I Spit On Your Grave (Ancient Rome Addition)

Roman Emperor Gaius Caligula is back in the news after 2,000 years.

How is that possible you might ask?

Lake Nemi, Italy

According to recent reports, a man was caught and arrested as he attempted to load a statue into his truck around Lake Nemi, just south of Rome. Commanded to do so, the man led police back to where he'd found the monument. One thing led to another and now the archaeological squad of the police believe the area to be the burial site of Caligula. And with good reason. The statue, made of rare Greek marble, is of a god (Caligula proclaimed himself a living god) sitting on a throne and wearing Roman caligae (sandal boots). The name Caligula is actually only a nickname, picked up during his childhood. Young Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus picked up the Caligula from his father's Germanic legions because he liked to wear caligae and full military attire around the encampments.

As I became all too excited when possible discovery of the tombs of Antony and Cleopatra came about, I will take the information about Caligula's with a grain of salt.

But a big, chunky, idonized one.


                                                                    Death of Germanicus by Nicolas Poussin

Caligula was declared insane by ancient historians and his contemporaries. His father, Germanicus, had been extremely popular among his legions along the Rhine River and the people of Rome. When he ascended to the Roman throne, Caligula was just as popular (though no one probably called him by his childish nickname out of fear for their life). He implemented popular reforms and began massive public works to better the Empire and to appease its people. He reigned for 4 short years, during which he fell gravely ill. He recovered only to turn the whole of Rome upside down with his tyrannical behavior. He made his horse a consul of Rome, he invited Venus into his bedroom at night to copulate with him, and he turned his royal palace into a public brothel. He, and regrettably his wife and infant daughter, were assassinated by his own Praetorian Guards in Rome.

But if he died in Rome and if all the images of him were supposedly destroyed, why do we hear of his possible burial site at Lake Nemi?

Caligula had a royal palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, but he also had two villas - one of them at Lake Nemi. I would love to believe that his burial site has been discovered, and the location and description of the statue adds to the possibilities. But at the time of his death, Caligula was hated by the Senate and by his Praetorian Guard. It's said that the common people, never really in any real danger of his whimsical wrath, actually mourned him. In order for him to have even had a proper burial, he would have been revered or honored in some way. But the common people would not have buried him. He had no significant family left. His mother and father were long dead. He had his brother, Gemellus, murdered after Caligula became emperor. His German barbarian bodyguard unit could have buried him, but would they have known to do it at Lake Nemi? Could his uncle, Claudius, have buried him? I think Claudius feared his nephew more than revered him. And I think that whether or not this is actually the grave of Caligula remains to be seen. We'll have to see what Italian authorities and archaeologists have to say in the coming months. I'm excited by the possibilty, but also grounded in the fact that no one significant in Rome liked him enough to see to his proper burial.

Caligula is a name synonymous with murder and debauchery. He's the most infamous Roman emperor of all time, known for his decadence, whimsical madness, and his marriage to Rome's most promiscuous prostitute, Caesonia. There was a movie about made about him in 1979, a perpetual blood and sexfest featuring Playboy playmates in the cast. In 2005, director Gore Vidal made a faux movie trailer for a new Caligula film, featuring Courtney Love in a role-reversed portrayal of Caligula, Milla Jovovich as Caligula's sister Drusilla and Benicio Del Toro as Caligula's Praetorian Guard captain Macro. Just this year, an online game exclusive to Adultswim.com was developed, entitled "Viva Caligula! In Hell!" in which a shirtless but heavily-cloaked Cailgula attempts to foil the powers of the underworld - including Hitler, Stalin, and Attila the Hun. Caligula has become a novelty, no different from Cleopatra and her casinos and pinball machines. The picture at the top of this blog depicts an already murdered Caligula, the Praetorian who killed him, Gratus, declaring Claudius emperor in the immediate aftermath. This is of course the way it really happened, and knowing that, I find it amazing that Caligula has had such a massive affect on pop culture.

Lead Drama and Head Trauma in Ancient Rome

The fall of the Roman Empire was a result of many different causes. Barbarian invasions, disease, a split between East and West portions of the Empire, and lead poisoning were all significant factors. Recently, I wrote a compare and contrast paper on the assassinations of Caligula and JFK and came across an interesting idea. It's a very real possibility that Caligula went mad due to a massive amount of lead he'd consumed in his water and in his wine sweetener (he was an excessive drinker). This of course inspired his massive bloodlust, as Caligula saw to it slaves when brutally murdered in the arena and in his own palace during fine banquets. This is not the act of a sane man, and it crossed my mind that perhaps it wasn't just Caligula with major desire to see blood spilled.

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula)



Ever since the Roman people adopted Hellenistic culture from their Greek predecessors, they had been cheering on bloody gladiatorial games in the areans across the Italian peninsula. When the Romans expanded their empire, Roman culture was brought into the conquered lands along with a ruling governor to run the city. The games were a huge source of income, especially in Rome after Emperor Titus of the Flavian Dynasty saw to the completion of the massive Colesseum.

Emperor Titus of the Flavian Dynasty



The film Gladiator and the STARZ original series Spartacus: Blood and Sand do a good job of portraying the indifferent bloodlust of the average Roman, and the average Capuan (as Spartacus takes place in the Italian city Capua - see my review of the series earlier in the blog). They rarely wished mercy upon the fallen prisoner, gladiator, or Christian slave. Most times, they only wanted to see blood spew onto the sands of the arena. To a lesser extent, some of these behaviors are still seen the in average American public, especially those who chant towards their televisions for football players to knock each other unconscious and mixed martial artists to rearrange each other's faces. Part of this want to see blood spilled is human nature, but in the case of the ancient Romans, they wanted to witness one death after another, the only break between them an emperor-sanctioned lunch recess. My theory is that many of the Roman people who attended the arena games on a consistent basis carried their bloodlust due to the same reason Gaius Caligula carried his. The average arena spectator, whether they knew it or not, was plagued by lead poisoning.

The violent behaviors displayed in the average Roman were also mirrored in the provinces, where the gladitorial games had spread to Roman-conquered lands, along with aqueducts and wine sweetener - the harbingers of a colossal amount of lead. The lower rungs of Roman society also engaged in many a criminal activity, from highly organized acts including protection rackets to unorganized ones such as muggings. Criminal activity is almost a given in a big city setting, but the lead theory is a very plausible one.

In a nutshell, the Romans were a desensitized people who had no qualms with watching blood flow and prisoners and slaves separated forever from their loved ones. This to me is indifference on an unbelievable level. Why the lead never seemed to effect the other emperors in Caligula's line, I'm not sure (though Claudius had a limp, drooled, and a had a stuttering problem - possibly due to his mother's consumption of lead while Claudius was in the utero?) Caligula seemed to be the only emperor considered "mad" on a significant enough level to matter to the historians, but surely, the Roman people, the "mob," weren't too far behind.

Emperor Claudius