Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/582

Rh 56'4 CALIGULA. that he was born at that town. His earliest years were spent in the camp of his father in Germany, and he grew up among the soldiers, with whom he became accordingly very popular. (Tac Jnnal. i. 41, 69 ; Suet. Cal. 9; Dion Cass. Ivii. 5.) Caligula also accompanied his father on his Syrian expedition, and after his return first lived with his mother, and, when she was exiled, in the house of Livia Augusta. When the latter died, Caligula, then a youth in his sixteenth year, delivered the funeral oration upon her from the Rostra, After this he lived some years with his grandmother, Antonia. Caligula, like his two elder brothers, Nero and Drusus, was hated by Sejanus, but his favour with Tiberius and his popularity Jis the son of Germanicus saved him. (Dion Cass. Iviii. 8.) After the fall of Sejanus in A. d. 32, when Caliguhi had just attiiined his twentieth year, Ti- berius summouod him to come to Capreae. Here the young man concealed so well his feelings at the injuries inflicted upon his mother and brothers, as well as at the wrongs which he himself had suf- fered, that he did not utter a sound of complaint, and behaved in such a submissive manner, that those who witnessed his conduct declared, that there never was such a cringing slave to so bad a master. (Suet. dil. 10; Tac A?inal. vi. 20.) But his sjivage and voluptuous character was neverthe- less seen through by Tiberius. About the same time he married Junia Claudilla (Claudia), the daughter of M. Silanus, an event which Dion Cas- sius (Iviii. 25) assigns to the year a. d. 35. Soon afterwards he obUiined the quaestorship, and on the death of his brother Drusus was made augur in his stead, having been created pontiff two years before. (Dion Cass. Iviii. 8; Suet. Cal. 12.) After the death of his wife, in March A. D. 36, Caligula began seriously to think in what manner he might secure the succession to himself, of which Tiberius had held out hopes to him, without how- ever deciding anything. (Dion Cass. Iviii. 23 ; Tac. AniuU. vi. 45, &c.) In order to ensure his success, he seduced Eunia Naevia, the wife of Macro, who had then the command of the praeto- rian cohorts. He promised to marry her if he should succeed to the throne, and contrived to gain the consent and co-operation of Macro also, who according to some accounts introduced his wife to the embraces of the voluptuous youth. (Suet. Cal. 12; Tac. Annal. vi. 45; Dion Cass. Iviii. 28; Philo, L(yat. ad Chi. p. 998, ed. Paris, 1640.) Tiberius died in March .. d. 37, and there can be little doubt but that Caligula either caused or accele- rated his death. In aftertinies he often boasted of having attempted to murder Tiberius in order to avenge the wrongs which his family h id suffered from him. There were reports that C.iligula had administered to Tiberius a slow poison, or that he had withheld from him the necessiiry food during his illness, or lastly, that he had suffocated him with a pillow. Some again sjiid, that he had been assisted by Macro, while Tacitus {Annd. vi. 50) mentions Macro alone as the guilty person. (Suet. 7ib. 73, Cal. 12; Dion Cass. Iviii. 2d.) When the body of Tiberius w£is carried from Misenum to Rome, Caligula accompanied it in the dress of a mourner, but he was saluted by the people at Rome Avith the greitest enthusiasm as the son of Ger- manicus. Tiberius in his will had appointed his grandson Tiberius as coheir to Caligula, but the CALIGULA. senate and the people gave the sovereign power to Caligula alone, in spite of the regulations of Tibe- rius. (Suet. Cal. 14 ; Dion Cass. lix. 1 ; comp. Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 6. § 9.) In regard to all other points, however, Caligula carried the will of Tiberius into execution : he paid to the people and the soldiers the sums which the late emperor had bequeathed to them, and even increased these legacies by his own munificence. After having delivered the funeral oration upon Tiberius, he im- mediately fulfilled the duty of piety towards his mother and his brother : he had their ashes con- veyed from Pandataria and the Pontian islands to Rome, and deposited them in the Mausoleum with great solemnity. But notwithstanding the feeling which prompted him to this act, he pardoned all those who had allowed themselves to be used as instruments against the members of his family, and ordered the documents which contained the evi- dence of their guilt to be burnt in the Forum. Those who had been condemned to imprisonment by Tiberius were released, and those who had been exiled were recalled to their country. He restored to the magistrntes their full power of jurisdiction without appeal to his person, and he also en- deavoured to revive the old character of the coniitia by allowing the people to discuss and decide the matters brought before them, as in former times. Towards foreign princes who had been stripped of their power and their revenues by his predeces- sor, he behaved with great generosity. Thus Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, who had been put in chains by Tiberius, was released and restored to his kingdom, and Antiochus IV. of Commagene received back his kingdom, which was increased by the maritime district of Cilicia. On the first of July a. d. 37, Caligula entered upon his first consulship together with Claudius, his father's brother, and held the office for two months. Soon after this he was seized by a serious illness in consequence of his irregular mode of liv- ing. He was, indeed, restored to health, but from that moment appeared an altered man. Hitherto the joy of the people at his accession seemed to be perfectly justified by the justice and moderation be shewed during the first months of his reign, but from henceforward he appears more like a diabolical than a human being — he acts completely like a madman. A kind of savageness and gross volup- tuousness had always been prominent features in his character, but still we are not justified in sup- posing, as many do, that he merely threw off the mask which had hitherto concealed his real dispo- sition; it is much more probable that his illness destro}-ed his mental powers, and thus let loose all the veiled passions of his soul, to which he now yielded without exercising any control over them. Immediately after his recovery he ordered Tibe- rius, the grandson of his predecessor, whom ha had raised before to the rank of pnnceps juventutis, to be put to death on the pretext of his having wished the emperor not to recover from his illness ; and those of his friends who had vowed their lives for his recovery, were now compelled to carry their vow into effect by putting an end to their existence. He also commanded several members of his own family, and among them his grandmother Antonia, Macro, and his wife Ennia Naevia, to make away with themselves. His thirst for blood seemed to increase with the number of his victims, and mur- dering soon ceased to be the consequence of his