Gaius (RESET)

Question 1

What observation does Suetonius make of Gaius (Gaius 22)?

Answer 1

‘So much for Gaius the Emperor, the rest of history must need deal with Gaius the Monster.’

Question 2

What was Gaius also known as? What did this mean?

Answer 2

Gaius had the nickname Caligula meaning ‘little boots’, given to him by the legionaries under command of his father (Gaius, 9) as much of Gaius’ early life was spent in military camps.

Question 3

What does Suetonius exemplify of Gaius in his writings?

Answer 3

Separates an initially promising period (prior to an illness in October/November AD 37) from subsequent tyrannical cruelty and megalomania.

Question 4

What did Gaius grasp early in his reign?

Answer 4

That he should distance both himself and his policies from Tiberius. Gaius was savvy enough to grasp that he should make overtures to the Roman people. Suetonius calls it a ‘dream come true’.

Question 5

What did Gaius do to strengthen his popularity?

Answer 5

1. Held a series of games,
2. Recalled all exiles and dismissed criminal charges that were pending from under Tiberius,
3. Made a public statement of reunifying the imperial household not only through his adoption of Tiberius Gemellus, but also by honouring his grandmother with the title of Augusta (Dio, RH 59.3.4),
4. Sailed in person to Pandataria and the Pontian islands to bring the remains of his mother and brother back to the mausoleum of Augustus (RH, 59.3.5).

Question 6

Who was Tiberius Gemellus?

Answer 6

AD 19-37/38
Son of Drusus the Younger, and grandson of Tiberius. Made co-heir along with Gaius by Tiberius in his will. Gemellus was later forced by Gaius to commit suicide.

Question 7

Who else did Gaius seek to ensure the loyalty of?

Answer 7

Gaius was careful to begin his reign with the support of the army. Here he could play upon his descent from the beloved Germanicus.

Question 8

What coinage displays the attempted linkage of Gaius to Germanicus?

Answer 8

Denarius of Gaius
Date: AD 37
Obverse: Head of Gaius Caligula; words reading ‘Gaius Caesar, Augustus, Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, with tribunician power’,
Reverse: Head of Germanicus; words reading ‘Germanicus Caesar, father of Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus’
Significance: Minted by Gaius to celebrate Germanicus. Was designed to transfer some of the glamour of Germanicus’ military glory onto Gaius himself, thereby securing the loyalty of the troops.

Question 9

What do the sources say, generally, of Gaius’ courting of the mob?

Answer 9

The sources pass over these details quickly, using them as little more evidence to show how far and quickly Gaius descended into maniacal tyranny (e.g. Dio, RH 59:3.1-5.5; Seneca, On Consolationto Polybius 17.3-5). Dio perhaps gives the most measured account, but he too is struck by the divided nature of Gaius’ personality, and frequently gives examples.

Question 10

What is the significance of Josephus’ ‘Jewish Antiquities’?

Answer 10

The earliest surviving testimony of the events described, which used at least one contemporary record as a source. As both a Jewish author and a court historian to the Flavian emperors, Josephus is perhaps doubly likely to be critical of Gaius.

Question 11

What is the significance of Seneca the Younger’s ‘Of Consolation to Polybius’?

Answer 11

A damning analysis of Gaius’ character and rule, possibly to ingratiate Seneca (exiled) with Claudius through contrast.

Question 12

What coinage celebrates an administrative change by Gaius?

Answer 12

The Quadrans of Gaius
Date: AD 39
Obverse: Pileus, a cap worn by freed slaves, between SC (by decree of the senate); words reading ‘Gaius Caesar Augustus, grandson of Augustus,’
Reverse: RCC (Remission of the 1/200 tax); words reading ‘pontifex maximus, in his 3rd year of tribunician power, father of the fatherland, designated consul for the 3rd time,’
Significance: Commemorates Gaius’ tax remission.

Question 13

What was Gaius’ tax remission policy?

Answer 13

He removed the 0.5 per cent auction tax. Clearly designed to generate goodwill, although suggesting that it is a freedom from slavery (note the pileus on the coin) is a great exaggeration. Using the low value quadrans, the lowest denomination of coinage, shows that this move was decidedly populist in design.

Question 14

What did Gaius squander according to Dio Cassius? What did this result in?

Answer 14

Gaius burnt through Tiberius’ surplus. According to Dio (RH 59.2.6), he squandered 575,000,000 denarii in under a year. Consequently, introducing new and more severe taxation policies (RH 59.28.11). Resulting in the plebs storming the Circus Maximus.

Question 15

What construction projects does Pliny attribute to Gaius?

Answer 15

Pliny the Elder (Nat History, 36.122-123) notes that Gaius began work on various aqueducts, including the Anio Novus, that work later completed by Claudius. Since Pliny praises public practical building programmes and condemns private projects, his attribution of such works to Gaius is interesting, and at odds with the majority of our sources: we know of a bridge of boats at Baiae (Suetonius, Gaius 19) and pleasure barges on Lake Nemi.

Question 16

What administrative changes does Suetonius note of Gaius’ reign?

Answer 16

1. Lifted the censorship on various Augustan orators and historians,
2. Published the imperial budgets,
3. Gave magistrates full authority over court cases,
4. revised the list of equites,
5. Created a fifth judicial division to spread the workload more evenly,
6. And reorganised the leadership of several buffer regions.

Question 17

What is the significance of Suetonius’ writings on Gaius’ administrative changes? What other writer supports this?

Answer 17

They are not the actions of a tyrant or madman, but of an emperor working for the good of the empire. Likewise, Dio (RH 59.9.4-7) records commendable acts, particularly revisions to and expansion of the equestrian class.

Question 18

What of Gaius’ policies mythed Dio cassius?

Answer 18

Dio is far less understanding on policies that seemed to return political power to the people, such as the undoing of Tiberius’ AD 14 measures that made popular assemblies unable to do anything other than ratify senatorial recommendations for magistracies. Dio says that this ‘distressed sensible people’ (RH 59.9.7), revealing his own conservative and senatorial perspective.

Question 19

What can be potentially inferred from the sources about Gaius’ ‘madness’?

Answer 19

The label of ‘madness’ could betray the inability of the contemporary sources to understand the logic of some of Gaius’ decisions, which were clearly designed towards specific elements of the Roman population.

Question 20

What do Suetonius and Dio both record of, between the Senate and Gaius? Why was this significant?

Answer 20

(Gaius 14.1; RH 59.3.1-2) record the speed and ease in which the Senate imparted all the imperial titles and powers onto Gaius. This was remarkable since, at the time of his accession, he held no official position and had to be gifted with both the proconsulare maius and tribunicia potestas. This pandering by the Senate at the outset of his reign never lessened.

Question 21

Which speech, AD 39, does Dio recount?

Answer 21

(59.16.1-11) Dio recounts a speech of Gaius in which Tiberius advises him to ‘show neither affection nor mercy’ and ‘take thought only for [his] own pleasure and safety’. This led to the reintroduction of the maiestas trials. The senators’ personal prosperity depended on pleasing the princeps, so they ‘reassembled and made many speeches praising Gaius as a most sincere and pious ruler, since they were most grateful to him for not having put them to death.’

Question 22

What did the Senate approve to win the good graces of the princeps?

Answer 22

1. Approved an annual sacrifice to commemorate Gaius’ clemency,
2. A golden image of him on the Capitoline Hill,
3. The celebration of a lesser triumph, as if he had defeated an enemy.

Question 23

What instances of Gaius’ cruelty does Suetonius recount?

Answer 23

(Gaius 27-33)
1. Ordered that criminals be fed to his beasts,
2. Disfigured many persons of honourable rank, by branding them in the face with hot irons. Then condemning them to work the mines, to work in repairing the highways, or to fight wild beasts,
3. Compelled parents to be present at the execution of their own sons,
4. Burned a writer alive in the centre of the amphitheatre for some witty verse that had double meaning,
5. Upon talking to an individual returned from exile under Tiberius, figured that those he had exiled prayed for his death. Consequently, he sent orders round the islands to have them put to death,
6. Had a Senator publicly assassinated and torn apart in the streets.

Question 24

What is lacking in Suetonius’ account of Gaius’ crimes?

Answer 24

Evidence of the reliability of his sources. The allegations are vague and anecdotal at best, telling us more of Suetonius’ bias as a source than anything else.

Question 25

What writing supports Suetonius' account of Gaius?

Answer 25

Seneca the Younger (On Anger 3.19.1-5) provides much the same catalogue, with the observation that 'there is nothing surprising in all this. Gaius was a mad beast, and such brutalities were his bread and butter.'

Question 26

What does Josephus write of Gaius' relations with the plebs?

Answer 26

(Jewish Antiquities 19.24) suggests that Gaius would make decisions to please the plebs and gain popularity. Josephus also mentions Gaius' brutal treatment of protesting citizens (19.25-26).

Question 27

What does Suetonius tell us of Gaius' relations with Equites?

Answer 27

(Gaius 30) tells us that the equites constantly displeased him, but this seems odd considering the fact that Gaius revised and expanded the order.

Question 28

What is the most defining characteristic of Gaius' reign?

Answer 28

His opinion of his own divinity in complete contrast to his predecessor.

Question 29

What is the major problem with the sources on Gaius?

Answer 29

The major issue with understanding Gaius' relations with Rome is the limited evidence: the majority of the sources are upper-class authors who wish to cast Gaius as the mad tyrant. Our most contemporary authors are biased. Josephus had a jewish anti-Gaius perspective, and as the Flavian historian, he needed to reflect that dynasty's condemnation of Gaius as a poor model of an emperor. Seneca's treatises were largely designed to guide Nero in a sensible path of governance.

Question 30

What are some of the explanations for Gaius' use of the imperial cult?

Answer 30

1. Perhaps a result of a desire to separate himself from Tiberius who, as Tacitus states, spurned worship of himself, 2. Perhaps a natural extension of the flattery Gaius received upon his accession, 3. Perhaps it was a useful alternative to pre-existing power for a princeps who had no background in politics or the military, and therefore needed another way to acquire Agustan auctoritas.

Question 31

What did Gaius change relating to the manner of worship of emperors?

Answer 31

1. While Augustus had established a double system where it was legitimate for a living emperor to be worshipped in the provinces, as a means of control and romanisation, but not in Rome other than through the worship of Augustus' genius as the bringer of peace and stability, 2. Gaius' reign is characterised by a drive to do away with this duality.

Question 32

How immediate was Gaius' change to worship of emperors?

Answer 32

Not immediate. Dio (RH 59.4.4) notes that at the start of his reign, Gaius forbade the setting up of any images of him, and refused to sanction a vote that sacrifices be conducted to his fortune. Our sources do, however, suggest that Gaius made numerous efforts to promote his own divinity, although this is presented with such bias that it is difficult to know the truth.

Question 33

What do Suetonius and Dio write of Gaius' opinion of himself? What is the importance of their perspective?

Answer 33

1. Suetonius (Gaius 37) - he was 'interested in doing only the impossible', 2. Dio (RH 59.26.8) - states that 'in every respect he wanted to appear more than just a human being and an emperor.' These opinions are characteristically Roman, whereas for an eastern monarch such behaviour would be commonplace. Gaius' behaviour is understandable if we conjecture that he was trying to turn the principate into more of an absolute monarchy, smashing the republican facade of Augustus and Tiberius.

Question 34

What was the contemporary opinion of Gaius' promotion of emperor-worship?

Answer 34

There wasn't much actual condemnation of his behaviour. Dio (59.28.2) tells us that the Senate granted a temple for Gaius on the Palatine, although he had to fund it himself. Suetonius (Gaius 22) informs us that all of the richest citizens tried to get priesthood therein. Thus we can observe that although Gaius was dressing up as various deities (Dio 59.26.5-6) and 'claiming from his subjects honours no longer appropriate for mortal men' (Jewish Antiquities 19.4), he was actually being indulged by both the Senate and the people of Rome.

Question 35

What serves as the best evidence for contemporary condemnation of Gaius' reign? Why is this not entirely straight-forward?

Answer 35

His assassination. The conspirators for this plot were drawn from a very limited cohort.

Question 36

What does Josephus claim of the support of the assassination plot?

Answer 36

That there were three separate plans to assassinate Gaius (JA 19.17). This isn't supported by his own future writings or by what is written by Dio. Thus, it can be assumed that Josephus appears to be trying to create a sense of mass opposition to Gaius.

Question 37

Who does Josephus claim was at the head of the plot? who else was involved by his account?

Answer 37

Places Cassius Chaerea at the head of the conspiracy. (JA 19.18) Adds Lucius Annius Vinnicianus as a senatorial presence.

Question 38

Who was Cassius Chaerea?

Answer 38

In AD 41, a tribune in the Praetorian Guard and a leading player in Gaius' assassination. He was executed upon Claudius' accession.

Question 39

Who does Dio tell us was involved in the plot to assassinate Gaius?

Answer 39

(RH 59.29.2) tells us that the conspirators included Cornelius Sabinus (another Praetorian tribune), Callistus (an imperial freedman) and Marcus Arrecinus Clemens (the Praetorian prefect).

Question 40

What does Dio tell us of Senate support of Gaius at the time of his assassination?

Answer 40

(RH 59.25.5) Tells us that even the consul at the time was bending over to kiss Gaius' feet, reinforcing the idea that the majority were still pandering to Gaius.

Question 41

How does Dio recount the murder of Gaius?

Answer 41

Dio maintains a brutal account: 'everybody kept stabbing him savagely, even though he was dead: some even tasted his flesh' (59.29.7)

Question 42

What unanimous observation is made of the motivation of this plot?

Answer 42

That Chaerea was in part motivated by Gaius' constant insults towards him for his effeminacy. Seneca (On Firmness of Purpose 18.3) seems to make this the ultimate trigger for Chaerea.

Question 43

What is generally accepted of the assassins?

Answer 43

That they were opportunists rather than idealists. Chaerea and Sabinus seem to have been motivated at least partly by self-preservation, Callistus by a desire to guarantee his own future, and Vinicianus by his own imperial ambitions.

Question 44

What does Josephus conclude of Gaius?

Answer 44

'He aspired to be, and to be seen to be, superior to the laws of God and man' (JA 19.202) Gaius tried to do too much too soon: he tried to be an absolute monarch when the expectation of an emperor was very different.