Editing Caligula (section)

=== Early reign ===

[[File:Eustache Le Sueur - Caligula Depositing the Ashes of his Mother and Brother in the Tomb of his Ancestors - WGA12607.jpg|thumb|upright|''Caligula Depositing the Ashes of his Mother and Brother in the Tomb of his Ancestors'', by [[Eustache Le Sueur]], 1647.]]

Tiberius died on 16 March AD&nbsp;37, a day before the [[Liberalia]] festival. He was 77 years old. Suetonius, Tacitus and Cassius Dio repeat variously elaborated rumours which held that Caligula, perhaps with Macro, was directly responsible for his death.{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=12}}{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=221}}{{sfn|Tacitus|loc=[[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 12#53|XII.53]]}}{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html lviii. 28]}} [[Philo]] and [[Josephus]], the latter a Romano-Jewish writer who served Vespasian a generation later, describe Tiberius' death as natural.{{sfn|Philo|loc=''On the Embassy'' [[s:On the Embassy to Gaius#IV|IV.25]]}}{{sfn|Josephus|loc=XIII.6.9}} On the same day, Caligula was hailed as emperor by members of the Praetorian guard at [[Misenum]]. His leadership of the ''domus Caesaris'' ("Caesar's household") as its sole heir and [[pater familias]] was ratified by the senate, who acclaimed him ''[[imperator]]'' two days after the death of Tiberius. Caligula entered Rome on 28 or 29 March, and with the consensus of "the three orders" (senate, equestrians and common citizens) the Senate conferred on him the "right and power to decide on all affairs".{{sfn|Winterling|2011|pp=50–51}}<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=[[Acta Fratrum Arvalium]]|year=1874|editor-last=Henzen|editor-first=Wilhelm|editor-link=Wilhelm Henzen|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a-9Wf6Yx9LgC&pg=PA59 63]}}</ref>

====''Princeps''====
In a single day, and with a single piece of legislation, the 25-year-old Caligula, previously a virtual unknown in Rome's political life, and with no military service, was thus granted the same trappings, authority and powers that Augustus had accumulated piecemeal, over a lifetime and sometimes reluctantly. Until his first formal meeting with the Senate, Caligula refrained from using the titles they had granted him. His studied deference must have gone some way to reassure the more astute that he should prove amenable to their guidance. Some must have resented the political manipulations that led to this extraordinary settlement. Caligula was now entitled to make, break or ignore any laws he chose.{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=77–82}} Augustus had shown, and Tiberius had failed to realise, that the roles of ''primus inter pares'' ("first among equals") and ''princeps legibus solutus'' ("a princeps not bound by the laws") required the exercise of personal responsibility, self-restraint, and above all, tact; as if the Senate still held the power they had voluntarily surrendered.{{sfn|Barrett| Yardley|2023|p=61}} In the words of scholar [[Anthony A. Barrett]], "Caligula would be restrained only by his own sense of discretion, which became in lamentably short supply as his reign progressed".{{sfnm|Gradel|2002|1pp=142–158|Winterling|2011|2pp=9–13, 51|Barrett|2015|3pp=79–80, 130–132}}

Caligula dutifully asked the Senate to approve divine honours for his predecessor but was turned down, in line with senatorial and popular opinion regarding the dead emperor's worth. Caligula did not push the issue; he had made the necessary gesture of filial respect.{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=72–74, 78–79, 82}} Tiberius' will named two heirs, Caligula and Gemellus, but the latter was still a minor, and could not hold any kind of office. The will was annulled with the standard justification that Tiberius must have been insane when he composed it, incapable of good judgment.{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=221}}{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=LIX.1}} Although Tiberius' will had been legally set aside, Caligula honoured many of its terms, and in some cases, improved on them. Tiberius had provided each praetorian guardsman with a generous gratitude payment of 500 [[sesterce]]s. Caligula doubled this, and took credit for its payment as an act of personal generosity;{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=LIX.1}}{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=222}} he also paid bonuses to the city troops and the army outside Italy.{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=LIX.1}}{{efn|Various coin issues suggest the payment of regular donations to the praetorians throughout Caligula's reign.{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=222}} }} Every citizen in Rome was given 150 sesterces, and heads of households twice that amount. Building projects on the Palatine hill and elsewhere were also announced, which would have been the largest of these expenditures.{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=222}}

Thanks to Macro's preparations on his behalf, Caligula's accession was a "brilliantly stage-managed affair".{{sfn|Barrett|2015|p=77}} The legions had already sworn loyalty to Caligula as their imperator. Now Caligula gave the miserly Tiberius a magnificent funeral at public expense, and a tearful eulogy,{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=221}} and met with an ecstatic popular reception along the funeral route and in Rome itself. Among Caligula's first acts as emperor was the provision of public games on a grand scale. Philo describes Caligula in these early days as universally admired.{{sfn|Philo|loc=''On the Embassy'' [[s:On the Embassy to Gaius#II|II.10]]}} Suetonius writes that Caligula was loved by many, for being the beloved son of the popular Germanicus.{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=13}} Three months of public rejoicing ushered in the new reign.{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=14}} Philo describes the first seven months of Caligula's reign as a "[[Golden Age]]" of happiness and prosperity.{{sfn|Philo|loc=''On the Embassy'' [[s:On the Embassy to Gaius#II|II.12–13]]}} Josephus claims that in the first two years of his reign, Caligula's "high-minded... even-handed" rule earned him goodwill throughout the Empire.{{sfn|Barrett| Yardley|2023|p=99}}{{sfn|Josephus|loc=[[s:The Antiquities of the Jews/Book XVIII#Chapter 18|18.256]]}}

Caligula took up his first consulship on 1 July, two months after his succession. He accepted all titles and honours offered him except ''[[pater patriae]]'' ("father of the fatherland"), which had been conferred on Augustus. Caligula refused it, protesting his youth, until 21 September 37. He commemorated his own father, Germanicus, with portraits on coinage, adopted his name, and renamed the month of September after him. He granted his sisters and his grandmother [[Antonia Minor]] extraordinary privileges, normally reserved for the [[Vestal Virgin|Vestals]], and female priesthoods of the deified Augustus; their powers were entirely ceremonial, not executive, but their names were included in the standard formulas used in the senate house to invoke divine blessings on debates and proceedings, and the annual prayers for the safety of emperor and state. Caligula named his favourite sister, Drusilla, as heir to his ''[[imperium]]''. Oaths were sworn in the name of Caligula, and his entire family. One of his sesterces not only identifies each sister by name, but associates her with a particular imperial virtue; "security", "concord" or "fortune".{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=87–88}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wood |first=Susan |date=1995 |title=Diva Drusilla Panthea and the sisters of Caligula |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=99 |issue=3 |pages=436–439 |doi=10.2307/506945 |jstor=506945 |issn=0002-9114}}</ref> Caligula ordered that an image of his deceased mother, Agrippina, must accompany all festival processions. He made his uncle [[Claudius]] his consular colleague, tasked with siting statues of Caligula's two dead brothers, and occasionally standing in for Caligula at games, feasts and ceremonies. Claudius' own family found his limp and stammer "something of a public embarrassment"; he mismanaged the statue commission and his first consulship ended soon after, alongside Caligula's but his appointment elevated him from mere equestrian to senator, and eligible for consulship. Barrett and Yardley describe Claudius' consulship as an "astonishingly enlightened gesture" on Caligula's part, not one of Caligula's attempts to court popularity, as Suetonius would have it.{{sfn|Barrett| Yardley|2023|pp=76–77}}{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=15}}

Caligula made a public show of burning Tiberius' secret papers, which gave details of his infamous treason trials. They included accusations of villainy and betrayal against various senators, many of whom had willingly assisted in prosecutions of their own number to gain financial advantage, imperial favour, or to divert suspicion away from themselves; any expression of dissatisfaction with the emperor's rule or decisions could be taken as undermining the State, and lead to prosecution for ''maiestas'' (treason).{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=219}} Caligula claimed – falsely, as it later turned out – that he had read none of these documents before burning them. He used a coin issue to advertise his claim that he had restored the security of the laws, which had suffered during Tiberius' prolonged absence from Rome; he reduced a backlog of court cases in Rome by adding more jurors and suspending the requirement that sentences be confirmed by imperial office.{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|pp=222–223}}

Stressing his descent from Augustus, Caligula retrieved the remains of his mother and brothers from their places of exile for interment in the Mausoleum of Augustus.{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=223}}{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=LIX.3}} Caligula began work on a temple to [[Livia]], widow of Augustus; she held the honorific title of [[Augusta (title)|Augusta]] while still living, and when she died was eventually made a ''diva'' (goddess) of the Roman state under Claudius. The temple had been vowed in her lifetime, but not constructed.{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=223}}

==== Illness and recovery ====
Between approximately mid-October and mid-November 37, Caligula fell seriously ill through unknown causes and hovered for a month or so between life and death. Rome's public places filled with citizens who implored the gods for his recovery, some even offering their own lives in exchange. By late October, their emperor had recovered, and embarked on what might have been a purge of suspected opponents or conspirators.{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=108, 334}} Caligula's relations with his senate had been congenial but were now sullied by the forced suicide, for reasons unknown, of the eminent senator Silanus, formerly Caligula's father-in-law. Gemellus, Caligula's adopted son and heir, now 18 years old and legally adult, was also disposed of.{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=307–309}} Suetonius offers several versions of Gemellus' death. In one, Gemellus was given the adult ''toga virilis'' then charged with having taken an antidote, "implicitly accusing Caligula of wanting to poison him", and forced to kill himself. Several months later, in early 38, Caligula forced suicide on his Praetorian Prefect, Macro, without whose help and protection he would not have survived, let alone gained the throne as sole ruler.{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=LIX.10}}{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=47–48, 93}} Any link between the deaths is speculative, but it is possible that Silanus had conspired to make Gemellus emperor, should Caligula fail to recover; and Caligula might simply have tired of Macro's control and influence.{{sfn|Barrett|Yardley|2023|pp=85–86, 88–91}}

In 38, Caligula nominated [[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (executed by Caligula)|Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]] as his heir, and married him to his beloved sister Drusilla, but on 19 June that year, Drusilla died. She was deified and renamed Panthea ("All Goddesses"); the first mortal woman in Roman history to be made a ''diva'' (goddess of state). Caligula, bereft, declared a period of compulsory, universal mourning. Drusilla's death is one of several events approximate to the time of Caligula's illness, besides the death of Antonia and any unreported effects of the illness itself, thought by some to contribute to a fundamental change in Caligula's attitudes. Purges so early in Caligula's reign suggest to Weidemann that "the new emperor had learnt a great deal from Tiberius" and "that attempts to divide his reign into a 'good' beginning followed by unremitting atrocities [...] are misplaced".{{sfn|Wiedemann|1996|p=223. "It is useless to date the turning-point to before the death of Antonia (two months after his accession), an illness in the autumn... which is supposed to have affected his brain, or the death of his sister Drusilla"}}