Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 90:359 (Jul 1933)
Article: The First Twelve Roman Emperors
Author: E. G. Sihler

BSac 90:359 (July 1933) p. 331

The First Twelve Roman Emperors

E. G. Sihler

II.

Gaius Caligula

(37–41 A.D.)

It is not my aim in these studies to rewrite the history of the first 12 Emperors, a work admirably done by Merivale and Schiller. I lay stress on certain features in the events and dominant personalities, which may aid the Christian reader to realize the abyss between the secular government and pagan court at Rome, and the faith, life and worship of the Christian Church steadily moving from Asia to the West. I shall select the topics which most clearly and strikingly illumine the contrast. Tacitus, Dio, Seneca and Suetonius are my sources; some data are furnished by the Jewish writers Philo and Josephus.

Caligula (“little boots”) was called so because as a child he was often in the camps of his noble father Germanicus. especially on the Rhine, and wore boots like those of the legionaries (Tacit. Ann. I. 41). He attended Tiberius on Capri, “concealing his monstrous spirit by cunning self-restraint”, says Tacitus, enduring in silence the cruel destruction of his mother and two brothers; Tiberius foretold that Caligula, (his grandson by adoption), “would have all the faults of Sulla, but none of his great qualities”. He was 25 at his accession, 37 A.D. He had prepared for his succession by becoming the paramour of Ennia, wife of Macro, commander of the Pretorian Guards. We must limit ourselves to a brief chronicle of the acts of this monster, whom the capital of the world endured not quite four years.

At first, when he came from Misenum to Rome, he was welcomed with the joyous acclamations of the capital, both to common people and Senate Freedom seemed restored. Tiberius had left the equivalent of $180,000,000 in the imperial fiscus: Caligula squandered it all in the first year of his reign, wielding, or gaining, (as Dio says) in one

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day all the power which Augustus and Tiberius had built up in many years.

His strongest passion was to subject to his lust, openly, any woman, especially married women of the Roman aristocracy, who appealed to his appetite; he even committed incest with his own sisters and “made the Palatine a brothel” (Suetonius 41). While upbraiding the vices of Tiberius, he surpassed them all. At his accession he burned all incriminating documents concerning the nobility, but he had first copies made, which later were used to institute trials for maiestas (high treason). Many rich men were thus compelled to commit suicide, and their fortunes were confiscated. Men of rank were compelled to fight as gladiators. Some spectators were thrown before wi...