Emperor Caligula

Podcast Transcript

On August 31 in the year 12, the great-grandson of the Emperor Augustus was born.

By the time he was 25, he was the ruler of the Roman Empire and the most powerful man in the world.

As with other young people who achieve absolute power at an early age, he went completely nuts and became one of the worst rulers in history. His reign of insanity resulted in him becoming the first Roman emperor to be assassinated.

Learn more about Emperor Caligula and how he changed the Roman Empire on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

The man history calls Caligula was born Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus on August 31, 12, in Antium, a coastal town south of Rome. He was born into the highest echelon of Roman society, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that dominated the early Roman Empire.

His father was Germanicus, one of the most celebrated military commanders of his generation and the adopted son of Emperor Tiberius.

Germanicus was widely popular with both the Roman populace and the legions, admired for his charisma, moderation, and perceived republican virtues.

His mother was Agrippina the Elder, the granddaughter of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, which gave Caligula impeccable dynastic credentials.

Caligula’s childhood was unusually public for a Roman aristocrat. He accompanied his father on military campaigns along the Rhine frontier, where soldiers reportedly dressed the young boy in a miniature legionary outfit, including boots known as caligae.

From this detail came the nickname “Caligula,” meaning “little boots,” a name he later despised but that is what history knows him as.

Ancient sources emphasize his early exposure to the army, a factor often cited to explain his later confidence in military authority and his expectation of personal loyalty from soldiers.

Germanicus died suddenly in the year 19 while on campaign in the eastern provinces. Many contemporaries suspected poisoning, possibly orchestrated by political rivals acting with the tacit approval of Emperor Tiberius, though no definitive proof exists.

The death of Germanicus destabilized the family’s position within the imperial court.

Agrippina entered into open conflict with Tiberius and his powerful praetorian prefect Sejanus. Over the following decade, Caligula witnessed the systematic destruction of his immediate family.

His mother was exiled and died of starvation. Two of his brothers were imprisoned and perished under suspicious circumstances.

These early experiences had an impact on the young Caligula. Ancient historians such as Suetonius and Tacitus emphasize the atmosphere of fear that characterized Tiberius’s court.

Caligula learned early the necessity of concealing your true intentions and surviving in an autocratic system where imperial favor was fickle and lethal.

Following the fall and execution of Sejanus in AD 31, Caligula’s fortunes improved markedly. If you remember my episode on Sejanus, he arguably had one of the quickest and most dramatic downfalls in history.

Tiberius summoned him to Capri, where the aging emperor had withdrawn from public life. Caligula lived there for several years under close observation.

Suetonius famously claimed that Caligula said there was no better slave and no worse master, implying that he mastered the art of obedience while concealing his true ambition.

This remark, while likely apocryphal, reflects the perception that Caligula survived by carefully managing appearances.

Tiberius named Caligula as joint heir alongside his own grandson Tiberius Gemellus. When Tiberius died in March 37, probably of natural causes, the Praetorian Guard, under the command of Macro, quickly declared Caligula emperor.

The Senate confirmed the choice. Within months, Gemellus was dead, leaving Caligual as the sole ruler with no other claimants.

Caligula’s accession to the imperial throne was greeted with widespread enthusiasm. The Roman public remembered Germanicus fondly and saw in his son a continuation of Augustus, and a refreshing change after the last years of Tiberius.

According to Cassius Dio, Caligula’s first months were marked by generosity, public celebrations, and gestures of reconciliation. He recalled Romans exiled by Tiberius, honored his deceased family members, and abolished the treason trials that had terrorized the elite.

By all accounts, his initial popularity was genuine. The Senate, the people, and the army all had reason to believe that Caligula would restore a more humane and cooperative style of governance.

This honeymoon was to be short-lived.

In the first year, his administration appeared conventional. He continued public works projects begun under Tiberius and Augustus, including road repairs and harbor improvements. He sponsored games, spectacles, and money distributions to the people, reinforcing his popularity.

A turning point occurred in late 37, when Caligula suffered a severe illness. Ancient sources describe it as sudden and near-fatal. The nature of the illness is unknown, though suggestions range from encephalitis to lead poisoning.

After his recovery, observers noted a sharp change in behavior. His illness occupies a central place in ancient narratives about his reign.

Fiscal policy became increasingly aggressive. Caligula inherited a well-funded treasury, but his lavish spending on games, buildings, and personal luxuries strained the state’s finances.

He introduced new taxes, revived old ones, and engaged in property confiscations, particularly targeting wealthy senators and equestrians.

While such measures were not unprecedented, their scale and apparent arbitrariness alarmed the elite.

Caligula also emphasized the emperor’s quasi-divine status. He expanded the imperial cult, especially in the eastern provinces, where emperor worship was already established.

Temples, priests, and sacrifices were dedicated to him, sometimes under compulsion. His attempt to install a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem provoked a major crisis, which was narrowly averted by the intervention of Herod Agrippa and the Roman governor Publius Petronius.

He traveled to Gaul and the Rhine frontier, possibly to secure loyalty and address unrest. Ancient sources mock his northern expedition, alleging that he ordered soldiers to collect seashells as spoils of war in preparation for a staged triumph over the sea.

Much of Caligula’s posthumous reputation rests on anecdotes preserved by hostile senatorial historians. However, if even a fraction of them are true, it would show evidence of a highly disturbed mind.

One of the most famous stories is that Caligula intended to appoint his horse Incitatus as consul. The anecdote appears in Suetonius and Dio.

Modern historians widely interpret this episode as satirical or symbolic rather than literal, possibly intended to humiliate the Senate by demonstrating that the emperor’s favor, not merit, determined office. There is no evidence that the appointment actually occurred.

Another set of accusations concerns sexual deviance and incest, particularly with his sisters Drusilla, Agrippina the Younger, and Livilla. While Roman elites often weaponized sexual slander against political enemies, Drusilla’s unusually prominent public honors after her death suggest they had a very close relationship.

Caligula’s cruelty toward senators is better documented. Executions, forced suicides, and public humiliations are consistently reported across sources.

Dio Cassius, writing in the early third century, describes Caligula appearing before the Senate dressed as Venus and demanding that senators worship him as a god. The emperor allegedly forced prominent Romans to compete in degrading theatrical performances and gladiatorial contests.

He also famously created two enormous, luxuriously outfitted pleasure ships on Lake Nemi south of Rome. Unlike ordinary vessels, they functioned as floating palaces, featuring marble floors, mosaic decorations, gilded fittings, plumbing systems with lead pipes, heated bathing facilities, and elaborate statues.

By late year 40, Caligula’s position had become increasingly precarious despite his absolute power. His execution of senators, confiscation of estates, and contemptuous treatment of Rome’s traditional elite had created a deep well of resentment among the aristocracy.

The Praetorian Guard, while benefiting from the emperor’s generosity, included officers who had personal grievances against him or connections to senatorial families.

The conspiracy that ultimately ended Caligula’s life centered on Cassius Chaerea, a tribune of the Praetorian Guard. According to the ancient sources, Chaerea had multiple motives for participating in the plot.

Suetonius and Josephus, the Jewish historian who provides the most detailed account of the assassination, both report that Caligula regularly mocked Chaerea for his allegedly effeminate voice and behavior, forcing him to use humiliating passwords and gestures.

Beyond personal insult, Chaerea may have been motivated by the same concerns that drove other conspirators: fear for his own safety and the belief that Caligula’s continued rule threatened the empire’s stability.

The assassination occurred on January 24, 41, during the Palatine Games, a festival celebrating the victory of Augustus at Actium. Caligula had been emperor for three years, ten months, and eight days.

The events unfolded in a covered passageway beneath the imperial palace. As Caligula left the games to change clothes or have lunch, accounts vary, Chaerea and his fellow conspirator Cornelius Sabinus approached him.

According to Josephus’s account, Chaerea struck the first blow, stabbing Caligula from behind and crying out, “Take this!” Caligula fell, and other conspirators, including members of the German bodyguard, joined in the attack, delivering approximately thirty wounds.

The conspirators also murdered Caligula’s fourth wife, Caesonia, and their infant daughter Julia Drusilla, dashing the child’s head against a wall. This ruthless elimination of potential heirs suggests that the conspirators initially intended to restore the Republic or at least prevent imperial succession from continuing.

However, their plans quickly unraveled in the chaos following the assassination.

The Praetorian Guard discovered Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, hiding behind a curtain in the palace, terrified that he would be the next victim. I covered the rule of Claudius in a previous episode.

Despite Claudius’s apparent unsuitability for rule, as he was regarded as physically infirm and intellectually limited, the Praetorians proclaimed him emperor.

Their decision was likely motivated as much by financial considerations as by loyalty; Claudius promised them a substantial payment of 15,000 sesterces per man, setting a dangerous precedent for the Praetorian Guard’s role in making and unmaking emperors.

The Senate, meeting to discuss the restoration of the Republic, found itself outmaneuvered by the Praetorians’ swift action. Faced with the reality of Claudius’s military backing, they capitulated and confirmed his accession.

Cassius Chaerea and the other assassins were subsequently executed on Claudius’s orders. Instead of being celebrated for committing tyrannicide, they were punished for regicide.

Surprisingly, the reign of Caligula has caused considerable debate among historians, especially modern historians.

The primary historical sources on Caligula have been dominated by the hostile accounts of Suetonius, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, and, to some extent, Josephus.

These sources, written decades or centuries after Caligula’s death, drew upon earlier works now lost to us, including the histories of Cluvius Rufus and Fabius Rusticus.

The uniformly negative portrayal in these surviving sources has led some modern historians to question whether we can access the historical Caligula beneath the layers of senatorial propaganda.

The fact that most of our sources were written by members of the senatorial class, the very group that suffered most under Caligula’s reign, introduces an obvious bias.

Moreover, Claudius and his successors had strong motivations to present Caligula in the worst possible light to legitimize the assassination and the change of regime.

After his death, Caligula was subject to damnatio memoriae, which, if you remember back to my episode on the subject, was a destruction of all public references or statutes to him.

Some modern historians, beginning with the pioneering work of scholars like Ludwig Quidde in the late nineteenth century and continuing through recent studies, have attempted to rehabilitate aspects of Caligula’s reign. They argue that some of his actions, viewed as mad or arbitrary by ancient sources, may have had rational political purposes.

Provincial sources suggest that his reign was not universally regarded as disastrous; some cities and provinces continued to honor him even after his death.

The question of whether Caligula was genuinely insane remains unresolved and likely unresolvable. Modern psychiatric diagnoses of historical figures rest on extremely flimsy foundations.

What seems more plausible is that Caligula, coming to absolute power at a young age after a childhood marked by trauma and danger, may have lacked the temperament, judgment, or self-restraint necessary to wield such power responsibly.

Caligula’s legacy has lived on in Western culture as the archetypal mad tyrant. From Robert Graves’s novel “I, Claudius” to numerous films and dramatic works, some of which you should never ever watch with children, he has become a symbol to paraphrase Lord Acton, of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

Today’s review comes from listener Callum Conaghan on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write:

The best

This show is exactly what I’ve been looking for: short episodes that are informative and interesting.

For work, I mow lawns and work in a shop building skis, wearing headphones for ear protection in both.

I found this show about two months ago, and since then I have listened for hours on end every working day, building towards membership in the coveted Completionist Club.

I’d love to see an episode (or series) on great American mountain men and explorers like Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, and Jedidiah Smith. Also, an episode on the history and rise of the cultural popularity of skiing would be great.

Thanks, Callum! Good luck with your completionist club journey. Those are some good ideas for episodes, and I’ll add some of them to the master list of show ideas.

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