A POLITICAL SCANDAL

Why the Senate ever appointed Gaius Germanicus Emperor I`ll never know. 

The antithesis of mens sana in corpore sano as the Latin poet Horace put it, Gaius was weak in body and mind. Of course he couldn`t really be blamed for the ill health which affected his mind, and to give him his due he did start off quite well. He was the classic case of power going (literally) to the head; he was too immature, in any case, at twenty-five to rule.

            Life at the royal court was a nightmare. At the slightest thing, Caligula, who wore  ridiculous soldier`s boots , caligae (in Latin), at all times and in all weathers , if he took it amiss, would bellow to his guards to chop off the head of the unfortunate victim of his wrath. And you didn`t have to say anything; a  look could be misinterpreted.

            My friend, Gemellus, being a distant relation of the royal family, attended many a royal banquet  at the Palace where the extreme libido and absolute indifference to personal feelings on the part of the boot wearer were commonly on display. If Gaius took a fancy to the wife or daughter of a guest he would simply take her away “to satisfy an urge of nature” as he called it, and would be absent  as long as it took him to sexually satisfy himself with the woman.  Then he returned as if nothing untoward had happened . Of course, no voice dare be raised ,  not even of the injured party, in disapproval.

            He was always on the lookout for excuses – as if he needed them – to imagine insults, disapproval, or disloyalty. “Traitor” he would scream in that high pitched . semi-strangulated voice of his , to someone quite innocent of the crime.  “Lock him up”…. glancing insanely at his guards.   The unfortunate would never see the light of day again. Unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated in his four years of reign; four years in which executions and confiscations were  rife

            Caligula was of course insanely jealous of anyone whom he perceived , rightly or wrongly, as a rival in any way to his godhead. He had no reason for being supremely despotic and omnipotent. The senators as a body toadied to him and conferred on him extravagant honours which he in no way deserved. Romans were  used to this sort of behaviour from (some) of their Emperors and as long as they had their diet of bread and circuses, “panes et circenses” as the Roman poet Livy states, they remained if not happy , then willingly under the thumb of their masters. Naturally his relationship with his sister . Drusilla, raised a few eyebrows , unnaturally close as it was. In fact it was universally believed , though never voiced, that the relationship was incestuous.

                As if this, along with all the other things, were not enough evidence that the people of Rome had a madman for a ruler, came news of an even more degenerate act on Caligula`s part . In a mood of deep misanthropy he made his favourite horse a Consul! “I may be mad, but I am still the Emperor,” he exulted in his frenzy: “Insanus sum, sed adhuc sum Imperator” .Political scandal had reached its zenith . The civitates Romani, the Roman citizens, were now subject to a horse.

(A HISTORY OF THE EMPERORS  - TACITUS)

© A.B. Finlay Ph.D