As it fell out one day, I was walking down the hallway of my college when I crossed paths with one of colleagues. Greeting me, she asked “What are you lecturing on today, Dr. Elder?” I had to reply to the grim truth.
“Caligula” I said. She promptly rolled her eyes and replied, “Well, he was the life of the party.” What could I say to this? He certainly was a colorful character. Gaius Caligula was the young Roman emperor whose name has been forever besmirched by accusations of cruelty, sadism, murder and otherwise unsavory behavior. Most of these charges were leveled against him by irritated senators who had no reason to love the dictatorial rule of the caesars. Modern television and Hollywood had made a lot of his short life, but not always accurately. What is less well known is the fact that he knew and interacted with a series of people who either appear in the Bible or were active with Jewish and Christian leaders of the day.
Gaius was the son of Germanicus Caesar, a member of the ruling family, and he served with distinction with the legions on the Rhine. His mother was Agrippina the elder, the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus, in whose reign Christ was born and who ordered the famous census which caused Mary and Joseph to visit Bethlehem. In his childhood, it was assumed that young Gaius would enter a military career when he was older and follow in his father’s footsteps. Agrippina actually sewed him a little cloth legionary’s uniform and he was welcomed as a kind of mascot by his father’s legions. They nicknamed him Caligula, which means “Little Boots.” In later years he despised that name but it stuck.
Gaius grew up in the reign of the first two emperors, Augustus and his stepson, Tiberius, and he knew them both well. Tiberius was the ruler who appointed Pontius Pilate to be the governor of Judea and it was in his reign that Jesus was crucified. Tiberius required the young Caligula to live with him in the palace to keep an eye on him. Tiberius was better known as a ruthless killer and sexual pervert and was perhaps not the best moral guardian of a future emperor. When Tiberius died in A.D. 37, he named Caligula his heir. With the support of the army, Caligula was soon named emperor
In his last years, Tiberius was known for his series of trumped up treason trials, which led to many arrests and either execution or suicides of anyone who he feared. Upon his succession in 37, Caligula won enormous popularity by ending the trials and granting a universal pardon to all accused of treason. This included Pilate, who had been summoned to Rome to answer charges of treason after massacring a number of Samaritans. Upon arrival in Rome, Pilate was notified of the imperial pardon and set free. He vanishes from the pages of history.
Caligula was also on extremely good terms with a member of the Jewish royal house: Herod Agrippa.
Herod Agrippa I was one of several Herods in the Bible, and should not be confused with his grandfather, Herod the Great, who massacred the Holy Innocents in order to wipe out Jesus. Herod Agrippa’s son, Herod Agrippa II, was the king before whom the Apostle Paul pleaded his case At Caesarea in Acts 26. Then there was Herod Antipas, the one who was involved with the trial of Jesus, and who had executed John the Baptist. It was Herod Agrippa I who was the personal friend of Gaius Caligula.
The accession to power of Caligula was a first class advantage for Herod Agrippa I. The latter almost did away with his good fortune by writing the young Gaius to get ready for his accession and get himself proclaimed as early as possible. Herod crossed the line when he told Caligula that Tiberius’ death should not be delayed much longer. But Tiberius was not dead yet and such remarks were treason and Herod found himself in prison. However, the death of Tiberius shortly thereafter saw Herod released, and Caligula gave him a golden chain of the same weight as his chains in prison. The emperor also granted Herod the right to wear Praetorian ornaments, which made him the social equal of a senator. Equally important was that Caligula granted him the title of “king” which secured Herod’s hold on power.
The mental instability of Caligula almost led to disaster, but his Jewish friend saved the day. Caligula had hatched the idea of having himself proclaimed as divine, which would place his authority above the authority of lesser kings and certainly above the Roman Senate.
Rather than simply foisting the idea on the Romans, Caligula decided to have the divine acclamations begin in the provinces, where they could more gradually become accepted and quietly spread to Rome. Unfortunately, the province he chose to start with was Judea. Caligula commanded that a life-sized golden statue of himself, depicting him as Zeus, should be placed inside the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This sacrilege would have pushed Judea into open revolt and Herod managed to talk the emperor out of the idea.
On another occasion, Caligula was irritated with a magistrate and so deliberately smeared mud all over his toga. The young man was Titus Vespasian, who would order the sack of Jerusalem and its temple 20 years later.
Caligula’s rule was a very short one, from 37 to 41 A.D. His penchant for murder and ideas of divinity did not sit well with the Roman elites. One of the officers in the Praetorian Guard was a man named Cassius Chaerea, who possessed a high, feminine sounding voice. Caligula loved to tease Chaerea, by addressing him only as Venus, the goddess of love, or Priapus, the god of the male sexual organ. Chaerea began a plot and Caligula was murdered shortly thereafter.
The military leaders did not respond immediately, although Chaerea had hoped they would restore the lost powers of the Senate and Republic. When they delayed, the assassins murdered Caligula’s wife and smashed his daughter’s head in. This was too much, and the Praetorian Guard stormed the imperial palace and arrested the murderers, and finding Caligula’s uncle Claudius hiding in a wardrobe, acclaimed him to be the next emperor.
With the death of his friend, Herod found it convenient to move outside the city of Rome, but he made peace with Claudius. Claudius was no friend of the Jews and would later throw them all out of the city because they rioted, allegedly led by a man named “Chestus,” but Herod was useful and the Jewish king kept his office.
But only three years later, Herod celebrated some games in Caesarea in honor of the emperor, where he appeared in a brilliant silver robe. The mob began to acclaim him as divine, a blasphemy, to the Jews. The book of Acts tells us, “And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king’s country. And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and multiplied.” (Acts 12: 20-24)
We have the proverb that a man is known by the company he keeps. In the case of Caligula this is not quite true. He rubbed shoulders with some of the most famous people in the New Testament. Unfortunately, not much good rubbed off onto any of them.
