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
