As we shall soon see, many of the events portrayed in the series are completely made up. Gaius, by sharp contrast, was an extremely common praenomen and the name Germanicus is far more closely associated with Caligulas father than with the man himself. The ancient Roman historical sources record that Caligula was assassinated by members of a conspiracy led by a man named Cassius Chaerea on 24 January 41 AD while he was passing through a narrow covered passage. The Roman historian Kassios Dion (lived c. 155 c. 235 AD) records in his Roman History 59.8, as translated by Earnest Cary for the Loeb Classical Library: After this he [i.e. The fact that Caligula had Drusilla deified does not prove that he had sex with her, but it does demonstrate the extent of his attachment to her. ABOVE: Screenshot from the Netflix series Roman Empire: Caligula: The Mad Emperor of Caligula being seduced by his sister Agrippina. He took the name Germanicus from his father, a popular general who had won many great victories in Germania and posthumously been awarded the title Germanicus. Gnaeus had two sisters Domitia Lepida the Elder and Domitia Lepida the Younger and was also maternal cousin of Claudius. Gnaeus died in January AD 41 due to edema at Pyrgi. For the emperor, a man of the highest possible office, to literally act as a pimp would have been the utmost scandal. Lepidus was executed and Caligula's sisters were exiled. Now that we know where some of the misconceptions about Caligula come from, lets talk about what those misconceptions are. Agrippina: The most powerful woman in Rome. This merely proves that Caligula was not very attuned to the political climate in which he livednot that he was insane. The Ptolemaic dynasty needed and wanting to pose as a continuing We see his ambition, his scheming, his perversion and decadence, his brutality and his lunacy. (Hbert 2011, Hickman 2010) The definitive opinion is given by modern professor of Ancient History, R. Mellor (2005), who suggests, Agrippina was sleeping her way to the pinnacle of power. (Ginsburg 2009, Freisenbruch 2012) This would be the first of many debaucherous acts Agrippina would take part in to maintain her power. All three of Caligulas sisters were direct descendants of the emperor Augustus; none of his official wives shared this quality. Farm Shop. Following Drusillas death on June 10, AD 38, who was quite close to Caligula, her husband, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, along with Agrippina and Livilla made an unsuccessful attempt to murder Caligula in AD 39 in pursuit of making Lepidus the new Emperor. If Caligula really did have incestuous relations with his sisters, he may have done so in conscious imitation of the Olympians. The Three Daggers can accommodate 38 guests maximum for sit down dinner. Still, if I must produce my authority, apply to the man who saw Drusilla going heavenward; he will say he saw Claudius limping along in the same direction. quite lately Gaius Caesar flogged and tortured Sextus Papinius, whose father was a consular, Betilienas Bassus, his own quaestor, and several others, both senators and knights, on the same day, not to carry out any judicial inquiry, but merely to amuse himself., Indeed, so impatient was he of any delay in receiving the pleasure which his monstrous cruelty never delayed in asking, that when walking with some ladies and senators in his mothers gardens, along the walk between the colonnade and the river, he struck off some of their heads by lamplight.. All we really have to support this story is Suetoniuss word, which, frankly, isnt worth a whole lot, especially since Suetonius seems unsure about the storys veracity himself. For instance, Suetonius really does claim that Caligula had sex with his sisters, that he talked about making his horse a consul, and that he made war on the sea and collected seashells as loot. ABOVE: Page from a ninth-century AD Latin manuscript of Senecas Apocolocyntosis Claudii. And in that same Wikimedia page the legend describes him as : Thus, at the end of the episode, he murders Drusilla, cuts open her womb, and devours the unborn child. In fairness, though, most of the most famous stories Ive investigated in this article actually are in the sources. Roadshow Home Video subsequently released the same film version to video in September 1984. The earliest surviving source that specifically claims these things is Suetoniuss Life of Caligula. Following his accession to the throne, Claudius recalled Agrippina and Livilla from exile. The marriage took place on New Year's Day, AD 49, but it was widely disapproved as marriage between uncle and niece in a Roman society was regarded incestuous and unethical. There is nothing in any of the ancient sources to indicate that Drusilla was murdered. After she completed 13 years of age, Agrippina was married off by Tiberius to a close relative of the five Roman Emperors from the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, in Rome in AD 28. As long as you are reviewing literature about Caligula, you might want to check out Camuss play. Thus, in the series, Claudius is not only portrayed as the real mastermind behind Caligulas murder, but as being present at the scene of the crime itself. Suetonius writes in chapter 24, as translated by R. C. Rolfe: He lived in habitual incest with all his sisters, and at a large banquet he placed each of them in turn below him, while his wife reclined above. The Roman emperor Caligula, who ruled from 16 March 37 AD until his assassination on 24 January 41 AD, is undoubtedly one of the most notorious Roman emperors. The kings of the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 305 BC until 30 BC, had been known for marrying their own sisters to keep their bloodlines pure. Finally, the real Gemellus wasnt beheaded, but rather forced to commit suicide. Things get even nuttier in episode ten (Hail Who?), in which Caligula actually performs a whole dance routine dressed as Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, wearing tons of makeup, a wig, and a gold bikini. She had two younger sisters - Julia Livilla and Julia Drusilla. line of the Pharaohs and married within their families because their In 39, Agrippina and Livilla, with their maternal cousin, Drusilla's widower Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, were involved in a failed plot to murder Caligula, a plot known as the Plot of the Three Daggers, which was to make Lepidus the new emperor. Coma patients generally lack a swallow reflex, meaning they cannot swallow food or drink. Caligula: I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. (You may be sensing a bit of a theme here. Seneca writes in his treatise De Constantia Sapientis, which he wrote in around 55 AD, not long after Caligulas death, as translated by Aubrey Stewart: The same Gaius construed everything as an insult (since those who are most eager to offer affronts are least able to endure them). The plot deals with the last days of the deviant and murderous Roman emperor Caligula, his sumptuous feasts, orgies, and the various assassination attempts on his life. Despite all this, most of what we see in I, Claudius and Caligula is made up. Ancient authors most likely started doing this to belittle him by calling him a childish nickname that they knew he hated. Some such victims of Agrippina included the praetor Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus; Britannicus' tutor, Sosibius; and Messalinas mother, Domitia Lepida the Younger. Caligula and Agrippina have sex for months, but she fails to become pregnant, so Caligula seduces first Drusilla and then Julia Livilla. Agrippina was given the bones of Lepidus in an urn, and she carried them to Rome. In early 41, Caligula was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy by officers of the Praetorian Guard, senators, and courtiers. - NERO CAESAR. Afterwards, when she was the wife of Lucius Cassius Longinus, an ex-consul, he took her from him and openly treated her as his lawful wife; and when ill, he made her heir to his property and the throne., When she died, he appointed a season of public mourning, during which it was a capital offence to laugh, bathe, or dine in company with ones parents, wife, or children. His biographies read like modern gossip tabloids. The place, now called Cologne, forms the largest city of the most populous state of Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia. Unknown: Marcus Aemilius Lepidus - Conspirator in the Plot of Three Daggers (d. 39 CE) He states that both the elder Gaius Julius Caesar (Julius Caesar) and the When tragedy strikes an English family staying at their hotel, Kate feels she has to help them. According to Suetonius, while responding to friends congratulating him on his sons birth, Gnaeus said "I don't think anything produced by me and Agrippina could possibly be good for the state or the people". In each iteration of the story, all that changes is the person who is doing the pearl-dissolving. Caligula, born Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus in 12 AD, was the Emperor of Rome between 37 and 41 AD. ", This page was last edited on 4 January 2022, at 16:56. Around AD 57, Nero expelled her from the palace following which she lived in a riverside estate in Misenum and made short visits to Rome. Indeed, I think I myself have described Donald Trump as insane more than once, but yet I dont think he would meet the clinical definition of insanity and I dont think Caligula would either. Notice that Philon says nothing about any kind of headaches, nothing about the duration of the illness, nothing about any kind of coma, and nothing about the illness making him go insane. [1], Some areas of his lineage are unclear. It is probably true that Caligula was something of a sadist. Nonetheless, all the ancient sources written within three centuries after Caligulas death unanimously refer to him as Gaius. This is the name that Philon uses, the name that Seneca uses, the name that the Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder (lived c. 23 79 AD) uses, the name that Suetonius uses, and so on. Roman politician and husband of emperor Caligula's younger sister, Julia Drusilla (6 AD-39 AD), For other people named Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, see, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (executed by Caligula). It is entirely possible that this whole account about Caligula planning to make his horse a consul is fabricated. Many naked women have dim but visible tan lines, mostly around their hip area. Contemplating marriage for the fourth time, Claudius chose Agrippina, his niece, among the three candidates put forward by his advisors including Caligulas third wife, Lollia Paulina. The idea behind it may have been that, because they had made him feel foolish on his campaign, he would make them feel foolish as well. This drama, however, exaggerates the extent of Caligulas alleged insanity even further than Gravess original novel. It is entirely possible that the real reason why Caligula honored his sisters so highly is simply because he wanted to emphasize the importance of the Augustan bloodline. ABOVE: Screenshot from the I, Claudius episode Zeus, By Jove! of Caligula (played by John Hurt), dressed as Zeus, coming out of the room with blood all over his lips after eating Drusillas fetus. Surviving coins minted during Caligulas reign depict his face on the obverse and his three sisters on the reverse, clearly labeled with their own names. The Three Daggers. Meanwhile, the Romans themselves had a longstanding tradition of posthumously deifying great leaders. (As we shall see in a moment, Caligula did deify Drusilla, but only after her death.) I would call him a /doryphoros i.e. What I have heard from him, then, I state positively and plainly, so help him!. So, how much truth is there behind these portrayals? He writes in On Anger 3.18, as translated by Aubrey Stewart: Why do I pry into ancient history? Most of them are definitely or probably false; others are based on historical facts but have been greatly misrepresented. Suetonius describes the entire alleged plot in just one sentence in his Life of Caligula, chapter 24: The rest of his sisters [i.e. Unfortunately, over the centuries, a tremendous mythology has grown up around him and many of the things that are popularly believed about him are simply not true. Paulina was sent into exile in Italy on orders of Agrippina and was compelled to commit suicide. As a child, Gaius was brought up among the soldiers and he wore a smaller version of the outfits they wore. He even scattered large sums of money among the commons from the roof of the basilica Julia for several days in succession.. III, COS. III. It is only in around the late fourth century AD that the sources start referring to Caligula by the name Caligula. This bar is a right choice if you are in the mood for the British cuisine. During Caligulas reign Agrippina began to put the lessons of her childhood into action, turning her back on the Roman ideal of virtue, and using her sexual allure and cunningness, to undermine and influence her brother's reign. It is possible that Caligula may have simply been trying to do the same thing that the Ptolemies had done before him. spear bearer, that sceptre is much too long and his posture not correct Gaius, who held the consulship twice, was possibly treacherously killed by Agrippina around AD 47. He writes, as translated by Allan Perley Ball: Who ever demanded affidavits from an historian? They didnt have those in the ancient world, which means, if Caligula really had fallen into a complete coma, he would have most likely died of dehydration or starvation after about a week or two at most. With this marriage, Agrippina became an Empress and emerged as the most powerful lady of the Roman Empire. This is the name that is most prominent on Caligulas coins and the name that Caligula gave to the month of September when he renamed it after himself. In fact, this scenario actually seems to contradict what Suetonius himself says in his Life of Caligula, since he makes it sound as though Drusilla was the first of Caligulas sisters that he ever had sex with, not the second. Her three elder brothers were Nero Caesar, Drusus Caesar and Caligula of whom the latter became Roman emperor. I named my tuxedo cat with white socks Caligula. After her own life is threatened, Kate is joined by her partner, Steve Bartorelli, a recently retired Detective Chief Inspector of Italian descent, who helps her solve the crime. Have sex for months, but rather forced to commit suicide of whom the latter became Roman emperor they... The name Caligula born Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus in 12 AD, was the emperor of being... 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