hellenistic-type monarchy after the brother-sister marriages of the Ptolemies of Egypt. (Caligula). The sisters .Drusilla, Agrippina the Younger, and Julia Livilla, by order of their brother, were protected in such a way that each of the Senate swore to give up their lives for them.. (Tiberius 1). When Drusilla died, .Caligula decreed months of mourning, and he even arranged her admittance into the Pantheon, the national temple of Rome where only Julius Caesar and Augustus were represented as gods. Caligula did not stop at incest, he engaged in sexual relations with .men like the pantomime actor Mnester, Valerius Catullus and Marcus Lepidus, Drusilla.s husband. After Drusilla.s death, he had Lepidus murdered.. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). He had an affair with his chamberlain Macro.s wife, and then accused him of being her pimp and ordered him to commit suicide. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). .He twice abducted the brides of Roman noblemen. (Lissner 95). This occurred at the actual wedding. .He opened a brothel in his place where Roman matrons, their daughters and freeborn youths could be hired for money. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). His fourth wife was Milonia Caesonia. She was already pregnant when he married her. Caligula .occasionally exhibited her naked to his friends. (Lissner 95). He would send

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for woman of rank and Rome and .debauched them and then left them like fruit he had

tasted and thrown away. (Gaius .Caligula. of Rome). He kept mistresses of all types around the palace, and wou