A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

564 CALIGULA.
that lie 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. A nnal. i. 41, 69; Suet. Cal. 9; Dion Cass.
lvii. 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 as the son of Germanicus saved him.
(Dion Cass. Iviii. 8.)
After the fall of Sejanus in A. D. 32, when
Caligula had just attained his twentieth year, Tiberius summoned 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 suffered, 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. Gal. 10; Tac. Annal. vi. 20.) But
his savage and voluptuous character was nevertheless seen through by Tiberius. About the same
time he married Junia Claudilla (Claudia), the
daughter of M. Silanus, an event which Dion Cassius (lviii. 25) assigns to the year A. D. 35. Soon
afterwards he obtained 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 however deciding anything. (Dion Cass. Iviii. 23;
Tac. Annal. vi. 45, &c.) In order to ensure his
success, he seduced Ennia Naevia, the wife of
Macro, who had then the command of the praetorian 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, Legat. ad Cai. p. 998, ed. Paris, 1640.)
Tiberius died in March A. D. 37, and there can be
little doubt but that Caligula either caused or accelerated his death. In aftertimes he often boasted of
having attempted to murder Tiberius in order to
avenge the wrongs which his family had suffered
from him. There were reports that Caligula had
administered to Tiberius a slow poison, or that he
had withheld from him the necessary food during
his illness, or lastly, that he had suffocated him
with a pillow. Some again said, that he had been
assisted by Macro, while Tacitus (AnnAl. vi. 50)
mentions Macro alone as the guilty person. (Suet.
Tib. 73, Cal. 12; Dion Cass. Iviii. 28.) When
the body of Tiberius was carried from Misenum to
Rome, Caligula accompanied it in the dress of a
mourner, but he was saluted by the people at Rome
with the greatest enthusiasm as the son of Germanicus. 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 Tiberius. (Suet. Cal. 14; Dion Cass. lix. 1; comp.
Joseph. Ant. Jzud. xviii. 6. ~ 9.) In regard to all
other points, however, Caligula carried the will of
Tiberins into execution: le 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 immediately fulfilled the duty of piety towards his
mother and his brother: he had their ashes conveyed 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 evidence 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 magistrates their full power of jurisdiction
without appeal to his person, and he also endeavoured to revive the old character of the comitia
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 predecessor, 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 living. 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 he
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 voluptuousness had always been prominent features in
his character, but still we are not justified in supposing, as many do, that he merely threw off the
mask which had hitherto concealed his real disposition; it is much more probable that his illness
destroyed 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 Tiberius, the grandson of his predecessor, whom he had
raised before to the rank of princeps 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 murdering soon ceased to be the consequence of his