Y12 Ancient History Roman/Julio-Claudian Points Test 9 - Caligula/Gaius Flashcards
What were Suetonius’ views on Caligula? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
- The most striking observation is arguably by Suetonius (Gaius, 22) when he says “So much for Gaius the Emperor; the rest of this history must needs deal with Gaius the Monster.”
- This exemplifies Suetonius’ desire to divide imperial reigns into good and bad parts, but is also very appropriate.
- Although Gaius’ reign was brief, it is certainly easily divisible in two.
- Other sources echo Suetonius in separating an initially promising period (prior to illness October/November 37) from subsequent tyrannical cruelty and megalomania.
- There was much potential in the opening months of Gaius’ reign, as he consciously sought to distance himself and his policies from the unpopular Tiberius.
- Although he had no political or military experience, Gaius was savvy enough to grasp that he should make overtures to the Roman people.
- Suetonius (Gaius, 13-14; 18-20) calls it a ‘dream come true’.
- Suetonius delights in the vagaries and perceived tyrannies of Gaius’ reign.
What were Cassius Dio’ views on Caligula? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
• Only source, though bits missing, to treat Caligula’s reign in annalistic form.
• Dio is far harsher and more begrudging to Caligula than Suetonius!
• He said that Gaius strengthened his popularity by every possible means, in particular by
1. Holding a series of games.
2. Recalling all exiles and dismissing criminal charges that were pending from under Tiberius, and
3. Making 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, Roman History, 59.3.4).
• He even sailed in person to Pandataria and the Pontian Islands to bring the remains of his mother and brother back to the Mausoleum of Augustus (59.3.5).
• Dio arguably gives us the most carefully considered account, but he too is struck by the divided nature of Gaius’ personality and frequently gives examples.
• Moreover, the illness that prompts Gaius’ madness was perhaps merely a convenient and easy way of explaining how an emperor who promised so much at the outset could so completely fail to deliver.
• A retrospective history from a senatorial perspective, some of Dio’s sections only survive in the summaries provided by Xiphilinus.
What numismatic/coinage evidence do we have on Caligula? (any relevant point for 2 marks).
- Fig 1.17, a denarius from AD37, had the head of Gaius on one side, emphasising his position as pontifex Maximus and tribunician power, and on the other side Germanicus’ head (J7n Lactor 19).
- It clearly links Gaius and Germanicus, and was designed to transfer some of the military glory to Gaius, to secure the loyalty of the troops.
What were Seneca’s views on Caligula? (any relevant point for 2 marks).
- Seneca, On Consolation to Polybius 17.3-5 and Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 19.1-2, 19.4-11, pass over such details quickly, using them as little more than evidence to show how far and how quickly Gaius descended into maniacal tyranny.
- Seneca damns Gaius’ character and rule, possibly to ingratiate Seneca with Claudius through contrast (Seneca being in exile).
What were Josephus’s views on Caligula? (any relevant point for 2 marks).
- Josephus used at least one contemporary source as a resource.
- BUT as both a Jewish historian and a court historian to the Flavian Dynasty, which took power from the Julio-Claudians, Josephus is perhaps doubly likely to be critical of Gaius.
- Influenced by a fellow Jewish account Philo, a native of Alexandria, led the Jewish delegation to Rome in AD39/40.
- Josephus left his two greek-language works of the period, preoccupied with Jewish problems, and he makes no attempt to conceal his hostility towards Caligula and the Alexandrian Greeks.
- Josephus, though morally earnest, has a hopelessly confused and mistake-ridden account.
What popular measures did Caligula take with regards to the coinage, to please the plebs? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
- Given the brevity of his reign, and his subsequent unpopularity, it is perhaps unsurprising that Gaius left little impact upon Rome from an administrative perspective. Yet, at times, he showed a real understanding of the demands placed on an emperor, especially with regards to placating the masses.
- The Quadrans (the lowest denomination/value of a coin) of 39AD (after Gaius’ supposed madness) commemorates Gaius’ removal of the 0.5% auction tax.
- This is clearly designed to generate good will, although suggesting that it is a freedom from slavery (using the pileus, a cap worn by slaves) is a great exaggeration.
- Using a low-value quadrans shows that this was a decidedly populist design.
Why did Caligula quickly lose popularity as a result of his fiscal policy and spending? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
- However, this popularity wouldn’t last. When Gaius had burned through all of his money left by Tiberius’ surplus, according to Dio (59.2.6) he squandered 575 million denarii in under a year – he introduced a new and more severe taxation measures (Dio, 59.28.11), which resulted in Plebs storming the Circus Maximus.
- Pliny the Elder (natural History, 36.122-3) notes that Gaius began work on various aqueducts, including the Anio Novus, that were later completed by Claudius.
- Since Pliny praises 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 bridge of boats at Baiae (Suetonius, Gaius 19) and pleasure barges on Lake Nemi.
What measures of Caligula (mentioned by Suetonius and Dio) show his good governance as emperor? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
• Suetonius notes that Gaius…
1. Lifted the censorship on various Augustan orators and historians.
2. Published 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, and
6. Reorganised the rulership of several buffer regions.
• These are the actions not of a tyrant or madman, but of a good emperor.
• Likewise Dio (59.4-7) records commendable acts, particularly revisions to/expansion of the equestrian class.
What measures of Caligula (mentioned by Dio) show his good relations with the plebeians, that might have alienated the senate? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
- Dio is far less understanding on policies that seem to return political power to the people, such as the undoing of Tiberius’ AD14 measures that made the popular assemblies unable to do anything other than ratify senatorial recommendations for magistracies.
- Dio says that this ‘distressed sensible people’ (59.9.7) revealing his own highly conservative and senatorial perspective.
- Perhaps the ‘madness’ label betrays the inability of our sources to understand the logic of some of Gaius’ decisions, which were clearly designed to speak towards specific elements of the Roman Population.
What measures did Caligula take with regards to the treason trials? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
- Of all of the measures undertaken by Caligula at the beginning of his reign, his most popular was a decision to abolish the charges of Maiestas, the primary cause of fear and resentment under Tiberius.
- Gaius made a public showing of burning in the forum all the papers and letters relating to the cases of his mother and brother, swearing that he had never read or touched any of them. (precedence of Augustus after Actium).
- Barrett argues that, under Macro’s guiding hand, he was seeking to reassure those wary of him, and trying to disarm those who might have had loyalty to Gemellus.
- He also permitted formerly proscribed writings to be copied and circulated (Titus Labienus, Cassius Serverus and Cremutius Cordus), though they had not attacked him and so therefore this supposed liberality may not have been so much noble as trying to emphasise distance between himself and Tiberius.
What measures did Caligula take with regards to his succession initially, and why were these very suspect? (1 mark).
• Supposedly making Gemellus his heir, Barrett agrees with Philo, was arguably a cynical ploy. He was young, with plenty of time to dictate the succession at his leisure.
Gemellus later died under Caligula’s reign, believed to have been murdered by him.
What measures did Caligula take with regards to foreign policy/the frontiers other than in the East? (any relevant point for 3 marks).
- On the Rhine, Gaius went to the frontier himself, since he needed the support of the army. He used the pretext that he wished to strengthen the frontiers, but in fact he was concerned that one of the Rhine Commanders, Aemilius Lepidus, was in league with two of Gaius’ sisters in a conspiracy.
- Suplicius Galba, a future Roman emperor, was given command of the upper Rhine. Gaius’ objectives in Germany were unclear.
- Whether Gaius seriously considered invading Britain or not, his army refused to make the crossing; he announced its annexation even though no military action had been taken (Suetonius, 43-48).
- In Africa Gaius deposed Ptolemy the client-king of Mauretania and ordered him to commit suicide in preparation for its annexation, but its people resisted.
- The senatorial governor in Africa was reduced to the status of a civil authority, and handed over his troops to an imperial legate.
What measures did Caligula take with regards to foreign policy/the frontiers in the East? (any relevant point for 5 marks).
- Gaius reversed Augustus’ policy – particularly with regards to Parthia – and rewarded friends with client-kingdoms, hoping to bind them to him personally. He was autocratic, provocative and erratic in his foreign policy, and his treatment of the Jews in particular ‘revealed the havoc that an irresponsible ruler might create.’ (Syme).
- In the east, Gaius restored some friendly kings and princes to their former thrones and found kingdoms for others he favoured.
- He restored Commagene to Antiochus, provided kingdoms for the three sons of a Thracian Prince since they had been raised in Rome with him, and gave to his friend Herod Agrippa the territories belonging to his uncles. This created major disorders in that part of the world.
- Gaius was anti-Semitic and his policy towards the Jews was to lead to future discontent.
- The Greeks and the Jews in the Egyptian city of Alexandria were hostile towards each other – the Greeks were angry that the Romans had granted the Jews a large degree of autonomy.
- They not only refused them local citizenship, but sent a deputation to Gaius demanding that the Jews be forced to display statues of the Emperor in the synagogues in Alexandria but also in Jerusalem.
- Gaius supported this request, but fortunately died before it could be carried out.
- Gaius weakened Rome’s position in the east by reversing Augustus’ policy of strengthening the frontiers against Parthia.
- By removing the King of Armenia from his throne, Gaius gave Parthia an opportunity to regain influence in Armenia.
What were Gaius’s attitudes/policies towards religion in general? (any relevant point for 5 marks).
- In the east, Caligula was worshipped as a god from the outset.
- A greek embassy sent to him referred to him as ‘the new god augustus’ while a decree of cyzicus refers to him as ‘the new sun’.
- These are completely within the tradition of the Greek East.
- Barrett here argues that Caligula was persuaded to abandon his plan to force Jews to set up his image in their temples, rather than being killed before it could be carried out.
- Miletus, in Asia, had a cult centre of Caligula. Dio claims he sought to take over the temple of Apollo in the city.
- Caligula’s religious policy in Rome/Italy was arguably very conservative.
- Held office of Pontifex Maximus from the outset of his reign.
- Gaius actually resurrected several old cults, such as the priest of Diana, and the reorganisation of the Salii, the priests of mars.
What evidence is there that Gaius’s attitudes/policies towards the imperial cult in particular were positive? (any relevant point for 5 marks).
- In his insistence on being treated as a god, he went to great lengths to see that his directions were carried out.
- He replaced the heads on many famous Greek statues with his own likeness; converted the shrine of the ‘heavenly twins’ Castor and Pollux, into the vestibule of his newly established palace, and would be seen standing beside the gods; established a priesthood to supervise the worship of himself, and connected his palace to the capitol by a bridge over the temple of Augustus in order to share the home of the Capitoline Jupiter.
- The aspect of Gaius’ reign given the most attention in the sources is his attitude towards the imperial cult. Indeed, his opinion of his own divinity becomes the defining characteristic of his own reign, again in complete contrast to his predecessor (Dio 59.26.5-27.1; 59.28.1-11). This was perhaps a result of his desire to be seen as different from Tiberius, who as Tacitus states, spurned worship of himself.
- It was also perhaps a natural extension of the flattery Gaius received from all quarters on his accession.
- But other explanations must be considered, including the fact that it was a useful substitute to pre-existing power for a princeps who had no background in politics or the military, and therefore needed another way to acquire Augustan Auctoritas.
- But 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 (guiding spirit) as the bringer of peace and stability, Gaius’ reign is characterised by a drive to do away with this duality.
