Was Caligula Really Rome's Worst Emperor? | Tony Robinson's Romans: Caligula | Timeline

small boots and they're sweet, the kind of thing that drives even the most macho man crazy. Two thousand years ago, a group of burly centurions on the periphery of the Roman Empire made a pair of tiny shoes for a little boy and nicknamed him Little. boots the pile of names and 20 years later when the little boy became Roman Emperor they still called him little boots or as they say in Latin Caligula, yes that little boy became Caligula, the most evil and crazy Emperor in Rome , a man famous for making his horse a member of the Senate who sent his legions to the ends of the earth just to collect seashells and who believed himself to be a God, a 100% pure maniac capable of skinning his favorite singer alive while I congratulated him on the melodious nosov, his screams, but was it

really

? so if Caligula was so easy why was there a public outcry when he was murdered and if he was crazy why did they make him Emperor in the first place then how crazy was he deranged or just plain mortal this is my attempt to analyze one of the For the most evil minds of human history Unearthing archaeological evidence of the past is difficult enough, but how do you begin to get into the mind of someone who lived 2,000 years ago, especially since many of the historical records of Caligula's reign have been lost, much of it what is believed or What has been written about Caligula is anecdotal propaganda written after his time, what I want to do is try to build a more balanced image of him by classifying the most reliable sources, looking at the different interpretations, we can discover another Caligula and , to understand him, we have to look at his family and his upbringing because even from the beginning he is surrounded by a myth.

Caligula's passport to success was the fact that he was the son of a national war hero; In fact, at the time a story was circulating that he had actually been born in a military camp while his father was fighting a battle, the reality is that he was born here at one time in southwestern Italy on August 31, 12 AD. ante amor Anzio, as it is now known, was the Roman equivalent of the Hamptons, a summer playground for the super-rich, a bit far from the city. Caligula's real name was Gaius, he was the third son of a wealthy family and, if he didn't already have the nickname, he had almost everything else you can imagine.

His father was the legendary war hero Germanicus who won the hearts of Rome with his conquests in Germany, but he was much more than a war hero: Emperor Tiberius had adopted Germanicus as his heir. Caligula's entire life was influenced by the reflected glory of his father. His mother's side was no less auspicious, she was the granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, whose charismatic leadership had made popular in Rome the concept of one-person rule, the future

emperor

and his wife with a dream united and had the world at their disposal. feet, although Caligula was His third son could never have predicted that he would become Emperor.

We know that Caligula was a sickly and spoiled child, but he also seems to have been something of a prodigy. His father often traveled to the outposts of the Empire and sometimes. he would take his entire family with him, clearly Caligula learned diplomatic skills from his father because at the age of six in the place called Salsa he gave his first public speech, he was loved and adored by everyone, so he must have been all the hardest when they pulled the rug out from under him when he was only seven years old everything started to go wrong for Caligula in the campaign in Syria his father Germanicus fell ill and died the tragedy of his only death sealed his mythical character in the minds of the people the father of Caligula would always be The young and handsome

emperor

of Rome never made death his reputation, but it did harm his family.

Caligula's mother hoped that her eldest son would become heir, but instead the emperor Tiberius chose his own grandson Gemellus. Caligula's mother was furious and, in pushing her case, she defended herself and her family. deeply unpopular with the Emperor crossing Tiberius was dangerous the first Emperors had ruled through their own charisma but Tiberius was a sour-faced bureaucrat who had no time to flatter the people under him the Empire had become a dictatorship he had alienated to the Senate and he had indeed made enemies, becoming so paranoid about conspiracies that he moved his seat of power to Capri, but away from Rome, the remote emperor was even more terrifying.

Ruling by proxy with his Praetorian Guards quickly dealing with perceived threats such as the Colliculus family, the teenage Caligula witnessed a ruthless purge: first his mother and older brother were exiled and then his second brother was imprisoned in Rome, handed over to elderly relatives. . Caligula was isolated politically and emotionally. The only thing he had left in the world were his three sisters with whom he formed. an intensely close bond, so close that some people said the relationship was also sexual. Then, in the year 31 AD, when he was 19 years old, Caligula lost all family contact and was summoned by Tiberius to his hiding place on the island here on Capri.

When he arrived, he must have wondered what might happen. Was he going to be an honored guest or a political victim? If ever there was a place that could literally push you over the edge. This is where Tiberius was famous for his treason trials which he used to hold secretly in his palace. The senators would be summoned here, dragged before the court and never seen again. The rumor was that the sentence was carried out by throwing them off this cliff to their doom, so this was the type of oppressive atmosphere in which Caligula grew up. for 12 years he had not lived with his father for the last four he had been practically an orphan raised by his great-grandmother and an elderly aunt and now he was going to have to live completely alone, but it seems that he has worked out a strategy to survive here, in the dark Corridors of Tiberius's palace.

Caligula learned to be a politician. He went from being a threat to being a prodigy. He cultivated Tiberius and enthusiastically joined him in his intellectual pursuits and pastimes. How much of this was pretense? We will never know that he never gave the game away, although years later people saved him, there was never a better servant or worse master, the truth is that he must have been able to see the unlimited power that was potentially available to him, so as annoying as it was that was it could be about the destruction of his family he was going to keep his mouth shut his mother was exiled on an island about 20 miles in that direction as far as Caligula was concerned it could have been a million miles what added to the tension was that he He never knew for sure whether Tiberius was for or against him if the Emperor had personally ordered the fate of his family or if they were victims of conspirators in Rome trapped on Capri.

Caligula had no way of knowing. He could not ask Tiberius, but events unfolded that suggested the Emperor was not behind the plot. One day Tiberius received a surprise gift from an elderly cousin. It was marked for your eyes only and was not the kind of gift you would expect from a respectable relative. It was porn. Tiberius, his favorite type of reading. but he got more attention than usual because at her size she smuggled a message telling him the full extent of the plot against Caligula's fairy. Caligula may have hoped that this revelation would save his family, but several urged the conspirators not to make any attempt. to free Caligula's family, in fact, far from it, even though Tiberius, Caligula's mother wrung her hands, was kept in exile, her brother in prison until they both died and, to make matters worse , Tiberius publicly announced that Caligula's brother had died of starvation and when he died he was found desperately clawing at the hay on his own mattress.

It would be wonderful if we could enter Caligula's mind while he was on Capri. It is possible that he blamed Tiberius for what was happening to his family. On the other hand, he may have been indifferent. What was happening to his family we simply do not know and it is very possible that he saw the death of his brothers as an opportunity for himself and was therefore quite indifferent to their fates, but his silent strategy towards the man he had murdered It paid dividends to his family: the family's problems had begun because Caligula's mother had pushed for one of her sons to be Emperor by a twist of fate;

It was Caligula who was named joint heir with Tiberius, his grandson gam MELAS eighteen months later on one of his brief visits to the continent Tiberius died under mysterious circumstances 100 years later historians reveled in rumors that Caligula had been alone with Tiberius in his bedroom when he died they said he had both opportunity and motive there were no marks on the body so the cause was poison or a pillow over his face and the further they got from these events the wilder the stories the details became until finally these later accounts became the official version, but the only source we have from that time specifically clarifies Caligula.

The philosopher Seneca says that Tiberius died of old age but who was going to be his successor. Tiberius had kept everyone in doubt by naming Caligula and Comella as co-heirs throughout his reign. Tiberius had terrified the Roman Senate and now they would have a chance to claw. regain some of their power for themselves there was only one candidate there was

really

no competition between Cabela and Caligula who would you choose Camillus, the grandson of a ruthless tyrant, or Caligula, the son of a national war hero who had the Praetorian Guard on your side? He stepped out of the shadows into the warm sunlight of power.

Would he go to her head? History has left us with a portrait of Caligula as the archetypal mad tyrant, but when he became Emperor at the age of 25 there was no sign that he was unstable backed by the Praetorian Guard and with a glimmer of his father's charisma still. Brilliant, he literally had the world at his feet. Rome gave him a tumultuous welcome into his home, sir, the crowds lining the Appian Way leading to the line were huge and wild with emotion, rather they seemed to worship. fans who respectfully feared instead of bowing and curtsying as he passed, historians tell us they shouted names like star chick and baby, the army loved it, Germanicus's family was back in power and the mafia had gotten their former son war hero as their new emperor and superstar, despite his terrible reputation, everyone agrees that Caligula's first six months were a triumph and that he could do no wrong.

Tiberius had been a shady killjoy, a petty steward of Bray's outfit who denied the mob its fair share of entertainment from him in contrast afterwards. six years of silent terror on Capri Caligula shared his enthusiasm for a bit of fun his games and entertainments lasted from morning until night there were lavish gifts and an ambitious building program money was no object and he did the right thing by bringing his family to his mother the ashes back to Rome for a state funeral the people loved him and were happy to accept him as the sole heir even if it had not been Tiberius his world we can say with certainty that he was a talented young man who had a vivid sense of humor was very affable, very attached to his family and his youth, but he also had an irresponsible and reckless side and the great tragedy, of course, is that there was no one who could control that reckless side, historians tell us that he was a fanatic. of chariot races and he was not content to be a spectator, he liked to ride himself, this was something that no well-educated Roman was supposed to do, but Caligula was emperor and could do whatever he wanted.

He was here, under what is now the headquarters. of the Roman Catholic Church that the impetuous side of his character was given full rein, believe it or not, I am standing on what was once a Roman race track and that obelisk was the halfway point in chariot racing of its style in the year 38 AD, when Christianity was a sect of Judaism. Caligula built a private stadium right here, across from what is now the Vatican, and brought that 300-ton obelisk from Egypt, a major engineering feat for the Emperor's playground. The stadium track was like a huge long skinny dog ​​trail with the top curve right in the middle of what is now the plaza somewhere around where the obelisk is and then the trail itself was about 40 or 50 meters wide and extended about 500 meters in that direction, so the halfway point was just beyond where the front of some Peters now is.

Large crowds used to show up to watch the young emperor play, and if the crack heiress frowned, they were willing to overlook a bit of youthful enthusiasm when it came to the Senate, an inexperienced emperor. with other things in mind would be malleable enough to give them the control they sought in the book of him Caligula had also begun brilliantly he promised.return power to the Senate after Tiberius his autocratic reign to abolish the feared treason trials and had said that you destroyed all the secret archives naming the conspirators against him and his family for six months the Senate and Caligula enjoyed a true honeymoon you come to power and everyone is wonderful to you, yes, yes, everyone wants you on their side, you are still an unknown quantity and he loves nothing about this and he knows what to do he knows that Tiberius was hated and that anything he can do to distancing himself from what Tiberius was hated for will be good very soon he will have to face it With the problem that being Emperor one should never underestimate how difficult love is, so you think that Caligula was incredibly irritated by the daily tasks, but I think Caligula was hugely insecure with his upbringing in the Empire.

Tiberius, your court is a true nightmare, people are murdering each other, conspiring against each other, that must be true beyond any exaggeration that may be in your historical sources, it is a horrible place, you have no psychological basis for Be a stable person to react to the situation. real problems of being an emperor outwardly, the young Caligula put on a brave face before the Roman population, but the public exterior disguised the complexity of his feelings behind the mask of successful young aristocrats, he met a very different personality. He was dark and brooding. He wandered the halls of the palace late at night.

His dreams were plagued by nightmares. He was intelligent but highly. tense and reeling from happiness to deep despair in an instant when he spoke, he spoke quickly without stopping very, very eloquently, but he let himself be carried away by the power of his own rhetoric. He seems to be very, very impatient with the people around him. very sarcastic so I think he was a man who found it very difficult to relax the last six months had been too much for Caligula to free himself from repression the excitement the excitement took its toll on the very nervous emperor at the end of September he suffered some kind of breakdown, We do not know if the illness was physical or mental, but we do know that it took him out of circulation and marked a turning point for Caligula for three months; the Palatine the Empire held its breath people slept outdoors in the shadow of the palace waiting for press releases it was a bit as if the death of the princess died consumed by depression the over-enthusiastic aristocrats made hasty promises to the gods that they' They would fight like gladiators or commit suicide if Caligula recovered later, they must have wished they had kept their mouths shut early the following year.

Caligula seemed to recover completely. There was joy and relief throughout the Empire, but it was very different. Caligula, who emerged from his forced isolation and the first victims of this personality change were the sycophants who so desired his recovery. The man who had volunteered to fight as Caligula's recovered gladiator was forced to fight in the arena several times. Before he was finally released, as for the voluntary victim of suicide, Caligula kept his word, he was prepared for the sacrifice dressed in sacred garlands and paraded through the streets until the procession reached the banks of the Tiber here before the victim was thrown. to the waters as a gift to the gods except of course Caligula had no intention of killing him, he just wanted to teach him a lesson for being so disgusting, so at the last minute he took him away it was as if the disease had made him scales would fall from his eyes.

Caligula saw that the tide of affection was a superficial hypocrisy and was disgusted as some had pleaded for his survival, others had hoped for his death and to Caligula both had looked very alike while he had been around. Wrong, the Senate had planned who would take over if Caligula died, the natural successor was Tiberius, his grandson Comella, it was a sensible contingency plan, but Caligula seemed suspicious, was there a plot or was he paranoid either way? Jiménez had to go to ancient Rome. Don't send soldiers to kill someone for their misdeeds, send them to make sure the culprit committed suicide.

Soldiers were sent to tell Gemellus that he had been found guilty of plotting against Caligula, although from what followed it was clear that he was not up to the job poor old GU MELAS was not the brightest bulb in the pack they gave him a sword and They told him to dispatch himself but then they had to teach him how to do it Caligula's bubble had burst, what did the adulation and praise add up to if you wanted? to replace you just for being sick from now on, he would have a cynical mind if they don't care, neither do I, no one would be allowed to disappoint him again until now, the Caligula we meet has not simply been Crazy our interpretation of the anecdotes about him has discovered a character much more complex and torturous than the illness that ended his six-month popularity was followed by another blow to his psyche: the death of the person closest to him in the world, his sister Drusilla.

He had always had an abnormally intense relationship with his sisters, especially Drusilla, and when she died in 38 AD, he was devastated; he was too grief-stricken to attend the funeral rites and instead went into the countryside refusing to cut his beard and hair as There is very little in contemporary accounts to support later accusations of incest, but the death of his sister broke something. The public games and festivities that had made him so popular were banned and Drusilla was declared a goddess. She erected a statue in the temple. of Venus it is Caligula who emerges from this period of mourning who gives us all the memorable anecdotes about him.

These are the stories that have given rise to the belief that he was completely mad, but you can learn more about Caligula by putting them in context. The feasts were legendary with loaves of bread made of gold and pearls melted in vinegar. Drink. We know this to be true, but luxury and excess were normal for a rich rose. He said that Caligula would take any senator's wife he wanted from the party and then return. and he would give the table a hurried account of what he had just done to her or undress his own wife in front of the others to show how lucky he was, but it seems to me that this only proves that he had a vicious attitude. sadistic It's not that he was angry even though he loved her wife, he often kissed her neck and whispered to her in a funny way.

This very attractive head comes up every time I choose to say the word, but what's telling is how often the bats of his sadistic mood are the people he saw as his political enemies members of the Senate. In one story, three obsequious senators are summoned to the Imperial Palace. late at night not good news at best they are taken to the Emperor's private theater and sit there not knowing if it is execution or exile when suddenly the curtain opens Caligula prances on stage makes a song and a dance number and then disappears without comment into the night presumably very pleased with himself at the chilling effect of his practical joke he was not only interested in humiliating When he came to power he promised to work with the Senate, but after his collapse he saw them everyone as enemies, which was not just paranoia, he spoke believing that it was Tiberius who had killed his parents, but when he searched through the records, he discovered the role the Senate had played in accepting him, he turned against them brutally, he entered the Senate here and launched a fierce and confrontational attack, he said that he actually still had the documents that he had said that 'After destroying it, they told him that all the people that Tiberius tried and killed were in fact guilty, not only that, but they named to some of the co-conspirators who did it for his family, given these revelations.

Caligula said that he was going to reinstate the treason trials to found the rest of the conference and ended with the words hate me as long as they fear me on both counts the senators did it the Senate is filled precisely with the power brokers of the Roman Empire If someone is going to be powerful it is going to be by doing anything they will be in the Senate and, of course, their friends and enemies will be in the Senate. A wise emperor minimizes enemies, ignores them, marginalizes them and exaggerates friends. Caligula does the only thing you should do. never do it which is classified against the Senate as a body Caligula despised the farce of democracy in the Roman system one of the most famous stories taken to demonstrate his madness was in fact a deliberate insult towards the Senate he said he wanted to make his horse favorite consul the highest office in the country but he never did it was an insulting joke even my horse could do a better job than you no At the heart of Caligula's story there is a conflict between two visions of what the Emperor was supposed to be and the Senate believed the emperor was only there with his permission Caligula saw himself as the heir of all the Gustus, a member of the imperial dynasty with divine right to rule and it is in this context that we should see the most spectacular example of what his enemies saw as madness, but what he saw as proof of his absolute power that took place in the summer of 39 AD. and it all happened right here or rather there in the Bay of Naples nothing would stand in the way of the Emperor even if he wanted to walk on water Caligula proposed to ride his horse crossed three kilometers across the Bay of Naples, once he decided to convert sea ​​on land, this whole area became a huge shipyard, he built many ships here in the bay and got many others in external ports until he got about 200 of them. which he joined in two long lines across the bay, then anchored them and placed a large wooden bridge along the entire length, then dressed in a long purple cloak inlaid with gold and jewels and wore the cuirass of his hero Alexander.

The Great One, he and the Praetorian Guard charged along the bridge, but he was not finished yet, he waited until dark and ordered thousands and thousands of torches to be lit along the bay. It was extravagant, it was scandalous. Caligula had turned. water on land and night on day was rivaling the gods he was in charge the common Romans loved this excessive display but the people challenged by Caligula's absolute power thought it was vulgar and dangerous it could generate fear but not loyalty and back to Rome the problems were Later that year an increasingly excluded Senate was developing.

A widespread plot was uncovered. Caligula's reaction shows that he still had a firm grip on reality to act in a political crisis. The conspirators were killed or exiled and in response Caligula devised a brilliant plan to restore. political stability an emperor with control of the army had control of the Senate and there was nothing that the legions liked more than a successful leader like Julius Caesar or Caligula the father of the area Germanicus Caligula decided to emulate them he launched a campaign against the barbarians this is where Caligula To make his presence felt here, at the very edge of the empire, on the banks of the Rhine River, this natural barrier was supposed to separate Roman civilization from the barbarians beyond, but for years a Roman commander had been completely unable to do so. to prevent troops from committing embarrassing situations.

Raids on this side of the river Caligula fired him and replaced him with a strict disciplinarian. Then, as soon as the troops were back in shape, Caligula headed north to join them at the border. This was not an exercise to please the vanity of A lunatic securing the German border was a strategic action. Caligula had bases along the Rhine where troop movements were well planned and well thought out, and what he did was carry out brief raids across the river at the head of his troops, which he probably did not do. He did not kill a single German, but the fact that the emperor personally went into battle not only restored the spirit of his men, but also made them loyal to him in Rome and throughout the empire they honored Caligula's success with games. and special celebrations. a soldier and a tactician Caligula had gotten the army on his side and could do whatever he wanted, then he went and messed it up since Julius Caesar had made a brief raid, the Romans have been talking about doing a full scale invasion of the wet island in The End of the World, securing the German border, had only been part of the colliculi master plan.

He wanted to invade Britain with the German tribes subdued. Caligula borrowed forces from the frontier and marched towards the end of the world, what is now Beloit, and there his brilliant strategy. became one of the most famous farces in history the truth for everyone lined up on the shore Caligula climbed aboard a trireme set sail for England but immediately turned around he returned disembarked and climbed onto a high platform from where they overlooked his men and then he gave the order I want everyone to walk along the beach pick upas many shells as possible and put them on their helmets and in one fell swoop the largest fighting force in the world was transformed into a legion of hikers and then all the shells were solemnly carried back to Rome as spoils of war, by What was happening again Scholars have proposed several plausible explanations for what appear to be Caligula's random actions;

Some think that the very act of bringing the soldiers to the seashore was enough to quell a rebellion and the seashells are purely symbolic war booty. Others think that Caligula was forced to abandon his plans because the soldiers refused. to cross the channel for them this was the end of the world everything there was practically another galaxy three years later, when Claudius invaded England. faced a virtual mutiny, something similar happened to Caligula, so the seashell episode becomes a typically humiliating lesson for his mutinous centurions, humiliating a group of tough soldiers fits the sadistic side of Caligula's character, but he reserved his true cruelty for the Roman elite. and when a delegation of senators arrived to request his return to Rome, he struck his sword and said and on my way I carry this Caligula was returning for a confrontation Caligula had been Emperor for three years but he was still only 28 reaching the absolute. power with a mercurial temper and a sadistic humor that no one understood was like a spoiled child given the power of life and death and looked the part of a madman he was tall with thin legs and a nervous face with sunken eyes and he made it worse by putting scary faces in the mirror.

She was so embarrassed by his thinning blonde hair that she made it illegal to stand over him so that no one would see his bald head. Not a damaged and insecure human being, but an emperor and one who seemed increasingly unstable. As soon as he returned from his failed invasion of Britain, he launched another scathing attack on the Senate demanding that they recognize his true status as a god. He built a Lodge here on the Capitoline Hill, near the temple of Jupiter, because he wanted to be close to the God, who was his role model, he commissioned a life-size gold statue of himself as his favorite God, which he dressed in .dressed differently every day but not content with that he used to stand in the forum between the statues of the different gods posing as Jupiter so that he could receive a little worship himself, it is difficult to say how seriously Caligula took all this when a simple A worker told Caligula that he was acting like an idiot, the Emperor just laughed, but Coliculus demands that the Senate recognize him as a God before he was less scandalous than he might think.

The Romans had many gods. His great-grandfather Augustus had been deified after death and for centuries. Eastern rulers such as the pharaohs had been seen as living gods. Caligula's claims were not deceptions but demands for additional status, but this further alienated the Roman elite who still believed that the emperor should essentially be just another citizen. Caligula's demands to be recognized as a god and his consequent disregard for other people's beliefs would spark a potentially deadly conflict in the farthest reaches of the Empire in Alexandria, in Egypt, Romans and Jews have lived together peacefully, but under Caligula anti-Semitism reared its ugly head and started here 2,000 years ago.

Alexandria was a Greek city but with a large population of Jews and they never got along. Then the Jews were herded into an area of ​​the city, the world's first ghetto, and there were riots, anti-Semitic attacks and reprisals, it was the Emperor's job. To act as peacemaker a Jewish delegation was sent to present his case in Rome when they arrived. Caligula was busy putting the finishing touches on his recently redecorated palace. He was clearly in a mischievous mood and the delegates were desperate to show his loyalty, so he encouraged them. They chased him as he snuck from room to room dealing with his carpenters and his interior decorators and finally he turned to them and said, why don't you eat pork? and when they stammered his answers, he interrupted them with a yes, no.

He doesn't know very well, of course, his cronies fell in 40 AD. C. Caligula's anti-Semitism and blind desire for immortal status came to a head: he demanded that Judaism's holiest site, the Temple of Jerusalem, be converted into an imperial temple. The sanctuary and in the Holy of Holies there would be a giant statue of Caligula as Jupiter. The announcement caused chaos. There were riots in Jerusalem, but the way Caligula reacts after the event shows that even if he was a self-promoting bully, he was still sane enough to make a diplomatic U-turn. Caligula's attitude toward the Jews became considerably softened and, in fact, rescinded his order to erect his statue in the temple.

He was convinced that it would cause great distress and probably great civil disorder, so in the end, it is clear that Caligula could still behave rationally, strategically, and sensibly; In fact, many people thought Caligula was a good ruler. He may have fought with the Senate, but he did nothing to alienate the Roman man in the street and in terms of his administration. it was a real success it kept the provinces peaceful and stable it improved the roads it built new waterways to Rome to give the people drinking water and most importantly it abolished the Roman sales tax, its equivalent to the v80 then as now the people he liked anyone who kept the economy stable and taxes low and although his critics said he was wasteful there was still a healthy balance in the Treasury after his death, if he had only taken the Senate with him he might have survived but Caligula was willing to reach a compromise with everyone except the people who really mattered the people who could get rid of him couldn't stop the plots he whipped the senators to death had them tortured with fire and the rack gagged their mouths with sponges so they couldn't shouting even beheaded them He executed them at night because he didn't want to have to wait until the next morning, he called the executions to clear his accounts and yet he was so moved by the mangled body of an actress named Quintile, yes, he had survived the torturers without revealing anything. who gave him eight hundred thousand sisters as compensation and yet the irony was that although many of his victims were innocent of the crimes they had been tried and tortured for quintillions, he was actually guilty of participating in a conspiracy to murder to Caligula.

It didn't matter how unpopular an emperor was in the Senate if he maintained the loyalty of the Praetorian Guard. He's just a fool who would deliberately alienate the commanding officer from him. Caligula was that fool, the head of the Praetorian Guard was a tough soldier called Carrera, but he had that thin Reedy voice and that's why the Emperor used to make fun of him for being a bit girly, for example, if Korea had to thank him for something, the Emperor extended his hand to be kissed and then withdrew it at the last moment and made an obscene gesture or if Korea had to ask him what the last word of the day was Caligula would say it was something obscene like Venusaur the great Willy let's hope that Caligula liked the joke because he paid with his life the murder took place in a temporary theater here on the Palatine Caligula had come to see his favorite actor in a play he was in a very good mood there was the kind of atmosphere of carnival that had made it so popular there were no reserved seats and the theater was chaos gifts of fruit had been distributed among the crowd and this attracted the exotic birds presented for the audience the show began with Caligula sacrificing a flamingo that splashed his toga with Blood was an omen.

The conspirators were waiting for Caligula in one of the small alleys leading out of the theater that was so restricted that his bodyguards could not protect him at lunchtime. Caligula usually went home to take a bath and when he left the throne the senators held back the crowd showing due respect to the Emperor, although in reality they were making sure that the bodyguards could. To protect him when Caligula had reached the alley he stopped to talk to some dancers who were rehearsing there and it was at that moment that the conspirators approached and asked Caligula for the password and they threw their usual taunts at him and Correa cut him between his neck. and shoulder groaning, Caligula attempted to escape but was stopped by a hail of blows from the other senators in the conspiracy.

He was stabbed no less than thirty times, then the conspirators fled the scene and the bodyguards left while they stabbed both conspirators and Meanwhile, innocent bystanders the conspirators also caused a commotion, they broke into the palace they wanted to make sure that Caligula had no air, so who stabbed his wife, then grabbed his young daughter by the feet and threw her brains against a wall. The next day, the Senate met. With great enthusiasm it seemed that this was their chance to regain supreme power and restore the Republic that had been destroyed by Julius Caesar, but like the senators who had killed Caesar, they had underestimated the people's affection for their Emperor, even the more hostile.

Sources record that the crowd in the theater was stunned by the news of Caligula's assassination and now appeared in the streets angrily to demand a successor to Caligula, even Claudius Caligula's stuttering uncle, who became the next emperor, was preferable. The assassination of the Senate colliculus showed that he was no god, but the crowd's reaction is the final evidence that he was much more complex than a cardboard cutout lunatic, just like the man Caligula. He was certainly calculating and cruel with a strong streak of sadism, although I doubt any judge today would dissect him, but in some ways, he's no worse, this brilliant, manipulative young man who thought he could get away with anything, but when His manipulation gave him supreme power, turned him into an even greater monster.

Caligula came from a long line of revered military men, but instead of Glory on the battlefield, he chose to fight with everyone, even the Senate. If anyone was angry, it was the senators themselves for thinking that the son of a hero would be a hero instead of the paranoid sadistic young man he actually was, in the end it was them. who paid the price for his short and brutal career