Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also known by his nickname Caligula, became Romes’s third emperor at the age of twenty-four. He has been depicted in literature as hedonistic, capricious, sadistic, and probably insane. His reign as emperor became chaos and lasted only about four years before he was finally assassinated by his own guards. But what was the emperor Caligula really about, and why was his character so demeaningly described by a number of the writers of the time?
Early Life: Caligula was the son of the respected Roman general, Germanicus. He accompanied his father along with his mother and other siblings during Rome’s campaign in Germania, a major portion of Central Europe today. As a toddler his mother, Agrippina the Elder, would dress him in a miniature army outfit including the boots, earning him the nickname “Caligula” meaning little boot. After the Germania campaign was successfully concluded, Germanicus was assigned to the Middle East where he died of a mysterious ailment thought by some to be poison perhaps at the request of emperor Tiberius. Caligula then returned to Rome and continued to live with Agrippina, but before long Agrippina was exiled by Tiberius with her other sons over her quest for political power. Caligula and his sisters remained under close watch by Tiberius. Later Caligula was remanded to the personal care of Tiberius, and lived on the island of Capri at the emperor’s court. He developed into a well-informed, intelligent, and skilled orator, although his status was similar to that of a slave. He had a benefactor in Tiberius’ court, however, and Tiberius’ impression of him became elevated to the point that he received a quaestorship and became a public official. He later was made joint heir to Tiberius’ estate along with the grandson of Tiberius, Gemellus, who was several years younger. Most historians believe that Tiberius favored Gemellus to follow his emperorship but was concerned that if Caligula came to power, Gemellus would be assassinated. However, Tiberius died a natural death in AD 37, and Gemellus was still too young to become emperor leaving the post to Caligula.
Early Reign as Emperor: Some writers of the times described Caligula as the first Roman emperor to be admired by “all the world,” Others pointed out that Caligula was the “beloved son of the popular Germanicus,” and could be expected to be more like his father than like the previous emperor. His training in oratory while under the heel of Tiberius in Capri paid off, and his initial public impression led to rejoicing among the population. Although Tiberius’ will was set aside, Caligula nonetheless honored much of it especially in the giving of payments of gratitude to the Praetoria Guards, the army, and a small bonus to every Roman citizen. He made a public event out of the burning of Tiberius’ secret documents thought to have spelled out villainous acts by the senate. He established several building projects including a temple to Livia, the wife of Augustus. He began a slow-moving purge of persons who were supported by and still loyal to Tiberius.
Behavioral Changes Taking Place Six Months Later: The Jewish writer Philo reported that in late AD 37, about six months after his reign began, Caligula suffered from a serious illness. After a time, his good health returned, but his moods and attitudes began to change. He went on a purge of those whom he suspected as opponents including Gemellus, Tiberius’ grandson, and Macro, the Praetorian prefect who was his guiding star while Tiberius was still emperor. Some historians believe that Caligula had purges and assassinations in his psyche before he became emperor, possibly absorbed from observing the acts of his predecessor. This gives rise to the question as to whether the first six months of his reign was actually a honeymoon. Later historians view the “change” of his personality six months into his reign as simply brought about by the pressures and complexities of being emperor. Caligula’s rule began when he was only twenty-four. He was immature, unprepared, and in serious need of counselors he could trust to help him deal with the new realities he faced. He learned to speak his mind anyway he felt—a characteristic that was not advisable in an environment like early Imperial Rome, where the senate still retained certain amounts of political power. In spite of his position, Caligula generally identified with the lower classes of Roman society. He was made exempt from the sumptuary laws by the senate that restricted certain intemperance that led to excessive opulence. His behavior appeared to descend from that of a ruler to that of the common man.
Populist Actions: He was capable of correcting those positions on public matters that were altogether wrong, or that caused strong public opposition. He had numerous egalitarian tendencies such as the abolishment of certain taxes, help to those who lost their homes due to fires, and prizes or bonuses paid to participants at certain public events such as chariot races and gymnastic meets. About a year and a half into his reign a financial crisis evolved, and Caligula’s solution to the lack of treasury funds was to confiscate the property of wealthy individuals by way of false accusations, fines, or other illicit means. Although the treasury remained solvent throughout his reign, in the final analysis Caligula spent more than was taken in. This led him towards a campaign of new taxes to help balance the ledgers. The new taxes were aimed mainly toward the common man, the same constituency that he had thrived upon during the early stages of his reign. The breadth of taxation was unheard-of at the time as such events as tavern sales, slaves, edibles sold in the city, marriages, prostitutes, and litigation were taxed. The taxable items were often petty, but the backlash from the population was strong, and the Praetorian Guards themselves had to use whatever force required to collect them. The amounts started out as being nominal, but as the collections still did not make up the fiscal shortfalls, they were increased to where they were double the original amounts. What further complicated matters was the concept that Caligula had blurred the lines between public finances and his own personal fortune, spending more of the former on himself.
Quarrels With the Senate: As Caligula’s reign reached and passed the two-year mark, his relationship with the senate degenerated into outright quarreling. His public diatribes often accused senators of treason, treachery, and hypocrisy. When he publicly destroyed Tiberius’ secret documents, he refrained from destroying those that pertained to treason among senators. He reviewed them personally and concluded that certain senators were guilty of various amounts of treason from the get-go of their senatorial careers. But Tiberius’ treason trials often included the use of professional informers who were hated by the public. As some of the cases hit close to home for Caligula, he ordered new trials in which five senators were found guilty and executed, and numerous others shamed or degraded. These trials and other matters with the senate showed that Caligula intended to ride roughshod over the senate as a dictator would, and that perhaps the difficulties of office for a twenty-six-year-old were pushing him into paranoia much the same as it did his predecessor. His rule was degenerating from mismanagement into chaos and ultimately into a reign of terror.
Other Outrageous Actions: The following are a few of the many alleged actions taken by Caligula that were of outrageous proportions for the times. He made his favorite racehorse, Incitatus, a consul in an effort to insult the senatorial class. He built a floating pontoon bridge from the resort of Baiae across the bay to the port of Puteoli using in part some of the ships that brought grain to the capital city. The bridge had no useful purpose, but Caligula made a point of riding Incitatus over the two mile span several times, perhaps in response to Tiberius’ soothsayer who said that he had “no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae.” He had his two sisters exiled for allegedly being in a plot to overthrow him. He expanded the empire into the western reaches of the Mediterranean Sahara by inviting the leader of Mauretania, his cousin Ptolemy, to Rome and then executing him. In the third year of his reign Caligula announced that he would leave Rome permanently for Alexandria in Egypt. To accomplish this, he made Egypt—the main supplier of wheat to Rome—an “Imperial Province” under his direct control. He impersonated Jupiter to facilitate the seduction of certain women, bringing about the supposition that he likened himself to Jupiter as an equal and perhaps even a rival. However, later historians disagree that he wanted to present himself to the population as a god, apparently taking his own personal religious feelings seriously. He ordered a statue of himself to be placed in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem, and the statue was built, but it was never installed as Caligula was assassinated beforehand.
Assassination: On January 24, AD 41, the day before his departure to Alexandria, Caligula was assassinated by two Praetorian tribunes and a group of centurions while addressing a group of actors beneath the palace. The location was salient as there was little space for maneuvering or running away, and Caligula’s loyal Germanic guards could not get there in time to help him. Afterward some Praetorian guards found Claudius, Caligula’s uncle, hiding behind a curtain, and hustled him away to their nearby encampment. Claudius was sympathetic with the assassins, but could not bring himself around to participating. He was soon made to be the next emperor, and he duly ordered the conspirators to be executed. One source stated that Caligula’s body was cremated and entombed by his sisters.
Conclusions: There is no credible evidence anywhere that Caligula was in fact insane. He was known to be making at least some rational decisions up until the very end of his reign. A lot of the outrageousness of his conduct could be attributed to the sources of information at the time, many of whom were senators or members of the nobility, and some of which may have had an axe to grind. Much of it was written years after his death. This sheds some light on the questionable credibility of these sources, and provides fodder for Hollywood films. In the final analysis he may have been a better serving emperor if he would have had trusted mentors to help him adjust to the vagaries of being only the third emperor in Rome’s history. He was clearly in over his head as a twenty-four-year-old head of state of the largest and most powerful empire in the western world.
Sources: National Geographic, Was Caligula Mad—or Just Misunderstood, by Erin Blakemore, April 2, 2024.
Wikipedia, Caligula.