First of all, we should specify that we will ask our Roman friend about these three emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty who ruled during the first century because they are considered an example of cruelty and depravity.
Me:For us, who live in the 21st century, the emperors Tiberius, Caligula and Nero have a reputation for being cruel and depraved, what were they like for you who lived at that time?
A Roman of the time :Why do you think they were depraved?
Me:I refer to the evidence:Tiberius, in his Capri retreat, enjoyed watching sexual relations between adolescents and trained children, whom he called minnows, to excite him during the bath by playing between his legs; Nero fell in love with a slave named Sporus and, since it was not enough for him to keep him as a lover and he wanted to marry him, he castrated them to avoid the prohibition of marrying someone of the same sex (I suppose it would be a change of sex of the time); and Caligula… Caligula was the king of orgies and a sick degenerate. Does it seem little to you?
A Roman of the time: Well, the depraved thing is supposed to be a conclusion that you have reached with your 21st century mentality, because your current modesty and congenital blush for some topics, such as sex, is imbued in your minds by the Judeo-Christian education that you have received since childhood, but in our society the concept of "sin" or "homosexual" does not exist, nor is pederasty or any other form of sensual pleasure considered a moral attack. For us, sex is not a relationship between equals, but a power game, in which what is acceptable or unacceptable is determined by one's position in the social hierarchy, and the emperor is at the top. The important thing is not who you sleep with, but the role you play in the relationship:active or passive. A countryman of yours from Hispania, Seneca the Elder, used to say “passive sex in a free man is a crime; in the slave, an obligation; in the freedman, a service ”. Already put, you should also put in the sack of the depraved the one who was said to be "husband of all women and wife of all husbands" , that he was none other than Julius Caesar and, as far as I know, you consider him a great politician and military man.
Me:But about Tiberius…
A Roman of the time :The propagandists of the Senate, and those of his own successor, his grandson Caligula, spread a series of hoaxes that managed to change the image of the stern and erudite general for that of an old man fond of voyeurism and pedophilia. He was a melancholy and depressive man (Pliny the Elder called him " the saddest of men «), who from time to time needed to withdraw from public life -in the time of Augustus he did it in Rhodes, to devote himself to study, and being emperor in Capri, disgusted with politics- and who never wanted to inherit the coveted title of emperor . By the way, I don't know if you know that in economic matters I could give you a lesson...
Me:Count, count…
A Roman of the time: After the battle of Actium and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Caesar Augustus took control of Rome and began a period of unprecedented territorial expansion and economic development ("A Rome is not going to know nor the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus «). In the words of Cassius Dio:“ The Romans greatly missed Augustus because through his combination of monarchy and republican institutions, he guaranteed their freedom and also restored order and stability. In this way, they could live with moderate freedom in a monarchy without horrors [apparent I would add], and they did not have to endure the excesses associated with a popular government »
There was a political, social and economic reorganization that allowed the fat cows to arrive:after controlling Egypt, the grain arrived in Rome without setbacks, the Pax Romana allowed the growth of commerce, credit flowed and citizens invested in land and insulas (apartment buildings that were rented, real estate boom?), even the upstarts who wanted to make a career in politics went into debt to finance shows and earn the favor of the common people, public works proliferated like mushrooms... Augustus was one of those who thought that money had to be in movement and not collecting dust in the coffers of the State. But this period of fat cows had a price:brutal growth in prices (according to the poet Martial, «in Rome the highest prices were paid for virtue as well as for vice «). And who was going to eat this brown? Tiberius , his successor.
In the early years, Tiberius was still able to enjoy the legacy of Augustus, but that bubble had to burst sooner rather than later. And the truth is that, finding the coffers empty and trying to reduce prices, the measures that Tiberio took put a brutal brake on the economy by reducing the money in circulation:investment in public works, the distribution of grain was limited, some rich were freed from the heavy burden of managing so many assets, accusing them of enemies of the emperor (he kept all his assets and the members of the Senate were kindly invited to buy them at public auction with money they had to borrow) and, to top it off, he called the banks to order ( argentarii), that in this inflationary period they had contributed by lending money with hardly any guarantees and at an interest rate above the legal one. The faucet of the credits was closed and they demanded the payment of the debt. Overnight, land, houses, animals… everything was put up for sale in order to pay off the debt to the banks and prices plummeted. Money stopped flowing and businesses were illiquid. Citizens rushed to withdraw their deposits to pay creditors and some banks, such as Balbo and Olio, fell because they could not meet the requests, which spilled over to other larger ones. And, of course, when the city coughed, the entire Empire caught a cold.
Me:And what did Tiberius do to make you say that he could teach us a lesson?
A Roman of the time: The emperor's measures caused Rome to go from an inflationary period to a terrible deflation that paralyzed the economy. So, he reinjected the money through the banks, distributing a million pieces of gold, but with the obligation to lend them to citizens without interest for three years and the prohibition of using them to balance their accounts –A ransom like the one done in your country does nothing, but very different in how the money is used -. That measure unfroze credit and woke up the economy.
Me:Okay, Tiberius and the sex stuff aside, what about Caligula and Nero?
A Roman of the time :Well, they were eccentric and megalomaniacal.
Me:So is it true that Nero was playing the lyre while Rome was burning or even that he was the one who ordered it to burn?
A Roman of the time :Well, playing, what is said playing, he never played it, because music never came out of his strings, but Nero was not in Rome when the great fire occurred 16 years ago. And although I do not like to speak well of him, it must be recognized that he sent the legions to put out the fire. In addition, when he arrived in Rome, the doors of his palace were opened to the victims, he distributed food and ordered the rubble to be removed quickly to avoid illness. Those responsible, you know. Nero blamed the Christians and others blamed him.
Me:And those who accused the emperor, why did they do it?
A Roman of the time: They say that Nero sought to build a new Rome. For this he needed to eliminate the old constructions and thus have a gigantic lot on which to build it. In fact, he planned to build a palace worthy of his megalomania and began the construction of the most extravagant building in Rome:the Domus Aurea . Fifty hectares of luxurious halls covered with frescoes, gold, ivory and precious stones, ceilings with hatches through which the slaves threw flowers and perfumes, a huge hall covered by a golden dome -hence its name- and that rotated continuously moved by the force of the water, gardens and a large artificial lagoon, the Stagnum Neronis , which Vespasian later ordered to be flooded and on which the amphitheater was built. And also, the Colossus, a bronze statue representing Nero over thirty meters high.
Me:I see that the megalomaniac thing suits him perfectly, but, as you say, that doesn't prove that he did it. And are you also going to leave me without arguments to attack Caligula, Nero's uncle, who came to appoint his horse Incitatus as consul?
A Roman of the time: I believe that Caligula was affected by his age. Being very young he became the most powerful man in the world, and you have to have a very well-furnished head so that it does not get out of hand. Despite all his excesses and eccentricities, of which we were all aware, he has been one of the most beloved emperors by the people. Another thing is what senators, the wealthiest families and even those of his own blood could say about him. In fact, your question about whether he appointed his horse consul is a clear example of the treatment he gave to the politicians of the time and that, logically, they have not forgiven him. It is true that he said that he would make Incitatus consul of Rome, but he never did. Of course, I wouldn't have minded being his horse, because his stable was covered in marble, he had an ivory manger where he ate like a king and on his walks they adorned him with jewels. But as he was telling you, he didn't do it. He simply wanted to make it clear who he was in charge, to the point of being able to name his horse consul if he felt like it. In addition, that bravado also served to make the wayward senators and magistrates see that even a horse could do his job.
Me:But Caligula's sexual excesses...
A Roman of the time: For what you understand as sexual excesses, tell me a single emperor who has not committed them? Those three…and all of them, but it doesn't surprise me that you think that way if you believe the movie Caligula to be true. directed by Tinto Brass in 1979. And to finish off the job, it's getting late and I have to leave, regarding being cruel, even perpetrating murders of relatives to get the throne or stay on it, you would be wrong to think which is a practice typical of Rome, since it is a vice that can be found in any time and place and in different cultures.
