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Roman Emperor Caligula

Caligula’s life story:

He completed several public projects in Rome, including the Temple of Augustus and the Theater of Pompey. In Syracuse, he repaired the ruined city walls and numerous temples. He often held gladiatorial contests, chariot races and various stage performances, and won universal love from the people.

Caligula fell seriously ill in October 1937. Shortly after recovering from his illness, he broke with the Senate hierarchy and launched a series of perverse policies and brutal rule.

Originally, rulers of ancient Rome were only enshrined as gods after death, but Caligula ordered the heads of the statues of gods brought from Greece to be removed and replaced with his own head. And asked people to pay tribute to their gods when passing by; Caligula claimed to be a god and told everyone that he was often invited by the gods to live in heaven.

On impulse, he suddenly came up with the idea of ????conquering Germany. So he immediately gathered legions and auxiliary legions from all over the province, collected taxes in various parts of the province, and raised various military supplies on an unprecedented scale. Apart from the surrender of a king in southern Britain, he gave up the idea of ??an advance before a real war was fought.

Caligula’s many extravagant measures caused the treasury of 2.7 billion sesterces accumulated by Tiberius to be exhausted within one year. So Caligula came up with various ways to make money: he abolished the law that Roman citizenship could be passed on to future generations, and restricted provincial people and freed slaves to only grant citizenship to the "second generation" to increase the number of people paying taxes. ; He required the people to list the emperor as one of the legatees in their will, otherwise the will would be invalid; he also acquiesced in various false accusations and confiscated the defendant's property through court judgments.

Caligula’s madness and plunder inspired many assassination attempts. In 40 AD, Caligula suddenly announced to the Senate that he planned to leave Rome permanently and move to Alexandria, Egypt, where he hoped to be worshiped as a living god. Because the power of the Roman emperor had profoundly affected the political operations of the empire, if Caligula's decision came to fruition, neither the Roman Senate nor the Praetorian Guard would be able to control the emperor's debauchery and tyranny.

At noon on January 24, 1941, when Caligula was walking in the corridor of the palace as he was going to have lunch, Caria and several conspirators stepped forward and worked together to assassinate Caligula. He killed his wife Cassonia and his young daughter Julia Drusilla. By the time Caligula's loyal Germanic guards responded, the emperor was already dead.

Caligula died at the age of 29 and reigned for 3 years, 10 months and 8 days. His body was quietly removed, half-burned on a hastily prepared pyre, and then buried. Later his sisters returned from exile, exhumed his body, re-cremated it and buried it.

Extended information:

Caligula, full name Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Latin: Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (August 31, 12 AD - January 24, 41 AD), formerly known as Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus. The third emperor of the Roman Empire and the third emperor of the Julia-Claudian dynasty, he reigned from March 18, 37 AD to January 24, 41 AD.

Caligula is his nickname since childhood, meaning "little military boots", which originated from the boots that the soldiers put on for him when he was stationed on the German front with his father Germanicus as a child. Military boots. In 37 AD, Emperor Tiberius died on the Island of Capri. Caligula was recognized by the Senate and inherited all the powers of Tiberius and became emperor. Caligula is considered a typical tyrant in the early Roman Empire.

During his reign, he established a reign of terror, deified the imperial power, and acted absurdly and cruelly. Because he was so happy about his success, he built public buildings and held various large-scale banquets, and the empire's finances deteriorated sharply. Later, he tried to alleviate the financial crisis by increasing various exorbitant taxes, which aroused the resentment of all classes in the empire. In AD 41, Caligula was assassinated by Cassius Caria, captain of the Guards.

Reference: Caligula-Baidu Encyclopedia