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Another time some hostages were taken from a common school and secretly sent on ahead
of him, when he suddenly left a banquet and pursued them with the cavalry as if they were
runaways, caught them, and brought them back in fetters, in this farce too showing
immoderate extravagance. On coming back to the table, when some announced that the army
was assembled, he urged them to take their places just as they were, in their coats of
mail. He also admonished them in the familiar line of Vergil to "bear up and save
themselves for better days." Meanwhile he rebuked the absent senate and people in a
stern edict because "while Caesar was fighting and exposed to such dangers they were
indulging in revels and frequenting the theatres and their pleasant villas." XLVI.
Finally, as if he intended to bring the war to an end, he drew up a line of battle on the
shore of the Ocean, arranging his ballistas and other artillery; and when no one knew or
could imagine what he was going to do, he suddenly bade them gather shells and fill their
helmets and the folds of their gowns, calling them "spoils from the Ocean, due to the
Capitol and Palatine." As a monument
of his victory he erected a lofty tower, from which lights were to shine at night to
guide the course of ships, as from the Pharos [the lighthouse at Alexandria]. Then,
promising the soldiers a gratuity of a hundred denarii each, as if he had shown
unprecedented liberality, he said, "Go your way happy; go your way rich."
XLVII. Then turning his attention to his triumph, in addition to a few captives and
deserters from the barbarians he chose all the tallest of the Gauls, and as he expressed
it, those who were "worthy of a triumph," as well as some of the chiefs. These
he reserved for his parade, compelling them not only to dye their hair red and to let it
grow long, but also to learn the language of the Germans and assume barbarian names. He
also had the triremes in which he had entered the Ocean carried overland to Rome for the
greater part of the way. He wrote besides to his financial agents to prepare for a triumph
at the smallest possible cost, but on a grander scale than had ever before been known,
since the goods of all were at their disposal.
XLVIII. Before leaving the province he formed a design of unspeakable cruelty, that of
butchering the legions that had begun the mutiny years before just after the death of
Augustus, because they had beleagured his father Germanicus, their leader, and himself, at
the time an infant; and though he was with difficulty turned from this mad purpose, he
could by no means be prevented from persisting in his desire to decimate them. Accordingly
he summoned them to an assembly without their arms, not even wearing their swords, and
surrounded them with armed horsemen. But seeing that some of the legionaries, suspecting
his purpose, were stealing off to resume their arms, in case any violence should be
offered them, he fled from the assembly and set out for the city in a hurry, turning all
his ferocity upon the senate, against which he uttered open threats, in order to divert
the gossip about his own dishonor. He complained among other things that he had been
cheated of his fairly earned triumph; whereas a short time before he had himself given
orders that on pain of death no action should be taken about his honors.
XLIX. Therefore, when he was met on the road by envoys from that distinguished body,
begging him to hasten his return, he roared, "I will come, and this will be with
me," frequently smiting the hilt of the sword which he wore at his side. He also made
proclamation that he was returning, but only to those who desired his presence, the
equestrian order and the people, for to the senate he would never more be fellow-citizen
nor prince. He even forbade any of the senators to meet him. Then giving up or postponing
his triumph, he entered the city on his birthday in an ovation; and within four months he
perished, having dared great crimes and meditating still greater ones. For he had made up
his mind to move to Antium, and later to Alexandria, after first slaying the noblest
members of the two orders. That no one may doubt this, let me say that among his private
papers two books were found with different titles, one called The Sword and the
other The Dagger, and both containing the names and marks of identification of
those whom he had doomed to death. There was found besides a great chest full of divers
kinds of poisons, which they say were later thrown into the sea by Claudius and so
infected was it as to kill the fish, which were thrown up by the tide upon the neighboring
shores.
L. He was very tall and extremely pale, with an unshapely body, but very-thin neck and
legs. His eyes and temples were hollow, his forehead broad and grim, his hair thin and
entirely gone on the top of his head, though his body was hairy. Because of this to look
upon him from a higher place as he passed by, or for any reason whatever to mention a
goat, was treated as a capital offence. While his face was naturally forbidding and ugly,
he purposely made it even more savage, practicing all kinds of terrible and fearsome
expressions before a mirror. He was sound neither of body nor mind. As a boy he was
troubled with the falling sickness [presumably epilepsy], and while in his youth he had
some endarance, yet at times because of sudden faintness he was hardly able to walk, to
stand up, to collect his thoughts, or to hold up his head. He himself realized his mental
infirmity, and thought at times of going into retirement and clearing his brain. It is
thought that his wife Caesonia gave him a drug intended for a love potion, which, however,
had the effect of driving him mad. He was especially tormented with sleeplessness; for he
never rested more than three hours at night, and even for that length of time he did not
sleep quietly, but was terrified by strange apparitions, once, for example, dreaming that
the spirit of the Ocean talked with him. Therefore, weary of lying in bed wide awake
during the greater part of the night, he would now sit upon his couch, and now wander
through the long colonnades, crying out from time to time for daylight and longing for its
coming.
LI. I think I may fairly attribute to mental weakness the existence of two exactly
opposite faults in the same person, extreme assurance and, on the other hand, excessive
timorousness. For this man, who so utterly despised the gods, was wont at the slightest
thunder and lightning to shut his eyes, to muffle up his head, and if they increased, to
leap from his bed and hide under it. In his journey through Sicily, though he made all
manner of fun of the miracles in various places, he suddenly fled from Messana by night,
panic-stricken by the smoke and roaring from Aetna's crater. Full of threats as he was
also against the barbarians, when he was riding in a chariot through a narrow defile on
the far side of the Rhine, and someone said that there would be no slight panic if the
enemy should appear anywhere, he immediately mounted a horse and hastily returned to the
bridges. Finding them crowded with camp servants and baggage, in his impatience of any
delay he was passed along from hand to hand over the men's heads. Soon after, hearing of
an uprising in Germania, he made preparations to flee from the city and equipped fleets
for the purpose, finding comfort only in the thought that the provinces across the sea
would at any rate be left him, in case the enemy should be victorious and take possession
of the summits of the Alps, as the Cimbri, or even of the city, as the Senones had once
done. And it was this, I think, that later inspired his assassins with the idea of
pretending to the riotous soldiers that he had laid hands on himself in terror at the
report of a defeat.
LII. In his clothing, his shoes, and the rest of his attire he did not follow the usage
of his country and his fellow-citizens; not always even that of his sex; or in fact, that
of an ordinary mortal. He often appeared in public in embroidered cloaks covered with
precious stones, with a long-sleeved tunic and bracelets; sometimes in silk a and in a
woman's robe; now in slippers or buskins; again in boots, such as the emperor's body-guard
wear, and at times in the low shoes which are used by females. But oftentimes he exhibited
himself with a golden beard, holding in his hand a thunderbolt, a trident, or a caduceus,
emblems of the gods, and even in the garb of Venus. He frequently wore the dress of a
triumphing general, even before his campaign, and sometimes the breastplate of Alexander
the Great, which he had taken from his sarcophagus.
LIII. As regards liberal studies, he gave little attention to literature but a great
deal to oratory, and he was as ready of speech and eloquent as you please, especially if
he had occasion to make a charge against anyone. For when he was angry, he had an abundant
flow of words and thoughts, and his voice and delivery were such that for very excitement
he could not stand still and he was clearly heard by those at a distance. When about to
begin an harangue, he threatened to draw the sword of his nightly labors, and he had such
scorn of a polished and elegant style that he used to say that Seneca, who was very
popular just then, composed "mere school exercises," and that he was "sand
without lime." He had the habit, too, of writing replies to the successful pleas of
orators and composing accusations and defences of important personages who were brought to
trial before the senate; and according as his stylus had run most easily, he brought ruin
or relief to each of them by his speech, while he would also invite the equestrian order
by proclamation to come in and hear him.
LIV. Moreover, he devoted himself with much enthusiasm to arts of other kinds and of
great variety, appearing as a Thracian gladiator, as a charioteer, and even as a singer
and dancer, fighting with the weapons of actual warfare, and driving in circuses built in
various places; so carried away by his interest in singing and dancing that even at the
public performances he could not refrain from singing with the tragic actor as he
delivered his lines, or from openly imitating his gestures by way of praise or correction.
Indeed, on the day when he was slain he seems to have ordered an all-night vigil for the
sole purpose of taking advantage of the licence of the occasion to make his first
appearance on the stage. Sometimes he danced even at night, and once he summoned three
consulars to the Palace at the close of the second watch, and when they arrived in great
and deathly fear, he seated them on a stage and then on a sudden burst out with a great
din of flutes and clogs, dressed in a cloak and a tunic reaching to his heels, and after
dancing a number went off again. And yet varied as were his accomplishments, the man could
not swim.
LV. Toward those to whom he was devoted his partiality became madness. He used to kiss
Mnester, an actor of pantomimes, even in the theatre, and if anyone made even the
slightest sound while his favorite was dancing, he had him dragged from his seat and
scourged him with his own hand. When a Roman eques created a disturbance, he sent a
centurion to bid him go without delay to Ostia and carry a message for him to King Ptolemy
in Mauretania; and its purport was this: "Do neither good nor ill to the man whom I
have sent you." He gave some Thracian gladiators command of his German body-guard. He
reduced the amount of armor of the murmillones [a type of gladiator]. When one
Columbus had won a victory, but had suffered a slight wound, he had the place rubbed with
a poison which he henceforth called Columbinum; at least that name was found
included in his list of poisons. He was so passionately devoted to the green faction [in
the Circus races] that he constantly dined and spent the night in their stables, and in
one of his revels with them he gave the driver Eutychus two million sesterces in gifts. He
used to send his soldiers on the day before the games and order silence in the
neighborhood, to prevent the horse Incitatus from being disturbed. Besides a stall
of marble, a manger of ivory, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones, he even
gave this horse a house, a troop of slaves and furniture, for the more elegant
entertainment of the guests invited in his name; and it is also said that he planned to
make him consul.
LVI. During this frantic and riotous career several thought of attempting his life. But
when one or two conspiracies had been detected and the rest were waiting for a favorable
opportunity, two men made common cause and succeeded, with the connivance of his most
influential freedmen and the officers of the praetorian guard; for although the charge
that these last were privy to one of the former conspiracies was false, they realised that
Caligula hated and feared them. In fact, he exposed them to great odium by once taking
them aside and declaring, drawn sword in hand, that he would kill himself, if they too
thought he deserved death; and from that time on he never ceased accusing them one to the
other and setting them all at odds. When they had decided to attempt his life at the
exhibition of the Palatine games, as he went out at noon, Cassius Chaerea, tribune of a
cohort of the praetorian guard, claimed for himself the principal part; for Gaius used to
taunt him, a man already well on in years, with voluptuousness and effeminacy by every
form of insult. When he asked for the watch word Gaius would give him "Priapus"
or "Venus," and when Chaerea had occasion to thank him for anything, he would
hold out his hand to kiss, forming and moving it in an obscene fashion.
LVII. His approaching murder was foretold by many prodigies. The statue of Jupiter at
Olympia, which he had ordered to be taken to pieces and moved to Rome, suddenly uttered
such a peal of laughter that the scaffoldings collapsed and the workmen took to their
heels; and at once a man called Cassius turned up, who declared that he had been bidden in
a dream to sacrifice a bull to Jupiter. The Capitol at Capua was struck by lightning on
the Ides of March, and also the room of the doorkeeper of the Palace at Rome. Some
inferred from the latter omen that danger was threatened to the owner at the hands of his
guards; and from the former, the murder of a second distinguished personage, such as had
taken place long before on that same day. The soothsayer Sulla, too, when Gaius consulted
him about his horoscope, declared that inevitable death was close at hand. The lots of
Fortune at Antium warned him to beware of Cassius, and he accordingly ordered the death of
Cassius Longinus, who was at the time proconsul of Asia, forgetting that the family name
of Chaerea was Cassius. The day before he was killed he dreamt that he stood in heaven
beside the throne of Jupiter and that the god struck him with the toe of his right foot
and hurled him to earth. Some things which had happened on that very day shortly before he
was killed were also regarded as portents. As he was sacrificing, he was sprinkled with
the blood of a flamingo, and the pantomimic actor Mnester danced a tragedy which the
tragedian Neoptolemus had acted years before during the games at which Philip king of the
Macedonians was assassinated. In a farce called Laureolus, in which the chief actor
falls as he is making his escape and vomits blood, several understudies so vied with one
another in giving evidence of their proficiency that the stage swam in blood. A nocturnal
performance besides was rehearsing, in which scenes from the lower world were represented
by Egyptians and Aethiopians.
LVIII. On the ninth day before the Kalends of February [January 24, 41 A.D.], at about
the seventh hour he hesitated whether or not to get up for luncheon, since his stomach was
still disordered from excess of food on the day before, but at length he came out at the
persuasion of his friends. In the covered passage through which he had to pass, some boys
of good birth, who had been summoned from Asia to appear on the stage, were rehearsing
their parts, and he stopped to watch and encourage them; and had not the leader of the
troop complained that he had a chill, he would have returned and had the performance given
at once. From this point there are two versions of the story: some say that as he was
talking with the boys, Chaerea came up behind, and gave him a deep cut in the neck, having
first cried, "Take that," and that then the tribune Cornelius Sabinus, who was
the other conspirator and faced Gaius, stabbed him in the breast [part of the ritual at
the sacrifice was that the slayer raised his axe with the question "Shall I do
it?" to which the priest replied "Take that"]. Others say that Sabinus,
after getting rid of the crowd through centurions who were in the plot, asked for the
watchword, as soldiers do; and that when Gaius gave him "Jupiter," he cried
"So be it," [another formula at a sacrifice was "receive the fulfillment of
your omen", i.e., in naming Jupiter, the god of the thunderbolt and sudden
death], and as Gaius looked around, he split his jawbone with a blow of his sword. As he
lay upon the ground and with writhing limbs called out that he still lived, the others
dispatched him with thirty wounds; for the general signal was " Strike again."
Some even thrust their swords through his privates. At the beginning of the disturbance
his bearers ran to his aid with their poles [with which they carried his litter], and
presently the Germans of his body-guard, and they slew several of his assassins, as well
as some inoffensive senators.
LIX. He lived twenty-nine years and ruled three years, ten months and eight days. His
body was conveyed secretly to the gardens of the Lamian family, where it was partly
consumed on a hastily erected pyre and buried beneath a light covering of turf; later his
sisters on their return from exile dug it up, cremated it, and consigned it to the tomb.
Before this was done, it is well known that the caretakers of the gardens were disturbed
by ghosts, and that in the house where he was slain not a night passed without some
fearsome apparition, until at last the house itself was destroyed by fire. With him died
his wife Caesonia, stabbed with a sword by a centurion, while his daughter's brains were
dashed out against a wall.
LX. One may form an idea of the state of those times by what followed. Not even after
the murder was made known was it at once believed that he was dead, but it was suspected
that Gaius himself had made up and circulated the report, to find out by that means how
men felt towards him. The conspirators too had not agreed on a successor, and the senate
was so unanimously in favor of re-establishing the republic that the consuls called the
first meeting, not in the senate house, because it had the name Julia, but in the Capitol;
while some in expressing their views proposed that the memory of the Caesars be done away
with and their temples destroyed. Men further observed and commented on the fact that all
the Caesars whose forename was Gaius perished by the sword, beginning with the one who was
slain in the times of Cinna [Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo, slain in 87 B.C.---though the
Dictator's father died a natural death, as did also Gaius Caesar, grandson of Augustus].
Source:
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, C. Tranquillus Suetonius
From: Suetonius, 2 vols., trans. J. C. Rolfe, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, and London: William Henemann, 1920), Vol. I, pp. 3-119
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg
has modernized the text.
This text a mirror copy from the Internet Ancient History
Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts
related to medieval and Byzantine history.
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© Paul Halsall, March 1999
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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