Misplaced Pages

#637362

169-401: 'Principate' is etymologically derived from the Latin word princeps , meaning chief or first , and therefore represents the political regime dominated by such a political leader, whether or not he is formally head of state or head of government . This reflects the principate emperors' assertion that they were merely " first among equals " among the citizens of Rome. Under the Republic,

338-492: A diva (goddess of state). Caligula, bereft, declared a period of compulsory, universal mourning. Drusilla's death is one of several events approximate to the time of Caligula's illness, besides the death of Antonia and any unreported effects of the illness itself, thought by some to contribute to a fundamental change in Caligula's attitudes. Purges so early in Caligula's reign suggest to Weidemann that "the new emperor had learnt

507-461: A Jew would have virtually defined him as fundamentally insane, despite appearances otherwise. The ethnically Greek population of Alexandria had already made their loyalty to the new emperor clear, with displays of his image as focus for his cult. The destruction of the altar at Jamlia and, presumably, removal of "idolatrous" images placed in synagogues by Greek citizens, might have been intended as an expression of Jewish religious fervour, rather than

676-483: A bitter feud with Emperor Tiberius, who was Germanicus' biological uncle and adoptive father. The conflict eventually led to the destruction of her family, with Caligula as the sole male survivor. In 26, Tiberius withdrew from public life to the island of Capri , and in 31, Caligula joined him there. Tiberius died in 37 and Caligula succeeded him as emperor, at the age of 24. Of the few surviving sources about Caligula and his four-year reign, most were written by members of

845-480: A blurring of boundaries between Caligula's personal wealth, and his income as head of state. Caligula's immediate successor, Claudius , abolished taxes, embarked on various costly building projects and donated 15,000 sesterces to each Praetorian Guard in 41 as his own reign began, which suggests that Caligula had left him a solvent treasury. In the long term, the occasional windfall aside, Caligula's spending exceeded his income. Fund-raising through taxation became

1014-561: A circus "fracas"; in Suetonius' biography "more than 20" lives were lost in what is almost certainly the same event, described as a violent but accidental crush. Some sources claim that Caligula forced equestrians and senators to fight in the arena as gladiators. Condemnation to the gladiator arena as a combatant was a standard punishment, doubling as public entertainment, for non-citizens found guilty of certain offences. Laws of AD 19 by Augustus and Tiberius banned voluntary participation of

1183-613: A consul. Most modern commentaries seek to explain Caligula's position, personality and historical context. Some historians dismiss many of the allegations against him as misunderstandings, exaggeration, mockery or malicious fantasy. During his brief reign, Caligula worked to increase the unconstrained personal power of the emperor, as opposed to countervailing powers within the principate . He directed much of his attention to ambitious construction projects and public works to benefit Rome's ordinary citizens, including racetracks, theatres, amphitheatres, and improvements to roads and ports. He began

1352-476: A day before the Liberalia festival. He was 78 years old. Suetonius, Tacitus and Cassius Dio repeat variously elaborated rumours which held that Caligula, perhaps with Macro, was directly responsible for his death. Philo and Josephus , the latter a Romano-Jewish writer who served Vespasian a generation later, describe Tiberius' death as natural. On the same day, Caligula was hailed as emperor by members of

1521-526: A faster pace. It is characterised by greater use of prepositions, and word order that is closer to modern Romance languages, for example, while grammatically retaining more or less the same formal rules as Classical Latin. Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however. After

1690-743: A few in German , Dutch , Norwegian , Danish and Swedish . Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the Catholic Church . The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology . They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics . Their works were published in manuscript form before

1859-404: A few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, Salutati , Celtis , George Buchanan and Thomas More . Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include Isaac Newton 's Principia . Latin was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in

SECTION 10

#1732765251638

2028-556: A generous gratitude payment of 500 sesterces . Caligula doubled this, and took credit for its payment as an act of personal generosity; he also paid bonuses to the city troops and the army outside Italy. Every citizen in Rome was given 150 sesterces, and heads of households twice that amount. Building projects on the Palatine hill and elsewhere were also announced, which would have been the largest of these expenditures. Thanks to Macro's preparations on his behalf, Caligula's accession

2197-497: A gimcrack "king of the Jews.” In Philo's account, a mob of Greeks broke into synagogues to erect statues and shrines of Caligula, against Jewish religious law. Flaccus responded by declaring the Jews "foreigners and aliens", and expelled them from all but one of Alexandria's five districts, where they lived under dreadful conditions. Philo gives an account of various atrocities inflicted on Alexandria's Jews within and around this ghetto by

2366-535: A great deal from Tiberius" and "that attempts to divide his reign into a 'good' beginning followed by unremitting atrocities [...] are misplaced". Caligula shared many of the popular passions and enthusiasms of the lower classes and young aristocrats: public spectacles, particularly gladiator contests, chariot and horse racing, the theatre and gambling, but all on a scale with which the nobility could not match. He trained with professional gladiators and staged exceptionally lavish gladiator games, being granted exemption by

2535-535: A kind". In 38, Caligula lifted censorship, and published accounts of public funds and expenditure. Suetonius congratulates this as the first such act by any emperor. Very soon after his succession, he restored the right of the popular assembly ( comitia ) to elect magistrates on behalf of the common citizenry, a right that had been taken over by the Senate under Tiberius and Augustus. The aediles , elected officials who managed public games and festivals, and maintained

2704-435: A knowledge of human nature which in reality was not only foreign to him, but famously unsound. At Capri, Caligula learned to dissimulate. He probably owed his life to that and, as all the ancient sources agree, to Macro. Many believed, or claimed to believe, that given a little more time, Tiberius would have eliminated Caligula as a possible successor, but died before this could be done. Tiberius died on 16 March AD 37,

2873-417: A legator's obligation to provide for his family; Caligula seems to have considered his fatherly duties to the state entitled him to a share of every will from pious subjects. The army was not exempt; centurions who left nothing or too little to the emperor could be judged guilty of ingratitude, and have their wills set aside. Centurions who had acquired property by plunder were forced to turn over their spoils to

3042-556: A major preoccupation. Provincial citizens were liable for direct payment of taxes used to fund the military, a payment from which Italians were exempt. Caligula abolished some taxes, including the deeply unpopular sales tax, but he introduced an unprecedented range of new ones, and rather than employ professional tax farmers ( publicani ) in their collection, he made this a duty of the notoriously forceful Praetorian Guard. Dio and Suetonius describe these taxes as "shameful": some were remarkably petty. Caligula taxed "taverns, artisans, slaves and

3211-560: A native language, Medieval Latin was used across Western and Catholic Europe during the Middle Ages as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance , which then developed a classicizing form, called Renaissance Latin . This was the basis for Neo-Latin which evolved during the early modern period . In these periods Latin was used productively and generally taught to be written and spoken, at least until

3380-424: A particular imperial virtue; "security", "concord" or "fortune". Caligula ordered that an image of his deceased mother, Agrippina, must accompany all festival processions. He made his uncle Claudius his consular colleague, tasked with siting statues of Caligula's two dead brothers, and occasionally standing in for Caligula at games, feasts and ceremonies. Claudius' own family found his limp and stammer "something of

3549-482: A paternalistic ideology , presenting the princeps as the very incarnation of all virtues attributed to the ideal ruler (much like a Greek tyrannos earlier), such as clemency and justice, and military leadership, obliging the princeps to play this designated role within Roman society, as his political insurance as well as a moral duty. What specifically was expected of the princeps seems to have varied according to

SECTION 20

#1732765251638

3718-493: A priest of his own cult. This could have been an extended joke, created by Caligula himself in mockery of the senate. A persistent, popular belief that Caligula actually promoted his horse to consul has become "a byword for the promotion of incompetents", especially in political life. It may have been one of Caligula's many oblique, malicious or darkly humorous insults, mostly directed at the senatorial class, but also against himself and his family. Winterling sees it as an insult to

3887-507: A private individual, was made constitutional under Antoninus Pius . Caligula did not change the structure of the monetary system established by Augustus and continued by Tiberius, but the contents of his coinage differed from theirs. The location of the imperial mint for the coins of precious metals (gold and silver) is a matter of debate among ancient numismatists. It seems that Caligula initially produced his precious coins from Lugdunum (now Lyon , France), like his predecessors, then moved

4056-430: A public embarrassment"; he mismanaged the statue commission and his first consulship ended soon after, alongside Caligula's but his appointment elevated him from mere equestrian to senator, and eligible for consulship. Barrett and Yardley describe Claudius' consulship as an "astonishingly enlightened gesture" on Caligula's part, not one of Caligula's attempts to court popularity, as Suetonius would have it. Caligula made

4225-441: A public show of burning Tiberius' secret papers, which gave details of his infamous treason trials. They included accusations of villainy and betrayal against various senators, many of whom had willingly assisted in prosecutions of their own number to gain financial advantage, imperial favour, or to divert suspicion away from themselves; any expression of dissatisfaction with the emperor's rule or decisions could be taken as undermining

4394-409: A purge of suspected opponents or conspirators. Caligula's relations with his senate had been congenial but were now sullied by the forced suicide, for reasons unknown, of the eminent senator Silanus, formerly Caligula's father-in-law. Gemellus, Caligula's adopted son and heir, now 18 years old and legally adult, was also disposed of. Suetonius offers several versions of Gemellus' death. In one, Gemellus

4563-408: A religious act for Rome, but a blasphemy for the Jews, and in conflict with Jewish monotheism. In this context, Philo wrote that Caligula "regarded the Jews with most especial suspicion, as if they were the only persons who cherished wishes opposed to his". In May of 40, Philo accompanied a deputation of Alexandrian Jews and Greeks to Caligula, and a second deputation after 31 August that year, during

4732-449: A remarriage would serve her personal ambition, and introduce yet another threat to himself. The last years of his principate were dominated by treason trials, whose outcomes were determined by senatorial vote. Agrippina, and Caligula's brother Nero, were tried and banished in the year 29 on charges of treason. The adolescent Caligula was sent to live with his great-grandmother (Tiberius' mother), Livia . After her death two years later, he

4901-604: A response aimed at one tyrant's offensive claims of personal godhood. Philo seems to have loathed Caligula from the start, but his belief that Caligula hated the Jews and was preparing their destruction has no basis in evidence. To place Caligula's statue in Temple precincts, showing him dressed as Jupiter, would have been consistent with the Empire-wide religious phenomenon known as Imperial cult , from whose full expression Jews had so far been exempted; they could offer prayer for

5070-567: A result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from late antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars. The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, also called Archaic or Early Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom , traditionally founded in 753 BC, through

5239-407: A separate language, existing more or less in parallel with the literary or educated Latin, but this is now widely dismissed. The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within the history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to

Principate - Misplaced Pages Continue

5408-423: A serious Jewish rebellion. In some versions, Caligula proved amenable to rational discussion with Agrippa and Jewish authorities, and faced with threats of rebellion, destruction of property and loss of the grain-harvest if the plan went ahead, abandoned the project. In more hostile versions Caligula, being demonstrably insane, and incapable of rational discussion, impulsively changed his mind once again, and reissued

5577-475: A single day, and with a single piece of legislation, the 25-year-old Caligula, previously a virtual unknown in Rome's political life, and with no military service, was thus granted the same trappings, authority and powers that Augustus had accumulated piecemeal, over a lifetime and sometimes reluctantly. Until his first formal meeting with the Senate, Caligula refrained from using the titles they had granted him. His studied deference must have gone some way to reassure

5746-709: A small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university. In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of Western culture . Canada's motto A mari usque ad mare ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross

5915-429: A sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech. Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus , which contain fragments of everyday speech, gives evidence of an informal register of the language, Vulgar Latin (termed sermo vulgi , "the speech of the masses", by Cicero ). Some linguists, particularly in the nineteenth century, believed this to be

6084-572: A spoken and written language by the scholarship by the Renaissance humanists . Petrarch and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by Isaac Casaubon , Joseph Scaliger and others. Nevertheless, despite

6253-432: A strictly left-to-right script. During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, from about 75 BC to AD 200, a new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature , which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools , which served as

6422-693: A vernacular, such as those of Descartes . Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language ) and later native or other languages. Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than

6591-411: Is Veritas ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue. Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name Helvetia on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages . For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code CH , which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica ,

6760-640: Is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend , this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules , the rocks on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence. In

6929-552: Is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously. The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from

Principate - Misplaced Pages Continue

7098-689: Is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin Pro Valore . Spain's motto Plus ultra , meaning "even further", or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and

7267-438: Is not known. Personal generosity and magnanimity, coupled with discretion and responsibility, were expected of the ruling elite, and the emperor in particular. At some time, Caligula ruled that bequests to office-holders remain property of the office, not of the office-holder. Suetonius claims that Caligula squandered 2.7 billion sesterces in his first year. and addressed the consequent treasury deficit by confiscating

7436-463: Is one of Dio's more confusing accounts, involving conspiracies, denunciations and trials for treason ( maiestas ), following Caligula's launch of invective at the entire senate, reviewing and condemning their current and past behaviour. He accused them of servility, treachery and hypocrisy in voting honours to Tiberius and Sejanus while they lived, and rescinding those honours once their recipients were safely dead. He declared that it would be folly to seek

7605-483: Is possible that Silanus had conspired to make Gemellus emperor, should Caligula fail to recover; and Caligula might simply have tired of Macro's control and influence. In 38, Caligula nominated Marcus Aemilius Lepidus as his heir, and married him to his beloved sister Drusilla, but on 19 June that year, Drusilla died. She was deified and renamed Panthea ("All Goddesses"); the first mortal woman in Roman history to be made

7774-486: Is said to have indulged the young man's appetite for theatre, dance and singing, in the hope that this would help soften his otherwise savage nature; "he used to say now and then that to allow Gaius to live would prove the ruin of himself and of all men, and that he was rearing a viper for the Roman people and a Phaethon for the world." Winterling points out that this judgment draws on later, not particularly accurate accounts of Caligula's rule; Suetonius credits Tiberius with

7943-1011: Is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico , the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium . Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it

8112-407: Is unsupported. Two of the five prospered under his rule, and beyond. Caligula preferred to publicly humiliate his enemies in the senate, especially those of ancient families, by stripping them of their inherited honours, dignities and titles. In early September, he dismissed the two suffect consuls, citing their inadequate, low-key celebration of his birthday (August 31) and excessive attention to

8281-543: The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy . About 270,000 inscriptions are known. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In

8450-544: The parmularius type, who fought using small, round shields. In chariot races, he supported the Greens , and personally drove his favourite racehorse, Incitatus ("Speedy") as a member of the Green faction. Most of Rome's aristocracy would have found this an unprecedented, unacceptable indignity for any of their number, let alone their emperor. Caligula showed little respect for distinctions of rank, status or privilege among

8619-493: The princeps senatus , traditionally the oldest or most honored member of the Senate , had the right to be heard first on any debate. Scipio Aemilianus and his circle had fostered the (quasi-Platonic) idea that authority should be invested in the worthiest citizen ( princeps ), who would beneficently guide his peers, an ideal of the patriot statesman later taken up by Cicero . In a more limited and precise chronological sense,

SECTION 50

#1732765251638

8788-609: The Antonine dynasty , it was standard for the Emperor to appoint a successful and politically promising individual as his successor. In modern historical analysis, this is treated by many authors as an "ideal" situation: the individual who was most capable was promoted to the position of princeps. Of the Antonine dynasty, Edward Gibbon famously wrote that this was the happiest and most productive period in human history , and credited

8957-583: The Holy See , the primary language of its public journal , the Acta Apostolicae Sedis , and the working language of the Roman Rota . Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language. There are

9126-783: The Indo-European languages . Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio ), the lower Tiber area around Rome , Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire . By the late Roman Republic , Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin . Vulgar Latin refers to

9295-574: The Middle Ages , borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest , through the Anglo-Norman language . From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed " inkhorn terms ", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by

9464-576: The Roman Rite of the Catholic Church at the Vatican City . The church continues to adapt concepts from modern languages to Ecclesiastical Latin of the Latin language. Contemporary Latin is more often studied to be read rather than spoken or actively used. Latin has greatly influenced the English language , along with a large number of others, and historically contributed many words to

9633-569: The Romance languages . During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as Curse tablets and those found as graffiti . In the Late Latin period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts. As it

9802-636: The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses. While the written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish , Portuguese , French , Italian , and Romanian . Despite dialectal variation, which

9971-637: The British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history. Several states of the United States have Latin mottos , such as: Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as: Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as: Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University 's motto

10140-534: The Capitol. Barrett (2015) believes that this bridge existed only in Suetonius' account, and should perhaps be dismissed as a fantasy, with possible origins in some jocular remark by Caligula. Caligula began an amphitheatre beside the Saepta Julia ; he cleared the latter space for use as an arena, and filled it with water for a single naumachia (a sham naval battle fought as entertainment). He supervised

10309-600: The Elder considered to be engineering marvels. He built a large racetrack, now known as the Circus of Gaius and Nero . In its central spine he incorporated an Egyptian obelisk, now known as the Vatican obelisk , which he had brought by sea on a gigantic, purpose-built ship, which used 120,000 modi of lentils as ballast. At Syracuse , he repaired the city walls and temples. He pushed to keep roads in good condition throughout

SECTION 60

#1732765251638

10478-487: The Elder, and the most common is an as with his grandfather Agrippa . Finally, Caligula kept open the mint at Caesarea in Cappadocia , which had been created by Tiberius, in order to pay military expenses in the province with silver drachmae . Numismatists Harold Mattingly and Edward Sydenham consider that the artistic style of Caligula's coins is below those of Tiberius and Claudius; they especially criticize

10647-521: The Empire from there as a divine monarch, a Roman pharaoh . Very similar rumours attended Julius Caesar's last days, up to his assassination and very much to his discredit. Caligula's ancestor Mark Antony took refuge in Egypt with Cleopatra, and Augustus had made it a so-called " Imperial province ", under his direct control. It was the main source of Italy's grain supply , and was administered by members of

10816-613: The English lexicon , particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest . Latin and Ancient Greek roots are heavily used in English vocabulary in theology , the sciences , medicine , and law . A number of phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As

10985-599: The Grinch Stole Christmas! , The Cat in the Hat , and a book of fairy tales, " fabulae mirabiles ", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook . Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series,

11154-502: The Praetorian guard at Misenum . His leadership of the domus Caesaris ("Caesar's household") as its sole heir and pater familias was ratified by the senate, who acclaimed him imperator two days after the death of Tiberius. Caligula entered Rome on 28 or 29 March, and with the consensus of "the three orders" (senate, equestrians and common citizens) the Senate conferred on him the "right and power to decide on all affairs". In

11323-654: The Roman Empire and Judaea was ruled as a Roman client kingdom. Jews and Greeks had settled in Egypt following its conquest by Macedonian Greeks, and remained there after its conquest by Rome. While the Alexandrian Greeks held citizen status, Alexandrian Jews were classified as mere settlers, with no statutory or citizen rights other than those granted them by their Roman governors. The Greeks feared that official recognition of Jews as citizens would undermine their own status and privilege. Caligula had replaced

11492-471: The Roman state under Claudius. The temple had been vowed in her lifetime, but not constructed. Between approximately mid-October and mid-November 37, Caligula fell seriously ill through unknown causes and hovered for a month or so between life and death. Rome's public places filled with citizens who implored the gods for his recovery, some even offering their own lives in exchange. By late October, their emperor had recovered, and embarked on what might have been

11661-548: The Senate outright refused to accept this, Caligula restored control of elections to them. Either way, the emperor ultimately chose which candidates stood for election, and which were elected. Caligula was quite capable of recognising his own plans and decisions as flawed, and abandoning, revising or reversing them when faced with opposition. He was open to good advice, but could just as easily take its offering as an insult to his youth or understanding – Philo quotes his warning "Who dares teach me?" Caligula abandoned his plan to convert

11830-575: The Senate proposed that his senatorial chair be raised "on a high platform even in the very Senate house". They offered a thanksgiving to Caligula, as to a monarch, expressing gratitude for allowing them to live when others had died. Winterling suggests that Caligula's three subsequent consulships, sworn at the Rostra , were vain attempts to make amends, public statements of respect for the senators as his equals. Barrett perceives these later consulships as symbolic of Caligula's continued intention to dominate

11999-420: The Senate, Marcus Junius Silanus . Caligula was given an honorary quaestorship in the cursus honorum , a series of political promotions that could lead to consulship . He would hold this very junior senatorial post until his sudden nomination as emperor. Junia died in childbirth the following year, along with her baby. In 35, Tiberius named Caligula as joint heir with Tiberius' grandson, Gemellus, who

12168-441: The Senate; Barrett speculates that Caligula may have intended the whole event as an object lesson on how completely he was in charge: it may also provide "the most striking example of his wasteful extravagance"; its pointlessness might have been the whole point. Caligula's reign saw an increase of tensions between Jews native to their homeland of Judea , Jews of the diaspora, and ethnic Greeks. Greeks and Jews had settled throughout

12337-465: The State, and lead to prosecution for maiestas (treason). Caligula claimed – falsely, as it later turned out – that he had read none of these documents before burning them. He used a coin issue to advertise his claim that he had restored the security of the laws, which had suffered during Tiberius' prolonged absence from Rome; he reduced a backlog of court cases in Rome by adding more jurors and suspending

12506-543: The Temple of Jerusalem to a temple of the Imperial cult, with a statue of himself as Zeus, when warned that the plan would arouse extreme protests, and injure the local economy. He gave funds where they were needed; he helped those who lost property in fires, and abolished a deeply unpopular tax on sales, but whether his extravagant gifts to favourites during his earliest reign – be they actors, charioteers or other public performers – drew on his personal wealth or state coffers

12675-467: The United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was E pluribus unum meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the Great Seal . It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from

12844-563: The University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University. There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Misplaced Pages has more than 130,000 articles. Italian , French , Portuguese , Spanish , Romanian , Catalan , Romansh , Sardinian and other Romance languages are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin borrowings in English and Albanian , as well as

13013-408: The anniversary of Actium (September 2). This was the last battle in a damaging civil war between two of Caligula's close ancestors, which he found no cause for celebration. One of the dismissed consuls killed himself: Caligula may have suspected him of conspiracy. Suetonius and Dio outline Caligula's supposed proposal to promote his favourite racehorse, Incitatus ("Swift"), to consul , and later,

13182-470: The applause of the populace. A few months later, Germanicus was despatched to tour Rome's allies and provinces with his family. They were received with great honour; at Assos Caligula gave a public speech, aged only 6. Somewhere en route , Germanicus contracted what proved to be a fatal illness. He lingered awhile, and died at Antioch , Syria , in AD ;19, aged 33, convinced that he had been poisoned by

13351-496: The attention of the soldiers, to whom he was something of a mascot, though he later grew to dislike the nickname. Germanicus was a respected, immensely popular figure among his troops and Roman civilians of every class, and was widely expected to eventually succeed his uncle Tiberius as emperor. For his successful northern campaigns, he was awarded the great honour of a triumph . During the triumphal procession through Rome, Caligula and his siblings shared their father's chariot, and

13520-568: The author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French . Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies. Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Caligula Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula ( / k ə ˈ l ɪ ɡ j ʊ l ə / ),

13689-621: The beginning of his reign. Caligula minted a quadrans , a small bronze coin, to mark the abolition of the ducentesima , a 0.5% tax on sales. The output of the precious metal mints was small and his sesterces were mostly made in limited quantities, which make his coins now very rare. This rarity cannot be attributed to Caligula's alleged damnatio memoriae reported by Dio, as removing his coins from circulation would have been impossible; besides, Mark Antony 's coins continued to circulate for two centuries after his death. Caligula's common coins are base metal types with Vesta , Germanicus, and Agrippina

13858-425: The benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics . The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin. Parts of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana are written in Latin. Enya has recorded several tracks with Latin lyrics. The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin

14027-512: The bridge is unclear; Winterling believes that it might have been intended to mark Caligula's attempted invasion of Britain. A two-day ceremonial was performed, with offerings to the sea-god Neptune and Invidia (Envy), and a satisfactory result, in that the sea remained completely calm. The bridge was said to rival the Persian king Xerxes' pontoon bridge across the Hellespont . For

14196-409: The careful work of Petrarch, Politian and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following. Neo-Latin literature was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name

14365-544: The city's Greek population. Caligula held Flaccus responsible for the disturbances, exiled him, and eventually executed him. In 39, Agrippa accused his uncle Herod Antipas , the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea , of planning a rebellion against Roman rule with the help of Parthia . Herod Antipas confessed, Caligula exiled him, and Agrippa was rewarded with his territories. Riots again erupted in Alexandria in 40 between Jews and Greeks, when Jews who refused to venerate

14534-415: The classicised Latin that followed through to the present are often grouped together as Neo-Latin , or New Latin, which have in recent decades become a focus of renewed study , given their importance for the development of European culture, religion and science. The vast majority of written Latin belongs to this period, but its full extent is unknown. The Renaissance reinforced the position of Latin as

14703-590: The conspirators might have planned this as an opportunity to restore the Roman Republic and aristocratic privileges; but if so, their plan was thwarted by the Praetorians, who seem to have spontaneously chosen Caligula's uncle Claudius as the next emperor. Caligula's death marked the official end of the Julii Caesares in the male line, though the Julio-Claudian dynasty continued to rule until

14872-676: The construction of two aqueducts in Rome: the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus . During his reign, the empire annexed the client kingdom of Mauretania as a province . He had to abandon an attempted invasion of Britain, and the installation of his statue in the Temple of Jerusalem. In early 41, Caligula was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy by officers of the Praetorian Guard , senators , and courtiers. At least some of

15041-415: The consulars themselves. An aristocrat's highest ambition, the consulship, could be laid open to ruinous competition and at the same time, to ridicule. David Woods believes it unlikely that Caligula meant to insult the post of consul, as he had held it himself. Suetonius, possibly failing to get the joke, presents it as further proof of Caligula's insanity, adding circumstantial details more usually expected of

15210-407: The cost of Caligula's extravagant bridge-building project at Baiae. Suetonius has presumably the same financial crisis starting in 38; he does not mention a bridge but lists a broad range of Caligula's extravagances, said to have exhausted the state treasury. To Wilkinson, Caligula's uninterrupted use of precious metals in coin issues does not suggest a bankrupt treasury, though there must have been

15379-465: The country's full Latin name. Some film and television in ancient settings, such as Sebastiane , The Passion of the Christ and Barbarians (2020 TV series) , have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost (" Jughead "). Subtitles are usually shown for

15548-503: The decline in written Latin output. Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world. The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church . The Catholic Church required that Mass be carried out in Latin until the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 , which permitted the use of the vernacular . Latin remains

15717-495: The deified Augustus; their powers were entirely ceremonial, not executive, but their names were included in the standard formulas used in the senate house to invoke divine blessings on debates and proceedings, and the annual prayers for the safety of emperor and state. Caligula named his favourite sister, Drusilla, as heir to his imperium . Oaths were sworn in the name of Caligula, and his entire family. One of his sesterces not only identifies each sister by name, but associates her with

15886-526: The demise of Caligula's nephew, the Emperor Nero . Caligula was born in Antium on 31 August AD 12, the third of six surviving children of Germanicus and his wife and second cousin, Agrippina the Elder . Germanicus was a grandson of Mark Antony , and Agrippina was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder , making her the granddaughter of Augustus . The future emperor Claudius

16055-440: The destruction of his family is taken by Tacitus as evidence that his "monstrous character was masked by a hypocritical modesty". Winterling observes that a forthright protest would "certainly have cost him his life". In 33, Caligula's mother and his brother Drusus died, while still in exile. In the same year, Tiberius arranged the marriage of Caligula and Junia Claudilla , daughter of one of Tiberius' most influential allies in

16224-576: The division by the Augustan Principate of the provinces between imperial provinces and senatorial provinces . Lawyers developed a theory of the total delegation of authority into the hands of the emperor. Latin Latin ( lingua Latina , pronounced [ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna] , or Latinum [ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃] ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of

16393-528: The educated and official world, Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin

16562-480: The elite in any public spectacles, but the ban was never particularly effective, and was broadly ignored in Caligula's reign. During Caligula's illness two citizens, one of whom was an equestrian, offered to fight as gladiators if only the gods would spare the emperor's life. The offers were insincere, intended to flatter and invite reward. When Caligula recovered, he insisted that they be taken at face value, to avoid accusations of perjury: "cynical, but not without wit of

16731-590: The emperor as a god were accused of dishonouring him. In the Judaean city of Jamnia , resident Greeks built a shoddy, sub-standard altar to the Imperial cult , intending to provoke a reaction from the Jews; they immediately tore it down. This was interpreted as an act of rebellion. In response, Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem , a political, rather than

16900-414: The emperor, rather than to him; far from a perfect compromise but the highest honour that Jewish tradition permitted in honour of a mortal. Caligula found this most unsatisfactory, and demanded that his statue be installed in the Temple of Jerusalem forthwith. The Governor of Syria, Publius Petronius , ordered a statue from Sidon , then postponed its installation for as long he could, rather than risk

17069-406: The empire, and extended the existing network: to this end, Caligula investigated the financial affairs of current and past highway commissioners. Those guilty of negligence, embezzlement or misuse of funds were forced to repay what they had dishonestly used for other purposes, or fulfil their commissions at their own expense. Caligula planned to rebuild the palace of Polycrates at Samos, to finish

17238-488: The equestrian order, directly responsible to the ruling emperor. Egypt was, more or less, Caligula's property, to dispose of as he wished. Roman knowledge of pharaonic brother-sister marriages to maintain the royal bloodline would have shored up the many flimsy, scandalised allegations of adolescent incest between Caligula and Drusilla, supposedly discovered by Antonia but reported as rumour, and only by Suetonius. Barrett finds no further evidence for these allegations, and advises

17407-410: The estates of wealthy individuals, after false accusations, fines or outright seizure, even the death penalty, as a means of raising money. This seems to have started in earnest around the time of Caligula's confrontation with the senate (in early 39). Suetonius's retrospective balance sheet overlooks what would have been owed to Caligula, personally and in his capacity as emperor, on Tiberius' death, and

17576-429: The exhausting civil wars by a de facto dictatorial regime within the constitutional framework of the Roman Republic – what Gibbon called "an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth" – as a more acceptable alternative to, for example, the early Roman Kingdom . Although dynastic pretenses crept in from the start, formalizing this in a monarchic style remained politically perilous; and Octavian

17745-460: The extension and rebuilding of the imperial palace to include a gallery for his art collection. Philo and his party were given a tour of the gallery during their diplomatic visit. Barrett (2015) considers Philo's description of Caligula as a "would-be connoisseur and aesthete" as "probably not very wide of the mark." To help meet Rome' burgeoning demand for fresh water, he began the construction of aqueducts Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus , which Pliny

17914-534: The extensive emphasis on his relatives was to highlight Caligula's double claim to the Principate, from both the Julian and Claudian sides of the dynasty, and to call for the unity of the family. The sesterce with his three sisters was discontinued after 39, due to Caligula's suspicion regarding their loyalty. He also made a sesterce celebrating the Praetorian cohorts as a mean to give them the bequest of Tiberius at

18083-403: The fabric of roads and shrines, would now have incentive to spend their own money on lavish, high-profile spectacles and other munera (gifts to the state or people), to win the popular vote. Dio writes that this, "though delighting the rabble, grieved the sensible, who stopped to reflect, that if the offices should fall once more into the hands of the many... many disasters would result". When

18252-458: The fatherland"), which had been conferred on Augustus. Caligula refused it, protesting his youth, until 21 September 37. He commemorated his own father, Germanicus, with portraits on coinage, adopted his name, and renamed the month of September after him. He granted his sisters and his grandmother Antonia Minor extraordinary privileges, normally reserved for the Vestals , and female priesthoods of

18421-485: The hiring of slaves", edibles sold in the city, litigation anywhere in the Empire, weddings or marriages, the wages of porters "or perhaps couriers", and most infamously, a tax on prostitutes (active, retired or married) or their pimps, liable for "a sum equivalent to a single transaction". Citizens of provincial Italy lost their previous tax exemptions. Most individual tax bills were fairly small but cumulative; over Caligula's brief reign, taxes were doubled overall. Even then,

18590-703: The invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library , published by Harvard University Press , or the Oxford Classical Texts , published by Oxford University Press . Latin translations of modern literature such as: The Hobbit , Treasure Island , Robinson Crusoe , Paddington Bear , Winnie the Pooh , The Adventures of Tintin , Asterix , Harry Potter , Le Petit Prince , Max and Moritz , How

18759-704: The language of the Roman Rite . The Tridentine Mass (also known as the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI (also known as the Ordinary Form or the Novus Ordo) is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of

18928-440: The large areas where it had come to be natively spoken. However, even after the fall of Western Rome , Latin remained the common language of international communication , science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage. Late Latin is the literary language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as

19097-467: The late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode. It then became increasingly taught only to be read. Latin grammar is highly fusional , with classes of inflections for case , number , person , gender , tense , mood , voice , and aspect . The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets . Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and

19266-431: The later part of the Roman Republic , up to 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin . It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of the earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence . The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet . The writing later changed from what was initially either a right-to-left or a boustrophedon script to what ultimately became

19435-412: The laws") required the exercise of personal responsibility, self-restraint, and above all, tact; as if the Senate still held the power they had voluntarily surrendered. In Barrett's words, "Caligula would be restrained only by his own sense of discretion, which became in lamentably short supply as his reign progressed". Caligula dutifully asked the Senate to approve divine honours for his predecessor but

19604-421: The less prestigious colloquial registers , attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius . While often called a "dead language" , Latin did not undergo language death . By the 6th to 9th centuries, natural language change eventually resulted in Latin as a vernacular language evolving into distinct Romance languages in

19773-435: The love or approval of such men: they hated him, and wanted him dead, so it would be better that they should fear him. Caligula's diatribes exposed the idealised princeps or First Senator as illusion and imposture. When the senate returned next day, they seemed to confirm his suspicions, and voted him a special guard of armed pretorians to protect him and guard his statues. Apparently seeking to please him and assure his safety,

19942-453: The mint to Rome in 37–38, although it is possible that this move occurred later, under Nero. His base metal coinage was struck in Rome. Unlike Tiberius, whose coins remained almost unchanged throughout his reign, Caligula used a variety of types, mostly featuring Divus Augustus , as well as his parents Germanicus and Agrippina, his dead brothers Nero and Drusus , and his three sisters Agrippina , Drusilla , and Livilla . The reason for

20111-406: The more astute that he should prove amenable to their guidance. Some must have resented the political manipulations that led to this extraordinary settlement. Caligula was now entitled to make, break or ignore any laws he chose. Augustus had shown, and Tiberius had failed to realise, that the roles of primus inter pares ("first among equals") and princeps legibus solutus ("a princeps not bound by

20280-452: The necessary funds, to complete the humiliation of Rome's elite, especially the old Republican families. Despite his biographers' attempts to ridicule Caligula's taxes, many were continued after his death. The military remained responsible for all tax collection, and the tax on prostitution continued up to the reign of Severus Alexander . Caligula's ruling that bequests made to any reigning emperor became property of his office, not himself as

20449-408: The nobility and senate, long after the events they purport to describe. For the early part of his reign, he is said to have been "good, generous, fair and community-spirited" but increasingly self-indulgent, cruel, sadistic, extravagant and sexually perverted thereafter; an insane, murderous tyrant who demanded and received worship as a living god, humiliated his Senate, and planned to make his horse

20618-557: The opening ceremony, Caligula donned the supposed breastplate of Alexander the Great , and rode his favourite horse, Incitatus , across the bridge, perhaps defying a prediction, attributed by Suetonius to Tiberius' soothsayer Thrasyllus of Mendes , that Caligula had "no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae". On the second day, he rode the bridge from end to end several times "at full tilt", accompanied by

20787-436: The order to Petronius along with the threat of enforced suicide if he failed. An even larger statue of Caligula-Zeus was ordered from Rome; the ship carrying it was still under way when news of Caligula's death reached Petronius. Caligula's plan was abandoned, Petronius survived and the statue was never installed. Philo reports a rumour that in 40, Caligula announced to the Senate that he planned to move to Alexandria, and rule

20956-519: The order's membership lists for signs of dishonesty or scandal. He seems to have ignored trivial misdemeanours, and would have anticipated the creation of "new men" ( novi homines ), first of their families to serve as senators. They would owe him a debt of gratitude and loyalty for their advancement. Barrett describes some of the supposed equestrian offences punished by Caligula as "decidedly trivial", and their punishments as sensationalist. Dio claims that Caligula had more than 26 equestrians executed in

21125-413: The other varieties, as it was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire. Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing. For many Italians using Latin, though, there

21294-426: The political period of the 'uncrowned' Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) under the motto Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and people of Rome") or SPQR . Initially, the theory implied the 'first citizen' had to earn his extraordinary position ( de facto evolving to nearly absolute monarchy) by merit in the style that Augustus himself had gained the position of auctoritas . Imperial propaganda developed

21463-408: The portraits, which are too hard and lack details. Caligula had a fondness for grandiose, costly building projects, many of which were intended to benefit or entertain the general population but are described in Roman sources as wasteful. In the city of Rome, he completed the temple of Augustus and the theatre of Pompey . He is said to have built a bridge between the temple of Castor and Pollux and

21632-478: The prefect of Egypt, Aulus Avilius Flaccus , with Herod Agrippa , who was governor of Batanaea and Trachonitis , and was a personal friend. Flaccus had conspired against Caligula's mother and had connections with Egyptian separatists. In 38, Caligula sent Agrippa to Alexandria unannounced to check on Flaccus. According to Philo, the visit was met with jeers and mockery from the Greek population who saw Agrippa as

21801-789: The provincial governor, Gnaius Calpurnius Piso . Many believed that he had been killed at the behest of Tiberius, as a potential rival. Germanicus was cremated, and his ashes were taken to Rome, escorted by his wife and children, Pretorian guards , civilian mourners and senators, then placed in the Mausoleum of Augustus . Caligula lived with his mother Agrippina in Rome, in a milieu very different from that of his earlier years. Agrippina made no secret of her imperial ambitions for herself and her sons, and in consequence, her relations with Tiberius rapidly deteriorated. Tiberius believed himself under constant threat from treason, conspiracy and political rivalry. He forbade Agrippina to remarry, for fear that

21970-553: The public and charitable institutions also served as popularity boosters, while the construction of public works provided paid employment for the poor. With the fall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in AD 68, the principate became more formalized under the Emperor Vespasian from AD 69 onwards. The position of princeps became a distinct entity within the broader – formally still republican – Roman constitution . While many of

22139-437: The release of the former emperor's hoarded wealth into the economy at large. Caligula's inheritance included the deceased empress Livia 's vast bequest, which Caligula distributed among its nominated public, private and religious beneficiaries. Barrett (2015) asserts that this "massive cash injection would have given the Roman economy a tremendous boost". Dio remarks the beginnings of a financial crisis in 39, and connects it to

22308-477: The requirement that sentences be confirmed by imperial office. Stressing his descent from Augustus, Caligula retrieved the remains of his mother and brothers from their places of exile for interment in the Mausoleum of Augustus. Caligula began work on a temple to Livia , widow of Augustus; she held the honorific title of Augusta while still living, and when she died was eventually made a diva (goddess) of

22477-527: The revenue was nowhere near enough, and the imposition was deeply resented by Rome's commoners. Josephus claims that this led to riotous protests at the Circus. Barrett remarks that stories of consequent "mass executions" there by the military should "almost certainly" be dismissed as "standard exaggeration". Property or money left to Tiberius as emperor but not collected on his death would have passed to Caligula as office-holder. Roman inheritance law recognised

22646-517: The same cultural and political expectations remained, the civilian aspect of the Augustan ideal of the princeps gradually gave way to the military role of the imperator. Rule was no longer a position (even notionally) extended on the basis of merit, or auctoritas , but on a firmer basis, allowing Vespasian and future emperors to designate their own heir without those heirs having to earn the position through years of success and public favor. Under

22815-645: The senate and the state; Barrett describes the change in Caligula's rule as a gradual unravelling, a "descent into serious mismanagement and impenetrable mistrust" – and, latterly, into "arbitrary terror"; but Dio's claim that in fact, "there was nothing but slaughter" is undermined by evidence that most senators managed to survive Caligula's reign with their persons and fortunes intact. Caligula had not, after all, destroyed Tiberius' records of treason trials. He reviewed them and decided that numerous senators discharged from Tiberius' court hearings seemed to have been guilty of conspiracy all along, against emperor and State –

22984-428: The senate from the sumptuary laws that limited the number of gladiators to be kept in Rome. He was openly and vocally partisan in his uninhibited support or disapproval of particular charioteers, racing teams, gladiators and actors, shouting encouragement or scorn, sometimes singing along with paid performers or declaiming the actors' lines, and generally behaving as "one of the crowd". In gladiator contests, he supported

23153-432: The senate, whose members Tiberius had once described as "men ready to be slaves". Among those whom Caligula recalled from exile were actors and other public performers who had somehow caused Tiberius offence. Caligula seems to have built a loyal following among his own loyal freedmen , citizen-commoners, disreputable public performers on whom he lavished money and other gifts; and the lower nobility (equestrians) rather than

23322-555: The senatorial nobility, including palaces, servants and golden goblets, and invitations to banquets. In 39 or 40, by Suetonius' reckoning, Caligula ordered a temporary floating bridge to be built using a double line of ships as pontoons , earth-paved and stretching for over two miles from the resort of Baiae , near Naples , to the neighbouring port of Puteoli , with resting places between. Some ships were built on site but grain ships were also requisitioned, brought to site, secured and temporarily resurfaced. Any practical purpose for

23491-429: The senators and nobles whom he clearly and openly mistrusted, despised and humiliated for their insincere simulations of loyalty. Dio notes, with approval, that Caligula allowed some equestrians senatorial honours, anticipating their later promotion to senator based on their personal merits. To reverse declining membership of the equestrian order, Caligula recruited new, wealthy members empire-wide, and scrupulously vetted

23660-534: The servant of the Senate, and often of the whole citizen body". Thereafter, however, the role of princeps became more institutionalized: as Dio Cassius puts it, Caligula "took in one day all the honours which Augustus had with difficulty been induced to accept". Nevertheless, under this "Principate stricto sensu ", the political reality of autocratic rule by the Emperor was still scrupulously masked by forms and conventions of oligarchic self-rule inherited from

23829-477: The soldiery, famous nobles and hostages. Seneca and Dio claim that grain imports were dangerously depleted by Caligula's re-purposing of Rome's grain ships as pontoons. Barrett finds these accusations absurd; if the bridge was finished in 39, that was far too early to have had any effect on the annual grain supply, and "a genuine grain crisis was simply blamed on the most outlandish episode at hand." Dio places this episode soon after Caligula's furious denunciation of

23998-435: The source) up to the rule of Commodus , of Maximinus Thrax , or of Diocletian . The title, in full, of princeps senatus / princeps civitatis ("first amongst the senators" / "first amongst the citizens") was first adopted by Octavian Caesar Augustus (27 BC–AD 14), the first Roman "emperor" who chose not to reintroduce a legal monarchy . Augustus likely intended to establish political stability desperately needed after

24167-402: The state. Stories of a brothel in the Imperial palace, staffed by Roman aristocrats, matrons and their children, are taken literally by Suetonius and Dio; McGinn believes they could be based on a single incident, extended to an institution in the telling. Similar allegations would be made in the future against Commodus and Elagabalus . Winterling, citing Dio 59.28.9, traces the outline of

24336-724: The story to Cassius Dio's account for AD 40, and his allegation that the noble tenants of newly built suites of rooms at the palace were compelled to pay exorbitant rents for the privilege of living so close to Caligula, and under the protection of the praetorians. No brothel is mentioned in this account. Suetonius appears to reverse the traditional aristocratic client-patron ceremonies of mutual obligation, and have Caligula accepting payments for maintenance from his loyal consular "friends" at morning salutations, evening banquets, and bequest announcements. The sheer numbers of "friends" involved meant that meticulous records were kept of who had paid, how much, and who still owed. His agents would then visit

24505-607: The system of succession as the key factor. The autocratic elements in the Principate tended to increase over time. It was after the Crisis of the Third Century , which almost resulted in the Roman Empire's political collapse, that Diocletian firmly consolidated the trend to autocracy. He replaced the one-headed principate with the Tetrarchy ( c.  AD 300 , two Augusti ranking above two Caesares ), in which

24674-586: The temple of Didymaean Apollo at Ephesus , and house his own cult and image there: and to found a city high up in the Alps . He intended to dig a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece and sent a chief centurion to survey the site. None of these plans came to fruition. In the course of 39, Caligula's increasingly tense relationship with his Senate deteriorated into outright hostility and confrontation. This

24843-564: The term Principate is applied either to the entire Empire (in the sense of the post-Republican Roman state), or specifically to the earlier of the two phases of Imperial government in the ancient Roman Empire before Rome's military collapse in the West ( fall of Rome ) in 476 left the Byzantine Empire as sole heir. This early Principate phase began when Augustus claimed auctoritas for himself as princeps , and continued (depending on

25012-545: The times, and the observers: Tiberius , who amassed a huge surplus for the city of Rome , was criticized as a miser, while his successor Caligula was criticized for his lavish spending on games and spectacles. Generally speaking, it was expected of the Emperor to be generous but not frivolous, not just as a good ruler but also with his personal fortune (as in the proverbial "bread and circuses" – panem et circenses ) providing occasional public games, gladiators, chariot races and artistic shows. Large distributions of food for

25181-476: The troops upon their ascension and for special events; limiting senatorial control over the legions by way of controlling military provinces through "extraordinary military commands"; and using oaths to bind the military to the emperor personally. Tiberius , like Augustus , also acquired his powers piecemeal, and was proud to emphasize his place as first citizen: "a good and healthful princeps , whom you have invested with such great discretionary power, ought to be

25350-464: The very same consuls who had been involved in conspiracies against him, rail against the Senate's treachery en masse but ask for "gifts" from individuals to express their loyal friendship in return. A refusal was unthinkable. Winterling describes the families who occupied these rooms as hostage, under the supervision of the Praetorians; some paid up willingly, some reluctantly, but all paid. Caligula made loans available at high interest to those who lacked

25519-415: The vestigial pretense of the old republican forms was largely abandoned. The title of princeps disappeared, together with the concept of only one emperor. New forms of pomp and awe were deliberately used in an attempt to insulate the emperor(s) and the civil authority from the unbridled and mutinous soldiery of the mid-century. The political role of the Senate went into final eclipse, no more being heard of

25688-578: The worst form of maiestas (treason). Tiberius' treason trials had encouraged professional delatores (informers), who were loathed by the populace, but many of the accused had testified against each other, and against Caligula's own family, even to the point of initiating the prosecutions themselves. If they had acted against Caligula's family, they might act against Caligula himself. New investigations were launched; Dio names five once-trusted, consular senators tried for maiestas , but his allegation that senators or others were put to death in "great numbers"

25857-628: The worst of the Alexandrian riots. Neither of these encounters proved decisive. Both gave Caligula ample opportunity for casual, friendly banter, which seems to have included humiliating levity, always at the Jewish delegation's expense; but he made no claims of divinity, either in his dress nor his speech, merely asking at the second encounter, more or less rhetorically, why Jews found his veneration so difficult. Philo and Josephus each saw Caligula's behaviour as driven by his claims to divinity, which for

26026-767: Was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in AD 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus ' granddaughter Agrippina the Elder , members of the first ruling family of the Roman Empire . He was born two years before Tiberius was made emperor. Gaius accompanied his father, mother and siblings on campaign in Germania , at little more than four or five years old. He had been named after Gaius Julius Caesar , but his father's soldiers affectionately nicknamed him "Caligula" ('little boot'). Germanicus died in Antioch in 19, and Agrippina returned with her six children to Rome, where she became entangled in

26195-646: Was Caligula's junior by seven years and not yet an adult. At the time, Tiberius seemed to be in good health, and likely to survive until Gemellus' majority. In Philo's account, Tiberius was genuinely fond of Gemellus, but doubted his personal capacity to rule and feared for his safety should Caligula come to power. Suetonius claims that Tiberius, ever mistrustful but still shrewd in his mid-70s, saw through Caligula's apparent self-possession to an underlying "erratic and unreliable" temperament, not one to be trusted in government; and he claims that Caligula took pleasure in cruelty, torture, and sexual vice of every kind. Tiberius

26364-567: Was Caligula's paternal uncle. Caligula had two older brothers, Nero and Drusus , and three younger sisters, Agrippina the Younger , Julia Drusilla and Julia Livilla . At the age of two or three, he accompanied his father, Germanicus, on campaigns in the north of Germania . He wore a miniature soldier's outfit devised by his mother to please the troops, including army boots ( caligae ) and armour. The soldiers nicknamed him Caligula ("little boot"). Winterling believes he would have enjoyed

26533-495: Was a "brilliantly stage-managed affair". The legions had already sworn loyalty to Caligula as their imperator. Now Caligula gave the miserly Tiberius a magnificent funeral at public expense, and a tearful eulogy, and met with an ecstatic popular reception along the funeral route and in Rome itself. Among Caligula's first acts as emperor was the provision of public games on a grand scale. Philo describes Caligula in these early days as universally admired. Suetonius writes that Caligula

26702-601: Was befriended by Tiberius' Praetorian prefect , Naevius Sutorius Macro . Macro had been active in the downfall of Sejanus , his ambitious and manipulative predecessor in office, and was a trusted communicant between the emperor, and his senate in Rome. Philo , Jewish diplomat and later witness to several events in Caligula's court, writes that Macro protected and supported Caligula, allaying any suspicions Tiberius might harbour concerning his young ward's ambitions. Macro represented Caligula to Tiberius as "friendly, obedient" and devoted to Tiberius' grandson, Tiberius Gemellus , who

26871-518: Was due in part to their immense wealth, being named Pater Patriae or "father of the country " , and by having a monopoly on political power. To this, emperors would satisfy the senatorial class with appointments to the high offices and to the provinces, effectively removing threats to their power in Rome . As such, emperors went to great lengths to control and satisfy the needs of the army (their ultimate source of power) by proving gracious donatives to

27040-413: Was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, Romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages . Late Latin is a kind of written Latin used in the 3rd to 6th centuries. This began to diverge from Classical forms at

27209-414: Was given the adult toga virilis then charged with having taken an antidote, "implicitly accusing Caligula of wanting to poison him", and forced to kill himself. Several months later, in early 38, Caligula forced suicide on his Praetorian Prefect, Macro, without whose help and protection he would not have survived, let alone gained the throne as sole ruler. Any link between the deaths is speculative, but it

27378-557: Was loved by many, for being the beloved son of the popular Germanicus. Three months of public rejoicing ushered in the new reign. Philo describes the first seven months of Caligula's reign as a " Golden Age " of happiness and prosperity. Josephus claims that in the first two years of his reign, Caligula's "high-minded... even-handed" rule earned him goodwill throughout the Empire. Caligula took up his first consulship on 1 July, two months after his succession. He accepted all titles and honours offered him except pater patriae ("father of

27547-496: Was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore, the meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail. Renaissance Latin, 1300 to 1500, and

27716-441: Was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into the beginning of the Renaissance . Petrarch for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language. Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed, that is from around 700 to 1500 AD. The spoken language had developed into the various Romance languages; however, in

27885-465: Was sent to live with his grandmother Antonia Minor . In the year 30, Tiberius had Caligula's brothers, Drusus and Nero, declared public enemies by the Senate, and exiled. Caligula and his three sisters remained in Italy as hostages of Tiberius, kept under close watch. In 31, Caligula's brother Nero died in exile. Caligula was remanded to the personal care of Tiberius at Villa Jovis on Capri . He

28054-421: Was seven years younger than himself. Caligula is described during this time as a first-rate orator, well-informed, cultured and intelligent, a natural actor who recognized the danger he was in, and hid his resentment of Tiberius' maltreatment of himself and his family behind such an obsequious manner that it was said of him that there had never been "a better slave or a worse master". Caligula's failure to protest

28223-482: Was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin. A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin 'circuli' ('circles'), have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin. Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include

28392-631: Was turned down, in line with senatorial and popular opinion regarding the dead emperor's worth. Caligula did not push the issue; he had made the necessary gesture of filial respect. Tiberius' will named two heirs, Caligula and Gemellus, but the latter was still a minor, and could not hold any kind of office. The will was annulled with the standard justification that Tiberius must have been insane when he composed it, incapable of good judgment. Although Tiberius' will had been legally set aside, Caligula honoured many of its terms, and in some cases, improved on them. Tiberius had provided each praetorian guardsman with

28561-418: Was undoubtedly correct to work through established Republican forms to consolidate his power. He began with the powers of a Roman consul , combined with those of a Tribune of the plebs ; later added the role of the censor and finally became pontifex maximus as well. In addition to these legal powers, the principate was also characterized by the emperor being the " ultimate source of patronage ". This

#637362