In a long history of mad emperors, depraved dictators and perversion in the upper echelons of society, Rome’s Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, emperor from 37-41 AD, must rank amongst the most insane and megalomaniacal of them all. His lust for absolute power unequalled in his contemporaries and his temperament violent and unpredictable, Gaius – or Caligula, as he was better known – remains to this day one of the most fascinating and yet mysterious personalities of ancient Roman history.

To understand the man, it is necessary to understand his environment. Caligula was born in Antium in 12 AD – though this birthplace is one of the many bones of contention associated with him – to a military father, Germanicus Julius Caesar and Vipsania Agrippina, as one of their six surviving children. Germanicus was the grandson of emperor Augustus’ wife Livia and the grandson of Mark Antony, while Agrippina, or Agrippina the Elder as she was more commonly known  was the granddaughter of emperor Augustus himself. Born into such a privelaged lineage – for Augustus was revered at the time, and the emperor Tiberius who preceded Caligula despised for his absence – it is not difficult to deduce how the mad emperor fell into his later delusions of divine grandeur.

Rome at the time of Caligula’s birth was imperially ruled, in a situation not unlike a hereditary monarchy. Whilst the monarchs of Rome determined who was to follow in their ruling footsteps after their own passing, the heir to the throne was not necessarily a next of kin or even a blood relative. In this way, with the appropriate combination of threat tactics and manipulation, and cozening up to the right, influential people, the process of selecting a new leader could be corrupted, as was the case with Caligula, as will be entered into in greater detail later.

Controversial from the very beginning, ancient historians argued about where this son of Germanicus was born. As the third of seven children, he was the second to be named Gaius, as the first son to bear this name died in infancy. Pliny the Elder claimed that he was born in Germany among the Treveri, however the inscription Pliny based this inference on was more likely referring to one of Germanicus’ daughters, as it merely stated that Agrippina had given birth to a child. A legion commander, Gnaeus Lentulus Gaeluticus, claimed that Caligula was born in Tibur, however the Gaius born in Tibur was in fact the first of Germanicus’ sons, and not the future emperor in question. The historian Tacitus agreed generally, stating that Caligula was born in a legionary camp, and the skeptical Suetonius checked the acta diurnal for evidentiary proof. The acta diurnal was a Roman record, the ancient equivalent of the births, deaths and marriages office.

Caligula’s parents were both distant in their differing ways; his father a busy military commander, and his mother an ambitious woman striving to have her bloodline survive. The young Caligula probably made friends with his fathers’ soldiers, and relied upon his siblings for company, particularly his sisters as they were closest to him in age. It was this closeness that most likely developed into a greater intimacy as Caligula aged. Between the ages of two and four, Caligula was used as a figurehead for his father’s legions as he toured the camps and his mother delighted in dressing him up as a small soldier, complete with tiny soldier’s boots and sword. It was from these boots that Caligula earned his lifelong nickname, meaning “Little [Soldier’s] Boots” in Latin. Even aside from his parents’ supposed lack of interest, Caligula’s childhood was undoubtedly an unhappy one, plagued with the instabilities of the Julio-Claudian dynasty generated by uncertainties over the imperial succession and political intrigues and paranoia. Germanicus died in suspicious circumstances in 19 AD, and the tensions related to this event irreparably deteriorated relations between Agrippina the Elder and the then-emperor, Tiberius. Accusations of treason led to Agrippina’s exile, along with Caligula’s eldest brother, Nero. Ancient historians debate as to whether or not this was the doing of the emperor, but the general consensus is that Agrippina’s second-eldest son Drusus collaborated with the praetorian prefect Sejanus to have them removed from the race to become Tiberius’ successor. Drusus, according to Cassius Dio, was acting out of jealousy over his mother’s greater affection for Nero, although Sejanus’ motives remain uncertain because he could not, under any circumstances, have become emperor himself. Now without guardians, Caligula and his sisters were placed into the care of first Augustus’ wife Livia and then, when Livia died, their grandmother Antonia, the daughter of Mark Antony. During this time, Caligula depended most heavily on his sisters for companionship, and rumours about incest began to circulate. Suetonius, in particular, placed particular emphasis on these rumours, though he does admit that the rumours may have been started as a means of placing Antonia as an innocent bystander in the corruption of Caligula rather than a leading influence, as some contemporary critics suggested. At the age of 19, Caligula was summoned to Capri by emperor Tiberius. The emperor had retired there in order to escape animosity with Agrippina. The emperor’s motives in bringing Caligula there, along with Tiberius Gemellus, Tiberius’ son could have been to protect him from the machinations of Sejanus, or merely to prevent Antonia influencing him too heavily with the ideals of his Ptolemaic legacy. Sejanus was brought down eventually by his successor, Naevius Sutorius Macro, who also promoted Caligula tirelessly to Tiberius. Macro had considerable influence as the prefect of the praetorian guard, the household troops of the Roman emperors, and he exercised this to curry favour on Caligula’s behalf with the emperor. While the motives behind his support of the young Caligula are largely unknown, his esteem was so great that after Caligula’s first wife died in childbirth, Macro was said to have offered his own wife Emnia as mistress.

According to the account of Suetonius, Tiberius secreted away on his island indulged in perversities that in Rome the Senate would have prohibited. “After retiring to Capri, where he had a private pleasure palace built, many young men and women trained in sexual practices were brought there for his pleasure, and would have sex in groups in front of him. Some rooms were furnished with pornography and sex manuals from Egypt - which let the people there know what was expected of them. Tiberius also created lechery nooks in the woods and had girls and boys dressed as nymphs and Pans prostitute themselves in the open. The place was known popularly as "goat-pri".” “Some of the things he did are hard to believe. He had little boys trained as minnows to chase him when he went swimming and to get between his legs and nibble him. He also had babies not weaned from their mother breast suck at his chest and groin. There was a painting left to him, with the provision that if he did not like it he could have 10,000 gold pieces, and Tiberius kept the picture. It showed Atalanta sucking off Meleager. One in a frenzy, while sacrificing he was attracted to the acolyte and could not wait to hurry the acolyte and his brother out of the temple and assault them. When they protested, he had their legs broken.” On an island with such sexually deviant behaviour surrounding him, it can reasonably be inferred that Caligula was heavily influenced by it.
In spite of, or perhaps because of, these activities, Tiberius became fond of Caligula, and though he made no will he indicated that he wished for his grandson Tiberius Gemellus and Caligula to be joint heirs to his estate. Despite Tiberius’ age, when he died there was still great contention and suspicion against Caligula, who stood to profit greatly from the death of his benefactor. However, Seneca wrote: “conscious of his approaching end, he took off the ring, as if to give it to someone, but held fast to it for a time; then he put it back on his finger, and clenching his left hand, lay for a long time motionless; suddenly he called for his attendants, and on receiving no response, got up; but his strength failed him and he fell dead near the couch.”  Seneca, like almost all of Caligula’s contemporary historians and writers, was strongly biased against him, and if he could have created a malign image for the new emperor, it can be inferred that he would have. With the aid of Macro, who convinced the Senate to instate Caligula as sole emperor of Rome on the grounds of Tiberius’ insanity and Tiberius Gemellus’ intellectual unsuitability (he was referred to as ‘young’, indicating his mental age, as he was older than Caligula). In replacing emperor Tiberius, Caligula ended the age of a tyrant and began a new chapter in Rome’s history.

Caligula’s reign as the emperor of Rome began on the 28th of March, 37 AD. Initially, historians agree that he began it as a benevolent, if slightly unsure leader, taking his cues from the Senate and sticking mainly to Augustus’ practices, and removing the much-hated innovations of emperor Tiberius, such as the brutal treason trials and heavy taxes. Unfortunately, however, this auspicious period of leadership was not to last. Only seven months into his reign, Caligula fell ill with what was described as a ‘brain fever’ by Dio Cassius. His popularity at this time was indicated by the enormous outpouring of concern by Roman citizens. It can be inferred, however, that at some point during this illness Caligula lost his grip on reality, and the Roman empire lost an emperor who could have been remembered as one of the most munificent rulers of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty.

Caligula began his reign of malevolence with the forced suicides of his father-in-law, Gaius Silanus, and Tiberius Gemellus, who still posed a slight threat to his throne, in early 38 AD. He also had his most powerful supporter, Macro, murdered, in an act that could have been called deluded at best. Initially his strange behaviour was tolerated by the Roman public because he introduced, in 39 AD, the tradition of public plays, games and shows. By this stage he had spent so much on public pacification in enhancing these entertainments that the enormous sums amassed by Tiberius were almost gone; to continue his extravagance Caligula was forced to reintroduce the treason trials, and began auctioning off public properties left over from shows. In military matters, Caligula proposed an invasion of Britain, and although he wintered in Germany in 39 AD in preparation he never carried this through, and instead ordered his troops to pick up seashells from the beaches. This story was circulated as proof of his madness by his critics, although seashells were a form of currency in some countries at the time, and his actions may not have been as mad as they seemed.

By 40 AD, Caligula had abandoned himself entirely to his narcissism and egocentricity. The Senate of Rome had long tired of his unwillingness to be manipulated and his determination to go against their will, even so far as to cancel public elections. Discovering several conspiracies on his life, he became increasingly paranoid, and increasingly insistent on promoting himself as a deity. This won him no friends among the Jews, who were said to have preferred to kill themselves than erect a statue of him and worship it as he commanded. Without ever fulfilling his political ambitions or regaining the rapidly depleting favour of the Roman public, Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus was assassinated by members of his own Praetorian Guard, in conspiracy with several Senators, including his brother-in-law, Marcus Vinicius.

Caligula’s reign as an emperor of Rome was insignificant in the empire’s long history, and his achievements are few. His name is mainly remembered in infamy for his supposed madness and the numbers of people he is said to have killed or driven to suicide. His assassination left the Roman public as they were during the reign of Tiberius, with treason trials, taxes, uncertain legal systems and problematic public finances. Politically speaking, the only purpose Caligula’s reign served was to instate emperor Claudius – Caligula had no heirs – who went on to restore a semblance of order to the empire. Despite his flaws, it is recognized that he had the potential to be remembered as a humanitarian and democrat rather than tyrant, were it not for the tragic bout of illness that apparently claimed his sanity. With sketchy sources from his time and the wealth of historical bias against Caligula, it must be left up to the modern historian to form his or her own conclusion: was the emperor truly an egotistical despot, or merely a narcissistic politican whose otherwise-unremarkable memory has been desecrated by the ages?

~ Cariad Wratten, 2006.