卡利古拉

卡利古拉，罗马帝国儒略克劳狄王朝第三位皇帝，全名盖乌斯•尤里乌斯•恺撒•奥古斯都•日耳曼尼库斯（拉丁语：Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus，公元12年8月31日-公元41年1月24日），原名盖乌斯•尤里乌斯•恺撒•日耳曼尼库斯（Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus）。罗马帝国第三位皇帝，朱里亚•克劳狄王朝第三位皇帝，公元37年3月18日-公元41年1月24日在位。

卡利古拉是他自童年起的外号，意为“小军靴”，源于他儿时随其父日耳曼尼库斯屯驻日耳曼前线时士兵为他穿上的军靴。公元37年，皇帝提比略于卡普里岛驾崩，卡利古拉经元老院认可，继承提比略的所有权力，成为皇帝。卡利古拉被认为是罗马帝国早期的典型暴君。他在位时期，建立恐怖统治，神化皇权，行事荒唐、暴虐。由于他好大喜功，大肆兴建公共建筑、不断举行各式大型欢宴活动，帝国的财政急剧恶化。后来，他企图以增加各项苛捐赋税来减缓财务危机，引起帝国所有阶层的怨恨。公元41年，卡利古拉被近卫军大队长卡西乌斯•卡瑞亚刺杀身亡。

 Caligula

Roman emperor

Alternate titles: Gaius Caesar, Gaius Caesar Germanicus

Born: August 31, 12 Anzio Italy

Died: January 24, 41 (aged 28) Rome Italy

Title / Office: emperor (37-41), Roman Empire

House / Dynasty: Julio-Claudian dynasty

Notable Family Members: father Germanicus mother Vipsania Agrippina sister Julia Agrippina

Caligula, byname of Gaius Caesar, in full Gaius Caesar Germanicus, (born August 31, 12 CE, Antium, Latium [Italy]—died January 24, 41, Rome), Roman emperor from 37 to 41 CE, in succession after Tiberius. Caligula effected the transfer of the last legion that had been under a senatorial proconsul (in Africa) to an imperial legate, thus completing the emperor’s monopoly of army command. Accounts of Caligula’s reign by ancient historians are so biased against him that the truth is almost impossible to disentangle.

Born Gaius Caesar, he became known as Caligula (“Little Boot”), a childhood nickname bestowed on him by the soldiers of his father, Germanicus Caesar, nephew and adoptive son of Tiberius. The deaths of his father in 19 CE, of his mother, Vipsania Agrippina, in 33, and of his two elder brothers, Julius Caesar Nero in 31 and Drusus Caesar in 23, were popularly ascribed to the machinations of Tiberius. Gaius and his three sisters survived. Adopting his father’s distinguished name, he became Gaius Caesar Germanicus.

He was severely ill seven months after his accession. After this he restored treason trials, showed great cruelty, and engaged in wild despotic caprice; e.g., he bridged the Bay of Naples with boats from Baiae to Puteoli in the summer of 39. In 38 he executed Naevius Sutorius Macro, prefect of the Praetorian Guard, to whose support he owed his accession, and Tiberius Gemellus, grandson of Tiberius, whom he had supplanted in the succession. He made pretensions to divinity and showed extravagant affection for his sisters, especially for Drusilla, who on her death (in 38) was consecrated Diva Drusilla, the first woman in Rome to be so honoured. Some scholars believe that he intended to establish a Hellenistic-type monarchy after the brother-sister marriages of the Ptolemies of Egypt. Others thought that after his illness he was mad; however, much evidence of this is suspect and some—e.g., that he made his horse consul—is untrue. (See Researcher’s Note: Caligula’s horse.) He may have suffered from epilepsy.

Caligula appeared unexpectedly on the Upper Rhine in October 39 and suppressed an incipient revolt, executing Drusilla’s widower M. Aemilius Lepidus and Gnaeus Lentulus Gaetulicus, commander of the Upper Rhine armies. After his accession Caligula quickly squandered the vast sums Tiberius had accumulated in the state treasury. To procure the revenues needed to finance his extravagances, he then resorted to the extortion of prominent Roman citizens and the confiscation of their estates. Early in 40 Caligula marched with an army into Gaul, whose inhabitants he plundered thoroughly. He marched his troops to the northern shoreline of Gaul as a prelude to the invasion of Britain but then ordered them to collect seashells there, which he called the spoils of the conquered ocean.

Caligula pursued his pretensions to divinity further; in the summer of 40 he ordered his statue to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, but, under the suave persuasion of Herod Agrippa, Caligula countermanded this potentially disastrous order. The Roman populace had by now grown weary of this mad and unpredictable tyrant, and several conspiracies were formed against him. In January 41, four months after his return to Rome from Gaul, Caligula was murdered at the Palatine Games by Cassius Chaerea, tribune of the Praetorian guard, Cornelius Sabinus, and others. Caligula’s wife Caesonia and his daughter were also put to death. He was succeeded as emperor by his uncle Claudius.

The ablest of the line was Tiberius. He was undoubtedly a capable and vigorous ruler, who enforced justice in the government of the provinces, maintained the integrity of the frontiers, and husbanded the finances of the empire; but he became intensely unpopular in Roman society and in his last years became a cruel tyrant. His successor, Gaius, generally known as Caligula, became known for his wild caprices and uncontrolled passions, which issued in manifest insanity. Upon his assassination he was followed by his uncle, Claudius, whose personal disabilities made him an object of derision to his contemporaries but who had many statesmanlike faculties. His reign left an abiding mark on the history of the empire, for he carried forward its development on the lines intended by Augustus. Client-states were absorbed, southern Britain was conquered, the Romanization of the West received a powerful impulse, public works were executed in Rome and Italy, and the organization of the imperial bureaucracy made rapid strides. Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian line, has been handed down to posterity as the incarnation of monstrous vice and fantastic luxury. But his wild excesses scarcely affected the prosperity of the empire at large; the provinces were well governed, and the war with Parthia led to a compromise in the matter of Armenia, which secured peace for half a century. The dynasty ended amid rebellion and civil war. Nero died, probably by suicide, and was succeeded by the general Galba, who had been a leader of one of the revolts.