Caligula: The Man Behind The Madness | Absolute History

little boots and they sweet the kind of thing which makes even the most macho man go gaga two thousand years ago a group of burly Centurions on the fringe of the Roman Empire made a pair of tiny shoes for a toddler and they gave him the nickname little boots the name stack and 20 years later when the toddler became the Roman Emperor he was still called little boots or as they say in Latin Caligula yes that little toddler became Caligula Rome's most evil and maddest Emperor a man famous for making his horse a member of the Senate who sent his legions to the ends of the earth just to collect seashells and who believed himself to be a God a 100% pure maniac capable of having his favorite singer flayed alive while complimenting him on the melodious nosov his screams but was he really like that if Caligula was so evil why was there a public outcry when he was assassinated and if he was bonkers why did they make him Emperor in the first place so how mad was he deranged or just deadly this is my attempt to analyze one of the most villainous minds in human history [Music] digging up archaeological evidence of the past is hard enough but how do you start getting into the mind of someone who lived 2,000 years ago especially since many of the historical records of Caligula's reign have been lost [Music] much of what's believed or written about Caligula is anecdotal propaganda written after his time what I want to do is try and build up a more balanced picture of him by sorting through the most reliable sources by looking at the different interpretations we can discover another Caligula and to understand him we have to look at his family and upbringing because even from the beginning he's surrounded by myth [Music] Caligula's passport to success was the fact that he was the son of a national war hero in fact there was a story floating around at the time that he'd actually been born in an army camp while his father was fighting a battle the reality though is that he was born here in an tiem in southwest Italy on the 31st of August in the year 12 ad ante amor Anzio as it's now known was the Roman equivalent of the Hamptons a summer playground for the super-rich just a little bit away from town Caligula's real name was Gaius he was the third son of a wealthy family and if he didn't have his nickname yet he had just about everything else you can imagine his father was the legendary war hero Germanicus who won the hearts of Rome with his conquests in Germany but he was far more than a war hero the emperor Tiberius had adopted Germanicus as his heir Caligula's whole life was to be influenced by the reflected glory of his father his mother's side was no less auspicious she was the granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus whose charismatic leadership had made the concept of one person rule popular in Rome the emperor to be and his wife with a dream couple and had the world at their feet although Caligula was their third son he could never have predicted he'd become Emperor himself we know Caligula was a sickly child and he was spoiled rotten but he also seems to have been something of a prodigy his father used to travel to the outpost of the Empire and sometimes he'd take his whole family with him clearly Caligula picked up his father's diplomatic skills because at the age of six of the place called a sauce he made his first public speech he was loved and adored by everyone so it must have made it all the harder when the rug was pulled from under him when he was just severed everything started to go wrong for Caligula on campaign in Syria his father Germanicus fell ill and died the tragedy of his early death sealed his mythic character in people's minds Caligula's father would always be the dashing young Emperor rome never had death made his reputation but it doomed his family Caligula's mother expected her eldest son to become heir but instead the emperor tiberius chose his own grandson gemellus Caligula's mother was furious and in pushing her case she made herself and her family deeply unpopular with the Emperor crossing Tiberius was dangerous the early Emperors had ruled through their own charisma but Tiberius was a sour-faced bureaucrat who had no time for buttering people up under him the Empire had become a dictatorship he alienated the Senate and he'd made enemies [Music] in fact he became so paranoid about plots that he moved his seat of power to Capri but away from Rome the remote emperor was even more terrifying he ruled by proxy with his Praetorian guards dealing swiftly with supposed threats like colliculus family the teenage Caligula was witness to a ruthless purge first his mother and elder brother were exiled and then his second brother was jailed in Rome farmed out to elderly relatives Caligula was isolated politically and emotionally all he had left in the world were his three sisters with them he formed an intensely close bond so close some people said the relationship was sexual as well [Music] then in 31 ad when he was 19 Caligula lost all family contact he was summoned by Tiberius to his island hideaway here on Capri as he arrived he must have wondered what lay in store was he going to be an honored guest or a political victim if ever there was a place that could literally tip you over the edge this is it Tiberius was famous for his treason trials which he used to hold in secret in his palace senators would be summoned here they'd be dragged in front of the court and never seen again the rumor was that the sentence was carried out by hurling them off this cliff down to their doom below so this was the kind of oppressive atmosphere that Caligula was brought up in for 12 years he hadn't lived with his father for the last four he'd been a virtual orphan farmed out to his great grandmother and an elderly aunt and now he was going to have to live completely on his own but he seems to have worked out a strategy for survival [Music] here in the darkened corridors of Tiberius palace Caligula learnt to be a politician he turned himself from a threat into a prodigy he cultivated Tiberius joining him enthusiastically in his intellectual pursuits and hobbies [Music] how much of this was pretense we'll never know he never gave the game away well though years later people were to save him there never was a better servant or worse master the truth is that he must have been able to see the limitless power that was potentially available to him so however upset he might be about the destruction of his family he was gonna keep his mouth shut his mother was an exile on an island about 20 miles in that direction as far as Caligula was concerned it could have been a million miles what increased the tension was that he never knew for sure whether Tiberius was for him or against him had the Emperor personally ordered his family's fate or were they the victims of plotters back in Rome stuck in Capri Caligula had no way of telling he could hardly ask Tiberius but events unfolded that suggested the Emperor wasn't behind the plot one day Tiberius got a surprise present from an elderly female cousin it was marked for your eyes only and it wasn't a sort of present that you expect from a respectable relative it was porn Tiberius his favorite kind of read but he got more than his usual eye for because in size she smuggled a message which told him the full extent of the plot against Caligula's family Caligula may have hoped that this revelation would save his relatives but a wrote about various purged the plotters he made no attempt to free Caligula's family in fact far from it despite Tiberius his hand-wringing Caligula's mother was kept in exile his brother in prison until they both died and to make matters worse Tiberius publicly announced the Caligula's brother had been starved to death and when he died had been found trying desperately at the hey of his own mattress [Music] be wonderful if we could get into the mind of Caligula while he was on Capri he may well have blamed Tiberius for what was happening to his family on the other hand he may have been indifferent to what was happening to his family we just don't know and it's very possible that he saw the demise of his brothers as opening up an opportunity for himself and so was really quite indifferent to their fates but his silent strategy towards the man who'd murdered his family paid dividends the family's woes had started because Caligula's mother had pushed for one of her sons to be Emperor by a twist of fate it was Caligula who found himself named as joint heir with Tiberius his grandson gam MELAS [Music] eighteen months later on one of his brief visits to the mainland Tiberius died in mysterious circumstances 100 years later historians reveled in the rumors they said that Caligula had been alone with Tiberius in his bedroom when he died they said he had both the opportunity and the motive there were no marks on the body so the cause was either poison or a pillow over the face and the further away from these events the stories were the wilder the details became until finally these later accounts became the official version but the only source we have from the time specifically clears Caligula the philosopher Seneca says that Tiberius died of old age but who was going to be his successor Tiberius had kept everyone guessing by naming Caligula and Comella as joint heirs throughout his reign Tiberius had terrorized the Roman Senate and now they'd have a chance to claw back some of their power for them there was only one candidate there really was no competition between Cabela's and Caligula who would you choose Camillus the grandson of a ruthless tyrant or Caligula the son of a national war hero who had the Praetorian Guard on his side he stepped out of the shadows into the warm sunlight of power would it go to his head history has left us a portrait of Caligula as the archetypal mad tyrant but when he became Emperor at the age of 25 there was no sign that he was unstable backed by the Praetorian Guard and with a gleam of his father's charisma still bright he literally had the world at his feet Rome gave him a tumultuous welcoming home sir [Music] the crowds that throngs the Appian Way leading to row were massive and wild with excitement they were more like adoring fans than respectful subjects instead of bowing and curtsying as he passed by historians tell us they shouted out names like chick star and baby the army loved it the family of Germanicus was back in power and the mob had got the son of their old war hero as their new emperor and superstar in spite of his terrible reputation everyone agrees that Caligula's first six months were a triumph and he could do no wrong Tiberius had been a glum spoilsport a mean gray suited administrator who denied the mob their fair share of entertainment in contrast after six years in silent terror on Capri Caligula shared their enthusiasm for a bit of fun his games and entertainments lasted from morning till evening they were lavish gifts and an ambitious building program money was no object and he did the right thing by his family bringing his mother's ashes back to Rome for a state funeral people loved him for it and we're happy to accept him as sole heir even if it hadn't been Tiberius his will we can certainly say that he was a talented young man he he had a lively sense of humor he was very personable very attached to his to his family and his in his youth but he also had an irresponsible reckless side to him and the great tragedy of course is that there was no one to hold that reckless side in check historians tell us he was fanatical about chariot racing and wasn't content just to be a spectator he'd like to ride himself this was something no well-bred Roman was supposed to do but Caligula was Emperor and he could do what he liked it was here under what's now the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church that the impetuous side of his character was given full rein believe it or not I'm standing on what was once a Roman race track and that obelisk was the halfway point in the been her style chariot races in 38 AD when Christianity was - a - sect of Judaism Caligula built a private stadium right here across what's now the Vatican and he brought that obelisk all 300 tons of it all the way from Egypt a major feat of engineering for the Emperor's playground [Music] the track of the stadium was like a huge long thin dog track with the top curve right in the middle of what's now the square somewhere around where the obelisk is and then the track itself was about 40 or 50 meters wide and it stretched about 500 meters in that direction so the halfway point was just beyond where the front of some Peters is now [Music] huge crowds used to turn up to watch the young emperor play and if the heiress to craps frowned they were willing to overlook a little youthful enthusiasm as far as the Senate was concerned an inexperienced Emperor with other things on his mind would be malleable enough to give them the control they sought in their book Caligula had also started brilliantly he promised to return power to the Senate after Tiberius his autocratic reign to abolish the dreaded treason trials and he'd said he destroyed all the secret files naming the plotters against him and his family for six months the Senate and Caligula enjoyed a real honeymoon you come into power and everyone is is is is wonderful to you yeah yeah everyone wants you on their side you're still an unknown quantity and he swims in this he loves it and he knows the right thing to do he knows that that Tiberius was hated and that anything he can do to to distance himself from what Tiberius was hated for will be good very soon he has to cope with the problems that actually being Emperor one should never underestimate how callosity difficult web is so you think that Caligula was just incredibly irritated by the day-to-day tasks yet I think Caligula was enormous ly insecure with his is his upbringing in in the Imperial Tiberius Court is a real nightmare people are murdering each other plotting against each other that must be true beyond any of that whatever exaggerations they may be in their historical sources is ghastly place he has no psychological basis for being a stable person to react to the real problems of being an emperor outwardly the young Caligula put on a brave face for the Roman populace but the public exterior disguised the complexity of his feelings behind the mask of the successful young aristocrats learnt a very different personality he was dark and brooding he wandered the corridors of the palace late at night his dreams wracked with nightmares he was intelligent but highly strung and lurched from happiness to deep despair in an instant when he spoke he spoke rapidly without stopping very very eloquently but but he would be carried away by the power of his of his own rhetoric he seems to been very very impatient with individuals around him very very sarcastic so he was a man I think who found it very difficult to relax the last six months had been all too much for Caligula the release from repression the emotion the excitement took their toll on the highly strung emperor in late September he suffered some sort of breakdown we don't know whether the illness was mental or physical but we do know it took him out of circulation and it marked a turning point for Caligula for three months it was touch-and-go as news filtered down from his Palace on the Palatine the Empire held its breath [Music] people slept out in the open in the shadow of the palace waiting for press releases it was a bit like the death of princess die soon consumed by depression over-enthusiastic aristocrats made rash promises to the gods that they'd fight as gladiators or commit suicide if Caligula would only recover later they must have wished they've kept their mouths shut early the following year Caligula appeared to make a full recovery there was joy and relief all around the Empire but it was a very different Caligula who emerged from his enforced isolation and the first victims of this changed personality were the toady's who'd wished so hard for his recovery the man who'd volunteered to fight as a gladiator of Caligula recovered was forced to fight in the arena several times before he was finally released as for the volunteer suicide victim Caligula kept him to his word he was prepared to sacrifice dressed in sacred Garland's trussed up and paraded through the streets till the procession arrived here at the banks of the Tiber prior to the victim being cast into the waters as a present to the gods except of course that Caligula had absolutely no intention of killing him he just wanted to teach him a lesson for being such a creep so at the last minute he led him off it was slow the illness that made scales fall from his eyes Caligula saw that the tide of affection was shallow hypocrisy and he was disgusted by it while some had pleaded for his survival others had hoped for his death and to Caligula they both looked very much the same while he'd been ill the Senate had planned who would take over if Caligula died the natural successor was Tiberius his grandson cam Ellis it was a sensible contingency plan but to Caligula it looked suspicious was there a plot or was he paranoid either way cam Ellis had to go in ancient Rome you didn't send soldiers to kill someone for their misdeeds you send them to make sure the guilty party killed themselves soldiers were dispatched to tell gemellus that he'd been found guilty of masterminding a plot against Caligula although from what followed it was clear he was hardly up to the job poor old gu MELAS not the brightest bulb in the pack was given a sword and told to dispatch himself but then had to be shown how to do it [Music] Caligula's bubble had burst what did the adulation and praise add up to if they wanted to replace you just for being ill from now on he take a cynical mind if they don't care I don't either no one would ever be allowed to let him down again so far the Caligula we found hasn't been simply insane our interpretation of the anecdotes about him has uncovered a far more complex and devious character than that the illness that ended his six months popularity was followed by another blow to his psyche the death of the person he was closest to in the world his sister Drusilla he'd always had an unnaturally intense relationship with his sisters especially Drusilla and when she died in 38 AD he was devastated he was too stricken to attend the funeral rites and instead took himself off to the country refusing to cut his beard and hair as a sign of mourning there's very little in contemporary accounts to back up later allegations of incest but his sister's death broke something in Caligula public games and festivities which had made him so popular were banned and Drusilla was declared a goddess a statue was set up in the temple of Venus it's the Caligula that emerges from this period of mourning that gives us all the memorable anecdotes about him these are the stories that have given rise to the belief that he was utterly mad but you can learn more about Caligula by setting them in context his feasts were legendary with loaves of bread made of gold and pearls melted in vinegar to drink we know this to be true but luxury and excess were normal for a rich Romans it said Caligula would take any senators wife he fancied away from the feast and then come back and give the table a lurid account of what he'd just done to her or he'd undress his own wife in front of company to show what a lucky man he was but it seems to me that this only proves he had a viciously sadistic streak not that he was mad even though he loved his wife he'd often kiss her neck and whisper in amusing way off comes this very attractive head whenever I choose to say the word but what's revealing is how often the bats of his sadistic humour are the people he saw as his political enemies members of the Senate [Music] in one story three obsequious senators are summoned to the Imperial Palace late at night not good news at the best of times they assured into the Emperor's private theater and they sit there not knowing whether its execution or exile when suddenly the curtain opens Caligula prompts is on stage does a bit of a song on a dance act then disappears without comment into the night presumably really pleased with himself at the terrifying effect of his practical joke he wasn't just interested in humiliating individuals when he came to power he promised to work with the Senate but after his breakdown he saw them all as enemies that it wasn't just paranoia he drone up believing that it was Tiberius who'd killed his parents but when he searched through the records he discovered the role that the Senate had played in going along with it he turned on them viciously he entered the Senate here and launched a fierce and confrontational attack he said that he'd actually still got the documents which he'd said he'd destroyed they told him that all the people that Tiberius and tried and killed were in fact guilty not only that but they named some of the co-conspirators who've done for his family given these revelations Caligula said he was going to reinstate the treason trials to find the rest of the conference he ended with the words let them hate me as long as they fear me on both counts the senators did the Senate is full of precisely the power brokers of the Roman Empire if anyone is going to be powerful going to be doing anything they're going to be in the Senate and so of course his friends and his enemies are going to be in the Senate a wise Emperor plays down the enemies ignores them marginalizes them and plays up the friends Caligula does the one thing you should never do which is ranked against the Senate has a body [Music] Caligula despised the Sham of democracy in the Roman system one of the most famous stories taken to prove his madness was in fact a deliberate slur on the Senate it said he wanted to make his favorite horse consul the highest office in the land but he never did it was an insulting joke even my horse could do a better job than you not at the heart of Caligula's story is a conflict between two visions of what the Emperor was supposed to be the Senate believed the emperor was only there with their permission Caligula saw himself as the inheritor of all Gustus a member of the imperial dynasty with a divine right to rule and it's in this context we should see the most spectacular example of what his enemies saw as madness but what he saw as proof of his absolute power it took place in the summer of 39 ad and it all happened right here or rather out there in the Bay of Naples nothing would get in the Emperor's way even if he wanted to walk on water Caligula proposed riding his horse three kilometers across the Bay of Naples once he decided to turn the sea into land this whole area became one enormous shipyard he built lots of boats here in the bay and got lots of other thin from ports outside so they got about 200 of them which he lashed together in two long lines right the way across the bay then he anchored them and laid a big wooden bridge all the way along on top then dressed in a long purple cloak encrusted with gold and jewels and wearing the breastplate of his hero Alexander the Great he and the praetorian guard charged all the way along the length of the bridge but he wasn't finished yet he waited for dark and ordered thousands upon thousands of torches to be lit across the bay it was extravagant it was outrageous Caligula had turned water into land and night into day he was rivaling the gods he was in charge the ordinary Romans loved this excessive display but the people challenged by Caligula's absolute power thought it was vulgar and dangerous he could command fear but not loyalty and back in Rome problems were brewing with an increasingly excluded Senate later that year a widespread plot was discovered Caligula's reaction shows that he still had a firm grip on reality to act in a political crisis the plotters were killed or exiled and in response Caligula came up with a brilliant plan for restoring political stability an emperor with control of the army had control of the Senate and there was nothing that legions liked more than a successful leader like Julius Caesar or Caligula zone father Germanicus Caligula decided to emulate them and launch the campaign against the barbarians this is where Caligula decided to make his presence felt here at the very edge of the empire on the banks of the River Rhine this natural barrier was supposed to separate Roman civilization from the barbarians beyond but for years a lacs Roman commander had been totally unable to prevent the troops making embarrassing sorties over this side of the river Caligula sacked him and had him replaced by a strict disciplinarian then as soon as the troops have been knocked back into shape again Caligula headed north to join them on the border [Music] this was no exercise to please the vanity of the lunatic securing the German frontier was a strategic action Caligula had places all along the Rhine where troop movements were well planned and well thought out what he did was to carry out brief raids across the river at the head of his troops he probably didn't kill a single German himself but the fact that the Emperor went into battle personally not only restored the spirit to his men it also made them loyal to him in Rome and throughout the empire they honored Caligula success with special Games and celebrations he proved himself as a soldier and a tactician Caligula had got the army onside and he could do what he liked then he went and spoiled it ever since Julius Caesar had made a brief incursion the Romans have been talking about making a full-scale invasion of the damp island on the edge of the world securing the German border had only been part one of Caligula's master plan he wanted to invade Britain with the German tribes subdued Caligula borrowed forces from the border and marched towards the edge of the world what's now bellowing and there his brilliant strategy turned into one of the most famous FARC's in history the truth for all lined up on the shore Caligula got on board a trireme set sail for England but then immediately turned round came back again disembarked and climbed up on a high platform overlooking his men then he gave the order I want you all to walk on the beach pick up as many shells as possible and put them in your helmets and one stroke the greatest fighting force in the world was transformed into a legion of day-trippers then all the shells were solemnly taken back to Rome as the booty of war so what was going on again academics have put forward several plausible explanations for what appear to be Caligula's random actions some think the very act of bringing the soldiers to the seashore was enough to quell a rebellion and the seashells are a purely symbolic booty of war others think that Caligula was forced to abandon his plans because the soldiers refused to cross the channel for them this was the edge of the world everything over there was virtually another galaxy three years later when Claudius invaded England he faced a virtual mutiny is something similar happened to Caligula then the episode of the seashells becomes a typically humiliating lesson for his mutinous Centurions humbling a bunch of tough soldiers fits in with the sadistic side of Caligula's character but he reserved his real cruelty for the Roman elite and when a deputation of Senators arrived to request his return to Rome he slapped his sword and said and on my way I'm bringing this Caligula was returning for a showdown Caligula had been Emperor for three years but he was still only 28 coming to absolute power with a mercurial temper and a sadistic humor that no one understood he was like a spoiled child given the power of life and death and he looked the part of a madman he was tall with spindly legs and nervous face with deep set eyes and he made it worse by pulling scary faces in the mirror he was so embarrassed about his thinning blond hair but he made it illegal to stand above him so no one saw his bald patch altogether a damaged insecure human being but an emperor and one who seemed increasingly unstable as soon as he returned from his botched invasion of Britain he launched another scathing attack on the Senate demanding that they recognize his true status as a God he built a Lodge here on the Capitoline hill near the temple of Jupiter because he wanted to be close to the God who was his role model [Music] he commissioned the life-sized gold statue of himself as his favorite God which he dressed up in different clothes every day but not content with that he used to stand in the forum between the statues of the various gods pretending to be Jupiter so that he could get a bit of worship himself it's difficult to tell how seriously Caligula took all this when a simple working man told Caligula he was acting like an idiot the Emperor just laughed but colliculus demands that the Senate recognize him as a god were far less outrageous than you might think the Romans had many gods his great-grandfather Augustus had been deified after death and for centuries Eastern rulers like the Pharaohs had been seen as living gods colliculus claims weren't delusions but demands for additional status but this further alienated the Roman elite who still believed that the emperor should essentially be just another citizen [Music] Caligula's demands to be recognized as a god and his consequent contempt for other people's beliefs would spark a potentially deadly conflict in the farthest reaches of the Empire in Alexandria in Egypt the Romans and the Jews had lived peacefully together but under Caligula anti-semitism reared its ugly head and it began here 2,000 years ago Alexandria was a Greek city but with a large population of Jews and they've never really got on then the Jews were herded into one area of the city the world's first ghetto and there were riots anti-semitic attacks and reprises it was the Emperor's job to act as peacemaker a Jewish delegation was sent to present their case in Rome when they arrived Caligula was busy sorting out the finishing touches to his newly redecorated palace he was clearly in a mischievous mood and the delegates were desperate to show their loyalty so he encouraged them to chase after him as he scuttled from room to room dealing with his carpenters and his interior decorators and finally he turned on them and he said so why don't you eat pork and when they stuttered their replies he interrupted them with yes it doesn't taste very nice does it of course his cronies fell about in 40 AD Caligula's anti-semitism and his blind desire for immortal status came to a head he demanded that the most sacred place in Judaism the Temple of Jerusalem should be converted to an imperial shrine and in the Holy of Holies would be a giant statue of Caligula this Jupiter the announcement caused pandemonium there were riots in Jerusalem but the way Caligula reacts following the event shows that even if he was a self-promoting bully he was still sane enough to make a diplomatic u-turn [Music] Caligula's attitude towards the other jews softened considerably and in fact he rescinded his order to have his statue erected in the temple he was persuaded that it would cause a great deal of distress and probably a great deal of civil disorder so in the end it's clear that Caligula could still behave rationally strategically and sensibly in fact many people thought Caligula was a good ruler he may have battled with the Senate but he'd done nothing to alienate the Roman man in the street and in terms of his administration he was a real success he kept the provinces peaceful and stable he improved the roads he built new waterways into Rome to give people good drinking water most importantly he abolished the Romans sales tax their equivalent of v80 then as now people liked anyone who kept the economy stable and taxes low and although his critics said he was profligate there was still a healthy balance in the Treasury after his death if he'd only carried the Senate with him he might have survived but Caligula was willing to compromise with everyone apart from the people who really mattered the people who could get of him [Music] he couldn't stop the plots he flogged senators to death he had them tortured with fire and the rack he gagged their mouths with sponges so that they couldn't cry out he beheaded them he even executed them in the evening because he didn't want to have to wait till next morning he called the executions clearing his accounts and yet he was so moved by the wrecked body of an actress called quintillion who'd survived the torturers without revealing anything that he gave her 800,000 sister sees by way of compensation and yet the irony was that although many of his victims were innocent of the crimes they'd been tried and tortured for quintillion was actually guilty of taking part in a conspiracy to murder Caligula it didn't matter how unpopular an emperor was with the Senate if he retained the loyalty of the Praetorian Guard its only a fool would deliberately alienate their commanding officer Caligula was that fool the boss of the Praetorian Guard was a tough soldier called career but he got this thin Reedy voice and so the Emperor used to tease him for being a bit of a girl for instance if Kai RIA had to thank him for anything the Emperor would hold out his hand to be kissed and then whip it away at the last moment and given obscene gesture or if courier had to ask him what the password of the day is Caligula would say that it was something obscene like Venus or Big Willy let's hope Caligula enjoyed the joke because he paid for it with his life the assassination took place at a temporary theater here on the Palatine Caligula had come to watch his favorite actor in a play he was in high spirits there was the sort of carnival atmosphere that had made him so popular there were no reserved seats and the theater was in chaos free gifts of fruit had been distributed to the crowd and this attracted the exotic birds laid on for public the show began with Caligula sacrificing a flamingo that spattered his toga with blood it was an omen the conspirators waited for Caligula in one of the tiny alleyways leading out of the theater that was so constricted that his bodyguards couldn't protect him at lunchtime Caligula usually went home for a bath and as he left the throne the Senators held the crowd back showing proper respect for the Emperor although actually they were making sure that the bodyguards couldn't protect him when Caligula got to the alleyway he stopped to talk to some dancers who were rehearsing there and it was at that moment that the plotters struck career came forward and asked for the password Caligula delivered his usual taunts and tires slashed him between the neck and the shoulder groaning Caligula tried to get away but he was stopped by a hail of blows from the other senators in the conspiracy he was stabbed no less than thirty times then the plotters fled the scene and the bodyguards went while stabbing both plotters and innocent bystanders [Music] meanwhile the conspirators also went on the rampage they stormed into the palace they wanted to ensure that Caligula had no air so they stabbed his wife then took his baby daughter by the feet and dashed out her brains against a wall next day the Senate met in great excitement it seemed that this was their chance of regaining ultimate power and re-establishing the Republic that had been destroyed by Julius Caesar but just like the Senators that had killed Caesar they'd underestimated the people's affection for their Emperor even the most hostile sources record that the crowds at the theater were stunned by the news of Caligula's assassination now they turned up on the streets in anger to demand a successor to Caligula even Claudius Caligula's stuttering uncle who became the next Emperor was preferable to the Senate colliculus killing proved he was no god but the mobs reaction is the final evidence that he was far more complex than a cardboard cutout lunatic so was Caligula man he was certainly calculating and cruel with a strong streak of sadism although I doubt if any judge today would section him but in a way isn't that worse this bright young manipulative man who thought he could get away with anything but when his manipulation brought him supreme power it turned him into even more of a monster Caligula came from a long line of revered military men but instead of glory on the battlefield he chose to fight with everyone even the Senate if anyone was mad it was the Senators themselves for thinking that the son of a hero would be a hero to rather than the paranoid young sadist he actually was in the end it was them who paid the price for his short sharp and brutal career [Music] [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

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Id: c4bKDujbIAI

Length: 47min 35sec (2855 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2019