260 



CALIGULA. 



Caligula, and was not unfrequently heard to remonstrate with 

 the other god in pretty sharp language. All this 

 folly was scarcely more extravagant than his fond- 

 ness for his horse Incitatus. In honour of this ani- 

 mal, he built a magnificent palace, appointed domes- 

 tics, and supported a splendid table, to which people 

 were invited in the name of the horse. He moreover 

 accommodated the steed himself with a marble stable, 

 and an ivory rack, gave him gilt barley, and wine out 

 of a golden cup, swore by his health and fortune, 

 and, according to some, intended to make him con- 

 sul. 



In his public transactions, Caligula was equally 

 extravagant and cruel. He engaged in immense un- 

 dertakings, such as filling up vallies, and level- 

 ling mountains, merely because they were deemed 

 impossible. Among these, his famous bridge at 

 Baise was none of the least. This bridge, supported 

 on two rows of boats, consisted of large beams of 

 timber, over which was placed a bank of earth, faced 

 and paved with solid masonry, so as to resemble the 

 Appian way ; and extended over the sea from Baise 

 to Puteoli, being a distance of near four miles. Along 

 this floating structure, Caligula paraded on horseback 

 and in chariots for two successive days ; and to add 

 variety to the scene, having invited a great number 

 of people to view the bridge, he tossed them all into 

 the sea, and there knocked them on the head with 

 oars and poles to keep them under water. Wishing 

 now to appear in the character of a conqueror, he or- 

 dered an expedition to be prepared with the utmost 

 haste, resolving to conduct it in person into the heart 

 of Germany. His march through Gaul was some- 

 times so rapid, that the standard-bearers could not 

 keep pace with the troops ; on other occasions it was 

 so extremely slow, that he waited to have the roads 

 swept and sprinkled with water by the inhabitants of 

 the country. When in the act of crossing the Rhine, 

 some person unluckily expressed his uneasiness lest 

 the Germans might now be at hand; upon which 

 Caligula was so frightened, that he suddenly turned 

 back, and would not wait till the bridge was cleared, 

 but was handed over the heads of the soldiers to the 

 other side of the river. Soon atter, in order to re- 

 trieve his character, having commanded some German 

 deserters to be stationed privately in a wood, and a re- 

 port to be suddenly spread in the camp that the ene- 

 my was near, he put himself courageously at the 

 head of his guards, and assuming the air of a great 

 hero, sallied out in quest of the foe, scoured the fo- 

 rest, and then ordered a great number of trees to be 

 converted into bare trunks, on which to erect the tro- 

 phies of his victory. On his return from this glori- 

 ous campaign, he nearly ruined Gaul with enormous 

 exactions, in order to defray the expences of another 

 expedition against the ocean, which he had determi- 

 ned to conquer. For this purpose, having drawn up 

 his legions on the beach, arranged his battering rams 

 and other military engines, and ordered the trumpets 

 to sound preparatory to the charge, he suddenly com- 

 manded the soldiers to stoop down and fill their hel- 

 mets with shells, which he called the spoils of the 

 ocean. In commemoration of this victory, he built 

 a lofty tower on the spot, on which a light was kept 

 burning for the direction of mariners. The next care 



of the conqueror, after announcing, by letters, all 

 these exploits to the senate, was to make arrange- ^ 

 ments for his triumph, which he resolved should be 

 very magnificent. Great numbers of Gauls, the tall- 

 est that could be found, were engaged for iroving in 

 the character of German captives in the procession. 

 These were compelled to dye their hair of a red co- 

 lour, to assume various uncouth dresses, and to pro- 

 nounce occasionally some hard words, resembling 

 German and other savage languages. 



These childish follies were succeeded by a design 

 of a more serious nature. Recollecting that some le- 

 gions had once mutinied against his father, Caligula 

 resolved, like a strict disciplinarian, now to decimate 

 them. With this view, he summoned them to appeal- 

 before him without their arms, while his cavalry was 

 observed ready to surround them ; but the legions 

 suspecting some treachery, put themselves in a pos- 

 ture of defence ; upon which the tyrant fled to Rome, 

 to wreak his vengeance on the worthless senate. 



The public patience began now to be nearly ex- 

 haysted ; plots arid conspiracies began to be talked 

 of, and a formidable combination, headed by Lentu- 

 1ns Getulicus and Marcus Lepidus, was actually dis- 

 covered. Many were the deaths which this con- 

 spiracy occasioned. Caligula now kept regular lists 

 of those intended for destruction, and seems to have 

 meditated the horrible design of cutting off the whole 

 senate, with a great proportion of the principal 

 knights. His odious career, however, was now 

 drawing to a close. Cassius Chserea, a brave officer, 

 but unfortunate in having a very effeminate voice, be- 

 ing ridiculed on this account by Caligula, and exposed 

 by his indecent jests to the derision of others, resolv- 

 ed to rid the world of the monster ; and many other 

 Romans, exasperated in like manner by insult and 

 oppression, joined him in the project. After a variety 

 of disappointments and narrow escapes, the conspira- 

 tors at last found an opportunity of executing their 

 design, amid the confusion of a festival. While the 

 emperor was passing from the theatre to the palace, 

 during the celebration of the games in honour of 

 Augustus, Chserea gave him a wound in the neck, 

 and the other conspirators rushing upon him at once, 

 dispatched him by repeated blows, none offering to 

 assist him. His carcase was allowed to remain on the 

 spot where it fell till night, when either his wife or 

 Agrippa employed some person to remove it, and 

 committed it half burnt to the earth. Not content 

 with his own death, the conspirators resolved to ex- 

 terminate his whole family, and accordingly one of 

 their party, that very night, put to death his wife 

 Csesonia, and his infant daughter, who is said to have 

 already manifested the ferocious disposition of her 

 father. 



Thus perished, A. D. 4-1, in the 29th year of his 

 age, after a reign of three years and ten months, unc 

 of the most odious tyrants that ever affiicied the hu- 

 man race. No sooner were the tidings of his death 

 sufficiently confirmed, than the people gave loose reins 

 to their indignation. His statues were instantly pul- 

 led down, his capricious laws annulled, and his me- 

 mory as much as possible obliterated. The external 

 appearance of Caligula was no bad emblem of his 

 mind, his form, features, complexion, and gestures, 



