CALIGULA!

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“Say not always what you know, but always know what you say.”

By 40 AD, Caligula had few friends in the Senate. Most of his actions as Princeps had been especially harsh to their class, already leading to several failed conspiracies against him. When he announced that he was vacating Rome to make for Alexandria, where he could spend his days worshipped as a living god. The idea of Rome losing her dignitas with her emperor moving abroad, coupled with a lack of anyone to keep check on the increasingly depraved Caligula, meant the time to act was now.

Among his many enemies were Praetorian Prefect Chaerea, who he mocked for his lax collection of taxes, calling him derogatory names like “Priapus” and “Venus”, gods of fertility, and he hatched a plot with several Senators. In January 41, when Caligula addressed an acting troupe performing beneath the palace in memory of Augustus, Chaerae approached and stabbed him. Caligula – whose name was Gaius Julius Caesar -suffered a death remarkably similar to his namesake, with both stabbed 30 times, and by conspirators led by a man named Cassius (Longinus and then Chaerae). By the time his German bodyguard responded in a frenzy, attacking the assassins, he was already dead. The underground chamber where he was assassinated was unearthed by archaeologists in 2008.

The Senate were keen to return Rome to a republic, and moved swiftly to purge the Imperial Palace. Those supporters of Caligula were summarily executed by the rampaging assassins, who stabbed Caligula’s wife and smashed his daughter’s head in. His stammering, drooling uncle, Claudius, narrowly managed to escape the purge by hiding behind a curtain as the killers ran riot. Later found by a Gratus, an imperial Praetorian sympathiser, he was moved out of the city and into the Praetorian camp. Caligula’s body was placed under turf, until it was burned and entombed with his sisters in the Mausoleum of Augustus, his ashes then scattered during the sack of Rome in 410 AD

Chaerae supported the Senate in its vision of restoring the republic, and tried to sway the Praetorian Guard to his faction. While the Senate was becoming bogged down in the argument of which of them would become Princeps, a faction of the Praetorian Guard declared they had found their new emperor – Claudius. Needing to respond to these claims, the Senate demanded he come to them for ratification, though he refused, due to the danger. Eventually the Senate agreed to amnesty, and Claudius was conferred with the power of Princeps. Most of those involved in the conspiracy were forgiven, though the actual assassins were all put to death.

The 51-year-old Claudius had never seemed destined for high office, much less that of Princeps. With grandparents including Mark Antony and Octavia, he was the great-great-grandnephew of Julius Caesar. Claudius suffered from a stammer, and often drooled when he got excited, while also having a limp. His own family ridiculed his disabilities, his mother referring to him a monster and setting a standard for stupidity, and handing his raising to his grandmother, who was a little kinder. He was put under the care of a mule driver to keep him disciplined, on the understanding that his disabilities were due to laziness and lack of willpower. When his symptoms eased in adolescence, his family began to take an interest in him.

His advancement in public life was further hampered by own ambition of becoming a historian. He worked on a narrative of the Civil Wars, though was either too truthful or too critical of Octavian, and it was deemed too early for such an account – particularly as it reminded people that Mark Antony was his grandfather – and his family put a stop to his work. When he returned to his work later, he skipped the wars of the Second Triumvirate, but his family were already pushing him to the fringes. His name was added to the Arch of Pavia when he became the patriarch of the Claudii, though there is a suggestion that he added it himself. Claudius was granted consular ornaments in 14 AD when he requested of his uncle, Tiberius, that he could begin a public career, and a second request was snubbed. With Tiberius clearly no more generous than Augustus, Claudius abandoned his plans for public office and retired to live a scholarly life in private.

Despite the imperial disdain for Claudius, he did command the sentiment of the public, who demanded that his burnt down house be rebuilt at state expense, and pressured for him to speak in the Senate – which Tiberius denied. After the death of Drusus, some raised him as a potential heir, though Claudius downplayed the possibility given that this was during the reign of terror of Sejanus. Caligula had Claudius as his co-Consul in 37 AD to emphasize the memory of Germanicus, though he also relentlessly tormented his uncle. He played practical jokes on Claudius, charged him huge sums of money, and ridiculed him before the Senate. The stress of such torment had left Claudius very frail and sickly towards the end of Caligula’s reign.

Having resigned himself to a life withdrawn from public life, the assassination of Caligula and most of his family now presented Claudius to take up the life of high office he had long abandoned hope of. From being the butt of jokes and the embarrassment of his family, the middle-aged, disabled Claudius now remained as the only hereditary contender for the role of Princeps. For far from rallying behind Chaerae in his plans to return to a republic, the Preatorian Guard realised this would leave them out of a job. What was the point in an imperial guard without an imperial family? The Preatorian Guard enjoyed a comfortable life, on double pay to legionaries. In a society that demanded either six years’ military experience of service in ten campaigns to begin public life, those who were averse to the idea of combat were well suited to the Guard. Why face the likelihood of being killed by barbarians on the cold frontiers of the Rhine, or the baking deserts of the Levant, when you could relax around Rome instead? A few bribes in the right places soon ensured an appointment to the Guard. Far from being the cream of the crop, as it had originally been, the Guard descended into being a retreat for those who could afford to ensure they achieved their service, without actually being in danger.

Now that comfortable lifestyle was threatened by plans to return to a republic. Soon it would be back to the wild frontiers for military experience, and on half the pay! Unsurprisingly, the Guard decided their best option was to keep the imperial role of Princeps alive, and thus thrust Claudius into the post. Yet the man who had been shunned, reviled and ridiculed by his family would not turn out to be the imperial embarrassment they had feared, and instead would arrest the slide of Rome caused by Caligula to earn a reputation as one of the city’s most competent and capable emperors.