Caligula: Roman History Story Time ESL Listening

(TESOL Worksheets--Roman History, Story Time ESL Listening)

Worksheet: docs, pub
Video: HERE
(Based on this old speech HERE--also described HERE)

Watch the Video: https://youtu.be/3PMN9OrN2Zs

Caligula 12-41A.D.

The Roman Empire—A forum through which ran some of the best and worst history has to offer. Commonly ranked as second only to Nero in the worst is Caligula. He came extremely close to destroying the whole Empire, and only a handful of brave men were able to stop him. They were faced with the impossible task of killing an Emperor.

Caligula was born in 12 AD in an army camp in Gaul.  His father was one of Rome’s most famous generals--Germanicus. 

Caligula was named after Gaius Julius Caesar, who was one of his ancestors (by adoption--his great grandfather was Augustus Caesar, who had been adopted by Julius Caesar in his will.)  But Caligula enjoyed dressing up like a soldier at three years old, and so earned the nickname “little boots”, or Caligula in Latin

Caligula became the third Roman Emperor after Tiberius died in AD 37.  He ruled wisely for the first few months, but then he fell sick and suffered from an unknown illness.  This illness seemed to have an effect on his mental health, and he was never quite the same after he recovered.

Caligula used up all the money in the treasury through reckless spending.  Then, when he needed more money, Caligula had rich people executed on false charges in order to confiscate their fortunes.  There were over 38 known victims who were killed in this way.

When the Germanic tribes began to make trouble on the border, Caligula marched his troops over to restore order.  He then boasted that he would conquer Britain also.  However disloyal troops made this impossible.  As a way to save face, Caligula told the troops that they must first conquer the sea, and had them collect sea shells in their helmets.  The troops viewed this as a great humiliation.

In 40 A.D., Caligula declared himself a god, and ordered the whole empire to worship him as such.  In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, the Jews refused to do so.  There had been a long standing rivalry between the Jews and the Greeks in Alexandria, so when the Jews refused to worship Caligula, the Greeks burned down their houses. The tension in Alexandria rose so high that the case was brought before Caligula.  The Greek spokesman, Apion, spoke first.  He claimed that the Jews were failing to honor the emperor by refusing to worship him.  The Jewish spokesman, Philio, attempted to reply, but he never got the chance.  Caligula angrily cult him off.  

As a result of this conference, Caligula sent Petronius to replace the Legate of Syria.  Caligula told Petronius to march to Jerusalem and place a statue of himself in the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple.

While he was still on his way, Petronius was met by thousand of Jews at the city of Ptolemais.  The Jews pleaded for peace, but also threatened revolution if the statue of Caligula was placed inside their temple  They threatened to destroy all of their crops, which would cause famine throughout the region.  At the city of Tiberias, the same thing happened.  Petronius was met by a group of Jews who also pleaded for peace, but promised they would stop at nothing to resist Caligula’s statue being placed in their temple.

At last, Petronius decided to sit down and write a letter to Caligula, explaining the situation, and telling Caligula why the plan to put his statue in the Jewish temple wouldn’t work.

While all of this was going on, Herod Agrippa, the King of Judea, met with Caligula and pleaded with him to stop his plans.   Herod Agrippa was the grandson of the famous Herod the Great, and had actually been an intimate friend of Caligula before Caligula became emperor.  Caligula reluctantly agreed to stop his plan.

It was at this moment that the letter from Petronius arrived.  Coming as it did when Caligula was still feeling disappointed about his plan, the letter only agitated Caligula further.  He wrote back and ordered Petronius to commit suicide.  Petronius, however, must have laughed when he read the letter.  News of Caligula’s assassination had reached him first.

Caligula’s Assassination

At first there were three groups working on Caligula’s assassination.  Originally they each worked without knowing about the others.  But later they joined into one group.

The key conspirators were Chaerea, Sabinus, and Vinicianus.  Chaerea was a member of Caligula’s Praetorian guard, but he had a high-pitched voice, and Caligula mocked him for it.  Whenever Chaerea had to kiss Caligula’s ring, Caligula would hold out his hand with only the middle finger extended--a gesture which meant the same thing in Roman times as it does today.   Whenever Charea was in charge of giving out the nightly passwords, Caligula would always make the password obscene.

In addition to his humiliation by Caligula, Chaerea was also motivated by his love for liberty.  He dreamed of restoring the Republic.

The other key conspirators were Cornelius Sabinus, a military tribune of the Praetorian Guard, and a Roman Senator Vinicianus.

On the appointed day for the assassination, the omens were bad for Caligula.  As he was sacrificing, the blood from the sacrifice squirted on him. When Caligula went to see a play, one of the actors got nervous, and started vomiting blood.  The other actors who were on stage were eager to show that they also had the same talent, and pretty soon the play turned in to a contest to see who could vomit the most blood.

The conspirators had planned to get Caligula when he left the play to bathe and have lunch.  However, when Caligula showed signs of intending to stay through the whole play, the conspirators began to panic.  Vinicianus urged Chaerea to do the act, and Chaerea almost committed assassination in the theater, but in the end Caligula was convinced to leave.

Caligula took a shorter route out of the theater than normal through an unguarded alley, where he was surrounded by conspirators.  Chaerea asked Caligula for the password of the day.  Caligula, suspecting nothing, gave his usual obscene reply.  Chaerea stabbed Caligula in the neck.  Caligula ran, but Sabinus pushed him down.  Caligula was stabbed thirty times.  The fatal blow is credited to a man named Aquila.  During this time, Caligula’s litter barrens took poles from the litter and tried to fight off the assassins, but it did little good.

After the assassination, Caligula’s German bodyguards arrived on the scene.  Fiercely loyal, they began taking their revenge by cutting down anyone in sight.  Many people were killed, both conspirators and innocent bystanders alike.  However, many of the conspirators also escaped thanks to Alcyon, a physician who smuggled many out while pretending to look for supplies.

After escaping from the German bodyguards, Chaerea began to get nervous that Caligula’s wife and daughter were still left alive, and so he sent a soldier named Lupus to go to Caligula’s house and take care of them.  Lupus killed Caligula’s wife, Caesonia, by running her through with a sword.  He killed Caligula’s daughter, Drusilla, by smashing her head against the wall.

Meanwhile, while the German bodyguards were looking for the assassins, they found Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, hiding behind a curtain.  Claudius had a speech impediment that made him stutter, so Caligula had mocked Claudius and used to force Claudius to dress up as a clown.  But when the German bodyguards found Claudius hiding behind the curtain, they hailed him as the new emperor.

The new emperor, Claudius, was glad of Caligula’s death.  But, nevertheless, since he was emperor now, he did not want to reward people who assassinated emperors.  He needed to make an example of them.  Claudius had Chaerea, and several other of the conspirators killed.  Public opinion turned against these executions, so Claudius had the executions stopped before all the conspirators were killed.  But Sabinus felt guilty about being left alive after the others were killed, and Sabinus committed suicide.

Through the valor of brave men, who risked their lives to stop a madman, the empire was saved. The republic never returned. Its time had passed. But history will always remember those who died to save the world from the corruption of power—from Caligula.