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ancientcharm · 1 year

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On this day, in the year 41 AD. a young Emperor, known as "Caligula" was treacherously assassinated. False stories about him was created. Today if you google "What bad things has Caligula done?" you’ll see a shocking list of things he never did; Even the name known to everyone is not real.

Caligula means "little boots", a nickname given by the soldiers to the 3-year-old boy Gaius who wore the caligae (military boots) in the campaigns of his father Germanicus. After leaving Germany at the age of 4, no one called him that again, but his enemies caused him to be remembered forever in history with that childish nickname, something that in Ancient Rome was worse than death itself.

On March of the year 37, when he became Emperor at the age of 24, he wondered what was the point of being emperor if meant nothing more than being the most important man in the Senate; a kind of monarchy without a king. He realized that the title Primus Inter Pares (first among equals), created by his great-grandfather Augustus, was confusing.

Gaius had a great admiration for Egyptian culture. He was fascinated during his childhood travels through the East and seeing kings who, even vassals of Rome, looked majestic. Then, after losing half of his family, he spent his life away from politics in his grandmother's house surrounded by oriental princes, who since the time of Augustus had been customary to send them to live there for a time. Everything Gaius learned about Roman government was through the Eastern vision that those princes had. That is why it is logical that when he became emperor his attitude was that of an oriental prince.

His three younger sisters were what was left of his murdered parents and brothers, it is not surprising that he felt a special affection for those sisters and wanted to share his reign with them. He had coins minted on which Agrippina, Drusilla and Julia Livilla were represented as SECURITAS which in Roman mythology was the personification of the security of the Roman state. For three young ladies to be called “State Security” was crazy and an insult to the conservative elite.

Gaius had four wives (no one of them was his sister) The first marriage was before becoming emperor; his wife died during childbirth. Quickly divorced his next two wives because they didn’t become pregnant.

With the fourth wife he had his only daughter. His fourth wife was not pregnant by another man as I heard in a certain series. The same ancient source that presents this emperor as a monster claims that the baby was his daughter and wrote "The girl had inherited her father's perversion”, the author is talking about a baby who lived only 1 year and 4 months; Once again this is proof that the entire history by this author is full of myths.

In 37 Gaius married his sister Julia Drusilla to his close friend: Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and named Lepidus and his sister as heirs, being Drusilla the first Roman woman to be named heir in an imperial will. But on June 10 of 38 she died at age 21 due a ill. He deified Drusilla after her death (not while she was alive). His brother in law despite being widowed and childless, continued to be the heir.

On late of the year 37 he suddenly fell into a coma for days. No modern scientist knows what kind of disease was it, probably a severe attack of stress. Immediately there were conspiracies to put his cousin Gemellus on the throne. When the emperor woke up from his coma and found out about this, he had Gemellus sentenced to death for treason, something that would have happened in any European monarchy in the 18th century.

Emperor Tiberius ordered the death of Augustus's grandson as soon as he ascended the throne because even in exile Agrippa Postumus meant a danger since Tiberius was never well received by the people because he was not the son of Augustus. But the grandson of Tiberius lived peacefully for almost a year in the imperial domus with Gaius, an emperor who was beloved by his people for being the son of Germanicus. This is worth reflecting on.

In the year 39, he found letters written by his sisters, Agripina and Livilla, and Lepidus telling each other the plan to assassinate him. (I wonder if this plot was real or a trap by the senators or praetorians to keep the three people he trusted the most away from him) Following this, he condemn Lepidus to death and send his sisters into exile. To his only nephew Lucius (years later renamed Nero), son of Agrippina, left him in the care of the child's paternal aunt. Two years later, both sisters returned to Rome completely healthy, which means that he made sure they did not suffer any need.

Constantine the Great, converted christian, sentenced his own son to death on the mere suspicion that he had betrayed him; Later he discovered that her son was innocent. But this emperor who is the embodied Devil did not dare to hurt his sisters, discovered in situ committing treason (interesting).

After reading in the Senate those letters, he sent three daggers to Temple of Mars the Avenger, as a symbol of the triple betrayal; That is why this is known as “The conspiracy of the three daggers.”

In September of 39 born his daughter and he named Julia Drusilla in honor of his deceased sister. After her birth, he began to openly show his desire to create a monarchy and the abolition of the Praetorian Guard which he didn’t trust ( Praetorian Guard was another creation of Augustus).

But before talking about paranoia It's good to remember that years before, due to the plots of an ambitious Head of the Praetorian Guard named Sejanus, Gaius mother and two eldest brothers ended up dead in the worst possible way and he spent almost his entire childhood and adolescence thinking that he would be the next victim.

In the winter 39-40 he left Rome and headed to Germania, to the Rhine border. He hesitated between fighting the Germans or going further and conquering Britannia, but realizing he didn't have the military experience to do that he decided to return. It is known that he ordered the construction of a huge monument intended to help ships better orient themselves, that is, a kind of lighthouse surely inspired by the famous one in Alexandria. This part of the story shows a man who wanted to have his military feat, knew how to see his limitations and the risk and therefore decided not to start a war; Quite the opposite of what an insane ruler would do.

The soldiers never had to collect shells on any beach, but were instead ordered to build tents in Britannia. The Latin term muscula used for shell also described the tent used by the military. In all likelihood Suetonius, in his Anti "Caligula" propaganda, used this to create the another crazy legend.

Unfortunately there are no more details, historical documents on this matter It is not even known if he was personally in Britannia, or just sent the soldiers while he was on the Rhine or while he was returning to Rome. The story of the war against Neptune and the parade with his own soldiers disguised as "barbarians" is also false; There are stories about this emperor that not even his ancient detractors wrote but were created in modern times, an example is the “consul horse" and the incestuous marriage with Drusilla.

Only two Roman historians mention the horse and say that "the emperor loved his horse like a son." One of them wrote in a sarcastic tone "Gaius would have made his horse a consul if he could have", and another wrote that he told the senators "My horse is worth more than all of you", but neither of them wrote that his horse was a consul, nor that the emperor married his sister, and Drusilla never became pregnant.

Senators possibly thought about ending the Dynasty and restoring the Republic, a system in which only the senatorial elite had the sole power; An elite which was hereditary, an Oligarchy, not a democracy as some naive people believe when they think of the famous Roman Republic.

But the praetorians (a special military elite) knew that without an emperor there were no praetorians so they began their own plan: kill their enemy emperor and ensure that another of the dynasty, the “ foolish and weak” uncle Claudius, succeeds him.

In 41 taking advantage of the fact that January 24 was show day at the Circus Maximus and that the emperor was going to pass through a secret corridor inside the Domus that led directly to the circus, the Praetorians chosen that place and day.

The emperor was taking by surprise and stabbed to death; He was 28 years old. Minutes later, they ordered to kill his wife, and his 1-year-old baby smashing her head against a wall, but the mad and evil was "Caligula".

The same day the praetorians proclaimed Claudius emperor, thus nullifying any republican plan that-maybe- some senators had. Claudius proved not to be the fool nor week as they thought; he faithfully continued the system of monarchy disguised as a republic that Augustus had cunningly created, and conquered Britannia.

Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the third emperor of Rome.

He was neither a hero nor a saint nor a good ruler, he made serious mistakes and surely committed injustices. But he was not that insane and extremely evil character created by his enemies either.

He thought that the time of Augustus had become obsolete, the time had come for the Emperor to behave like a true Monarch and for the abolition of the dangerous Praetorian Guard. That idea of Gaius began to be the reality of Rome from the 3rd century onwards, and Constantine the Great finally abolished the Praetorian Guard in 312.

#roman emperors #roman empire #Ancient Rome #history

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queenfredegund · 4 years

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Listen I am not a conspiracy lover but you are right about the beast of the gevaudan and I would have given the exact same answer as you to this question. Could you elaborate a bit on Caligula please, I just read one biography about Agrippina the younger which says that the crimes of Caligula were largely exaggerated and that the incest accusation were probably false, but the biography also said that his sisters tried to dethrone him and that apparently there were issues. So what was the deal?

Hi, I’m glad to see that someone thinks the same with that kind of shady part of the “Beast of the Gevaudan” :)

Yes, I would love to elaborate a bit on Caligula and his sisters, so let’s go!

First of all, concerning Caligula, it’s very important to keep in mind that when he became imperator, he had lost almost all his closest male relatives (his father, Germanicus and his two brothers, Nero Caesar and Drusus Julius Caesar), but also his mother, Agrippina Maior, who would have been able to perform an important role in his reign. Which means that his capacity to made use of his family and enhance their authority as the ruling family, was really short.

But, Caligula had three sisters:> Agrippina Minor> Drusilla> Julia Livilla

In 37, when Caligula was named Princeps by the Senatus, the three girls lived outside of Rome, with their husbands. But, being a member of the royal or imperial family usually means that you had duties of representation and of authority, even as a woman. So, in lack of other significant relatives and because as they were his sisters, so also children of Germanicus and Agrippina, it was evident that Caligula would bring his sisters back to him and honoured them. Scholars to this day usually think that he was incestuous with at least Drusilla as she was clearly his favorite sister, the most powerful of the three despite being younger than Agrippina Minor, and because he mourned her deeply when she died in 38.

I think this is really possible that he like her the most, sibling love is not a myth, but for me the fact that Drusilla was favorised among her sisters, was in part due to her husband. I explain: after he became Princeps, Caligula ordered the divorce of Drusilla, who was married since 33 to Lucius Cassius Longinus, a supporter of Tiberius, as a way to secure his own position. He then married her again, to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. In some biographies, scholars mean that Lepidus was Caligula’s closest friend, and so that this was simpliest for him to maintain his incestuous relationship with her, as Lepidus was most complaisant with this situation, but this is an other #menstupiditynumber102030012.

In fact, Lepidus was a particularly influent person: first, he was a descendant of the triumvir Lepidus, then his sister Aemilia was married to Drusus Caesar, older brother of Caligula, and most important, he was a close member of the Julio-Claudians by his mother, Julia Minor, granddaughter of Augustus. Which means that the eventual children of Lepidus and Drusilla would have been descendants of the Julius line (through Lepidus) and the Claudius line (through Drusilla), and would made great successors for Caligula if he could not produce any offspring like Augustus.

Which also means that Drusilla was indeed favorised because she was by her birth and her wedding, the most influential woman within the family. The way Caligula treats her was just according to her rank and her status among the family. Not to mention that at that time, Caligula was almost constantly single as he didn’t take any influential wife (each time, weddings were way too short) until his final wedding to Milonia Caesonia which occured in late 39 or 40: Drusilla and her sisters fulfilled then the role of wives and managers of the household of her brother in place of a legal wife.

After Drusilla’s death in 38, Caligula’s dynastic vision started to crumble as he chose to not favorised one of his surviving sisters like he did with Drusilla. Perhaps it was again a matter of taste, maybe he had a better trust in Drusilla rather than in Agrippina or Livilla. But the problem was that the two young women were married to powerful men too, Agrippina to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, son of Antonia Maior (daughter of Marcus Antonius and Antonia, sister of Augustus), Lucilla toMarcus Vinicius, a proconsul in Asia, and more important, since 37, Agrippina had given birth to her son, the future Nero. So basically, she could have been the “new” Drusilla, as a powerful wife, imperial daughter, mother of a son and eldest of the sisters of the Princeps. The fact that Caligula did not elevate her that much, could have been a trouble in their relationship, especially when Agrippina lost her husband, in 40.

It was also around that period, during 39 and 40, that his relation with the Senate strongly deteriorated as he came back on his word made in the beginning of his reign to not open the records of treason trial from the late of Tiberius’ reign: not only he ordered new investigations and trials, but he also chose to strongly reaffirmed his separation from the Senatorial class, which to my personal opinion could be seen in his last wedding with Caesonia, who was not a member of a senatorial family like the other wives he had before.

That’s during that time that Lepidus, widower of Drusilla, Agrippina Minor and Julia Livilla intented a plot to murder Caligula, in order to make Lepidus the new Princeps instead of him. Reasons are not really explained in sources, as Caligula himself charged the three of being lovers, so his sisters of being adulteresses, which permitted him to both executing Lepidus and exiling his sisters. But to my opinion, the complot was a way for Lepidus, Agrippina and Julia to defend their own pretentions to embody imperial authority, as Caligula was denying them of any.

Sure, because of a lack of a secure timeline, it’s difficult to say if the way they operated was determine by his future wedding, as the sisters could have been alarmed by the fact that he would chose an other woman to exercise divine representation instead of them, or if the wedding was a consequence of the trial, as Caligula could have chosen to marry Caesonia because he had previously exiled his sisters. But in the two situations, it’s clear for me that the three of them were trying to secure their own positions in a time when Caligula was instead trying to shift the situation and creating a new balance in the imperial family since the death of Drusilla.

#ask #history ask #fierce-little-miana #caligula #agrippina minor #drusilla #julia livilla #feel free to disagree if i made a mistake btw :)#i'm a fan of that period but with the time i give to my merovingians #perhaps i don't get some points or forgot others #julio claudians #1st century #roman empire

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