Emperors - Gaius Flashcards
Gaius timespan:
37-41AD
‘So much for Gaius the Emperor; the rest of this history must needs deal with Gaius the Monster’
Suetonius on Gaius
- highlights Suetonius’ desire to split things into good and bad parts, and shows
How did Gaius work to strengthen his popularity in the first few months of his reign?
- held a series of games
- recalled exiles and dismissed criminal charges which were pending from under Tiberius
- made a public statement of reunifying the imperial household by adopting Tiberius Gemellus (Tiberius’ grandson) and giving his grandmother the title of Augusta
When was Gaius ill?
October/ November 37AD
What tax did Gaius remove in 39AD, as shown on a quadrans?
the 0.5% auction tax which had been introduced by Augustus, the use of a low value quadrans shows that this was a populist move, and the coin shows a ‘pileus’ which was a cap worn by freed slaves.
How much money does Dio say Gaius burned through in a year?
575,000,000 denarii
What caused the plebs to storm the Circus Maximus under Gaius?
Gaius had spent all of Tiberius’ surplus and introduced more severe taxation
Who says that Gaius began work on several aqueducts that were completed under Claudius?
Pliny the Elder
- Pliny prefers practical building projects
What policies did Gaius reverse, that Dio says ‘distressed sensible people’?
Tiberius’ measures from Ad14 that made popular assemblies useless for anything other than ratifying senatorial recommendations for magistracies. This reveals Dio’s own senatorial biases and shows that Gaius was a sensible emperor to some extent
Suetonius on Gaius’ administrative changes to Rome? (6)
- published imperial budgets
- revised the list of equites
- gave magistrates full authority over court cases
- lifted the censorship on various Augustan orators and historians
- created a fifth judicial division to spread the workload more evenly
- reorganised the rulership of several buffer regions
What class does Dio record Gaius revising and expanding?
the equestrians
Initial relationship between Gaius and the Senate?
Dio and Suetonius both record how easily and quickly the Senate gave him all of the imperial titles - despite him having no official position existing
Dio on Gaius restoring maiestas trials?
He spoke to the senate, criticising them for their hypocrisy in their attitude towards Tiberius, leading him to reintroduce maiestas, and accusing them of treason for speaking ill
Dio on the Senate pandering to Gaius?
approved an annual sacrifice honouring his clemency, (‘they were most grateful to him for not having put them to death’)
Also approved the celebration of a lesser triumph as though Gaius had defeated an enemy.
Issue with Suetonius on reliability regarding Gaius’ cruelty?
he doesn’t detail his sources. Often vague or anecdotal
Seneca ‘On Anger’ portrayal of Gaius?
violent, cruel ‘Gaius was a mad best, and such brutalities were his daily bread and butter’
Josephus on Gaius’ treatment of citizens?
- suggests he did make decisions to try and please the plebs and gain popularity, but also describes Gaius’ brutal treatment of protesting citizens.
Who says the equites constantly displeased Gaius, what does this not align with?
Suetonius says the equites were constantly displeased with Gaius, but this doesn’t line up with Dio’s claim that he revised and expanded the equestrian class
Dio on Gaius’ attitude to the Imperial cult at the start of his reign?
he forbade setting up any images of him and refused to sanction a vote that sacrifices be conducted to his Fortune
Gaius was ‘interested in doing only the impossible’
Suetonius on Gaius’ lifestyle
Dio on Gaius’ attitude to the Imperial cult?
‘in every respect he wanted to appear more than just a human being and an emperor’
Dio on the Senate’s attitude to the imperial cult under Gaius?
They granted a temple to him on the Palatine, though he had to fund it himself
How do the individual biases of the sources influence the perception of Gaius’ imperial cult?
the imperial cult was the manifestation of Gaius’ transformation of his role from civilis princeps to outright monarch. As such, though his promotion of the Imperial cult was not out of line with pharaonic worship and other traditions, the sources find it particularly condemnable
Josephus inconsistencies regarding Gaius’ assassination?
he suggests there were 3 different assassination plans. However, this does not align with Dio or what Josephus says later on and he appears to be trying to create a sense of mass opposition to Gaius
What do all 3 sources (Dio, Suetonius and Josephus) all agree on regarding Gaius’ assassination?
It was highly brutal
Who does Josephus record as head of the conspiracy against Gaius? Who was he?
Cassius Chaerea
- tribune in the Praetorian Guard
Where was Gaius killed?
At a festival on the Palatine hill
Other conspirators against Gaius in 41AD, according to Dio?
Praetorian tribune - Sabinus
Imperial freedman - Callistus
Praetorian Prefect - Clemens
Senator - Vinicianus
Chaerea’s motivations in 41AD, according to the sources?
partly motivated by Gaius’ constant insults towards him for being effeminate. Seneca describes this as his ultimate trigger
Gaius’ ultimate downfall?
Trying to do too much too soon - trying to become an absolute monarch against the expectations of an emperor at the time.
Josephus - ‘he aspired to be, and to be seen to be, superior to the laws of god and man’
Conspiracy against Gaius in 39AD?
Drusilla’s husband Marcus Lepidus and commander of the army of Upper Germany were conspiring leading Gaius to travel to the Rhine frontier where they were confronted and executed. Gaius’ two remaining sisters were exiled too
