The serious nature of history has always been the main focus of many history classes that I had taken in high school, with much of the hilarity of the past being glossed over. With the focus of memorizing names and dates, many students become deterred from what they view as a boring subject. This past that many history classes portray as being a time of glorious emperors and of their honorable wars that they fought is not always as serious as what really happened, with the Roman Emperor Caligula being a prime example. While at first I only learned about Caligula’s cruel rule, I later learned about how crazy the man was due to my own research and from my high school Latin class.
As a child, Gaius Julius Caeser Germanicus traveled with his father on military expeditions throughout Germany. During these campaigns, the future emperor used to dress up to look like his father and walk around the camp, leading the soldiers to nickname him Caligula, which means little boots. This time traveling with his father was short lived, however, with his entire family being killed besides him and his sisters. With the loss of his family, Caligula was taken by the ruthless emperor preceding him, Tiberius, and lived with the emperor at Capri.
After the death of Tiberius, Caligula took the throne for himself after the death of Tiberius' son and became emperor in 37 CE. Caligula’s rule was peaceful and well received by the populous at first with him getting rid of Tiberius’ treason trials, lowering taxes, and rebuilding decaying temples and other buildings all within six months of becoming emperor. This was not to last, however, for at the end of his first six months I power he became seriously ill. While he survived this illness, his return to power saw a drastic change to his personality. He became more bloodthirsty, reinstated the treason trials to get rid of his enemies, and once again began to attack Germany.
His return to power also showcased his craziness. He became obsessed with his horse, having it held in a stable carved from ivory and having it dressed in purple blankets and precious stones. Caligula also had dinners arranged in the horse’s name and would invite the horse to the dinner and have it dine with them. Caligula was also heavily believed to have wanted to make this horse one of the two consuls, which was the highest political office below the emperor and contained a lot of power in it even though each consul only served one year at a time before having to be voted in once more.
While conquering the rest of Germany, Caligula banished two of his sisters and killed the general who was in charge of the German campaign and his late sister’s widow. He then took control of the army and led them to the sea where he seemingly declared war on the sea having his soldiers attack the water. He then declared victory and had his troops collect seashells to send back to Rome as trophies of his victory. With this battle against the sea, Caligula returned to Rome.
Upon his return, the praetorian guard, which was skilled soldiers in charge of guarding the emperor, decided that Caligula was insane. With this, they decided that the best course of action was to kill Caligula and his family. The guard Cassius Chaerea, who Caligula repeatedly mocked, willingly and happily took this task and he, along with a few of the other guards, killed the emperor, his wife and his child in 41 CE. The cruel and insane emperor died after only ruling for four years at the age of 29.
