Episode 10 Evidence

Claudius goes to Caligula in Germany

Claudius 9 Suetonius

9. He was not only exposed to contempt, but sometimes likewise to considerable danger: first, in his consulship; for, having been too remiss in providing and erecting the statues of Gaius's brothers, Nero and Drusus, he was very near being deprived of his office; and afterwards he was continually harassed with informations against him by one or other, sometimes even by his own domestics. When the conspiracy of Lepidus and Gaetulicus was discovered, being sent with some other deputies into Germany, to congratulate the emperor upon the occasion, he was in danger of his life; Gaius being greatly enraged, and loudly complaining, that his uncle was sent to him, as if he was a boy who wanted a governor. Some even say, that he was thrown into a river, in his traveling dress. From this period, he voted in the senate always the last of the members of consular rank; being called upon after the rest, on purpose to disgrace him. A charge for the forgery of a will was also allowed to be prosecuted, though he had only signed it as a witness. At last, being obliged to pay eight millions of sesterces on entering upon a new office of priesthood, he was reduced to such straits in his private affairs, that in order to discharge his bond to the treasury, he was under the necessity of exposing to sale his whole estate, by an order of the prefects.

Caligula returns to Rome

Caligula 47 Suetonius

47. 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.

Caligula's many talents?

Caligula 54 Suetonius

54. 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 evenat 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 ona 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.: The burial of Caligula

Caligula 59 Suetonius

59. 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.

Claudius becomes Emperor

Claudius 10 Suetonius

10. Having spent the greater part of his life under these and the like circumstances, he came at last to the empire in the fiftieth year of his age, by a very surprising turn of fortune. Being, as well as the rest, prevented from approaching Gaius by the conspirators, who dispersed the crowd, under the pretext of his desiring to be private, he retired into an apartment called the Hermaeum ; and soon afterwards, terrified by the report of Gaius being slain, he crept into an adjoining balcony, where he hid himself behind the hangings of the door. A common soldier, who happened to pass that way, spying his feet, and desirous to discover who he was, pulled him out; when immediately recognizing him, he threw himself in a great fright at his feet, and saluted him by the title of emperor. He then conducted him to his fellow-soldiers, who were all in a great rage, and irresolute what they should do. They put him into a litter, and as the slaves of the palace had all fled, took their turns in carrying him on their shoulders, and brought him into the camp, sad and trembling; the people who met him lamenting his situation, as if the poor innocent was being carried to execution. Being received within the ramparts, he continued all night with the sentries on guard, recovered somewhat from his fright, but in no great hopes of the succession. For the consuls, with the senate and civic troops, had possessed themselves of the Forum and Capitol, with the determination to assert the public liberty; and he being sent for likewise, by a tribune of the people, to the senate-house, to give his advice upon the present juncture of affairs, returned answer, " I am under constraint, and cannot possibly come." The day afterwards, the senate being dilatory in their proceedings, and worn out by divisions amongst themselves, while the people who surrounded the senate-house shouted that they would have one master, naming Claudius, he suffered the soldiers assembled under arms to swear allegiance to him, promising them fifteen thousand sesterces a man; he being the first of the Caesars who purchased the submission of the soldiers with money.