Caligula (* August 31, 12 in Antium; † January 24, 41 in Rome) (Latin:CAIVS•CAESAR•AVGVSTVS•GERMANICVS) was the third Roman emperor, reigning from 37 to 41.
Cesarius Augustus Germanicus, called Caligula, son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, great cousin of the Samains, was born on the eve of the Calends of September in the year 12, under the consulship of his father and of C. Fontenius Capito [1 ]. He is the great-nephew (and also the adoptive grandson) of Emperor Tiberius, himself the stepson and adoptive son of Emperor Augustus; Caligula is also the great-grandson in the direct line of Auguste. Caligula had five siblings:Nero Caesar, Drusus III, Drusilla, Julia Livilla, Agrippina the Younger.
As a child, he accompanied his mother who often followed his father to military camps and his sandals adapted to his small feet earned him the nickname "caligula" ("sandalette", diminutive of caligae), which he ended up hating.
Tiberius had assigned his estate jointly to his own grandson Gemellus and Caligula; he was alone recognized by the Senate (in the year 37), first adopting Gemellus, who was later assassinated by Sejanus.
For six months, the Romans were able to congratulate themselves on a just, useful and liberal emperor, who made them forget the sinister end of the reign of Tiberius; but a serious illness changed Caligula dramatically. From then on, he moved like his great-uncle towards despotism, devoting himself, according to certain sources, to debauchery (he is credited, among other things, with a long incestuous affair with his sister Drusilla). Some assure that he was in fact already psychologically affected before his advent, but that, with the help of power, he quickly became a tyrannical and megalomaniac emperor, taking himself for Jupiter. He ridiculed the Senate and the institution of consuls, had most of his relatives assassinated or banished, and he is still accused of having amused himself by practicing horrible tortures in addition to arbitrary murders. Today, many historians and writers wonder about the real madness of the young emperor because recent archaeological evidence [ref. needed] totally contradict the “mad emperor” theory.
He reconciled however the people in particular with the games of the circus.
A last conspiracy finally got the better of the princeps:in the year 41, after barely 4 years of reign, he was assassinated at the age of 28 and not 29, as is too often believed, since Caligula was born on August 31 of the year 12 and was assassinated on January 24, 41. It was the soldiers of his guard who carried out the dirty work but we do not know where the order came from. It was in all likelihood more a domestic murder than a political one. The Senate, probably after more or less questionable agreements, granted his uncle Claude the principality. He later married another sister of Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, who thus saw her son from a previous marriage gain access to the empire:Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudians.
Just after Tiberius, Caligula, still from the same imperial family (the Julio-Claudians), is another extreme example of the astonishing political system of the Romans. Family succession had placed him on the throne, institutions could not dislodge him, and conspiracies could never defeat him:he took advantage of this state of affairs to lead the empire for a time towards a despotism at the eastern, where the sovereign owns his subjects as he owns his horses and his slaves.
With Albert Camus, we can see in the life of Caligula a worried questioning that devours everything:how far can we provoke destiny, the gods, to what point finally will a vengeful sign come to tell us that we have gone too far?
“Caligula was tall in stature, livid complexion, ill-proportioned body, quite spindly neck and legs, sunken eyes and sunken temples, broad and bald forehead, scanty hair, bald top of head. , the rest of the body hairy; also, when he was passing, it was a capital crime to look up and down or even to utter the word "goat" for any reason. As for his face, naturally hideous and repulsive, he strove to make it still more hideous, by studying before his mirror all the facial expressions capable of inspiring terror and dread. »
(Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Caligula)
Anecdotes and quotes from Caligula
* “If only the Roman people had only one neck!;
* "Let them hate me, as long as they fear me!" This is actually Caligula's reworking of a famous line from his predecessor Emperor Tiberius Oderint, dum metuant (lat);
* Every time he kissed the neck of his wife or of a passing conquest, he added cynically:"Such a pretty neck will be severed as soon as I give the order!" ";
* During a feast, he suddenly burst into cascades of laughter and replied to the consuls placed near him who gently asked him the reason:"When I think that on a single gesture from me, you can both have your throat cut instantly! "
* "I like power because it gives chances to the impossible. »
* To his horse Incitatus, which was his favorite horse, in addition to a marble stable and an ivory manger, he gave a troop of slaves and furniture. It is even said that he planned to make him consul, but the fact that he actually made his favorite horse a consul is certainly only a legend.