Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History

Chapter Four: Josephus: The Assassination of Caligula

four josephus The Assassination of Caligula Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus could narrate the Catilinarian, Bacchanalian, and Pisonian conspiracies in spite of the veil of secrecy and silence that shrouded the events. In each case, women (and in one case, foreigners) betrayed the conspiracy and saved Rome from the internal threats posed by Catiline and his forces, by the foreign worshipers of Bacchus, and by those backing Piso. But what happens when no one betrays a conspiracy? The conspirators are free to carry out their plans and bring their secret plot into full view. To appreciate the difficulty that Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus faced when writing about conspiracies, it is now time to examine a narrative of a successful conspiracy.We turn to the account of the assassination of the emperor Gaius Caligula in the Jewish Antiquities by the Flavian historian Josephus. A Jewish priest of royal descent born in 37 c.e. (the year Tiberius Caesar died and Gaius Caligula became emperor), Josephus was a leader in the Jewish revolt of 66–73 against Rome. He commanded forces in Galilee against Vespasian and survived the forty-seven-day siege of Jotapata in Northwestern Galilee and was taken prisoner. Because his prophecy that Vespasian would become emperor was fulfilled, Josephus was released and granted freedom. He followed Vespasian to Rome where he was given a villa and a generous pension. Under these circumstances, he produced an immense literary corpus. The Jewish War was originally composed in Aramaic but translated into Greek to reach a broader audience (B.J. 1.3).1 After the successful publication of the Jewish War, Josephus undertook the ambitious task of writing a history of the Jews. The voluminous Jewish Antiquities was written in Greek under Domitian and published in 93 (A.J. 20.267). It begins with the story of his people from the creation to the administration of the last procurators before the war with Rome. It falls into two halves, the first of which records Jew- successful conspiracies ish history until the time of the first destruction of Jerusalem, concluding with the prophecy of Daniel. These first ten books paraphrase and embellish Scripture. The second half of the work includes the post-exilic and Hellenistic periods, the rise and fall of the Herodian kingdom, and three final books on Roman imperial history that bear loosely on Jewish affairs. More than half of Book 19 is taken up with the assassination of Caligula and the accession of Claudius, an event that occurred fifty-two years before.2 This chapter begins with the conspiracies against Caligula that remain shrouded in mystery. Then, my analysis of the narrative of the assassination takes its cue from Josephus himself, who promises ‘‘an exact account’’ of the events. He states his purpose for including the episode in his history at the outset: the death of Caligula illustrates the power of God to overcome all evil foes. Josephus uses the story to reassure his readership that morality cannot be overrun by tyranny, and in that sense, he contains fear of the Romans by affirming the power of faith. The third part of the chapter considers the roles of slaves, foreigners, and especially women in the assassination narrative. Once again we see that the exceptional behavior of a woman underscores the exceptional nature of the conspiracy. aborted attempts Any attempt to discuss the reign of Caligula is hampered by the problem of the biased sources. Two major contemporary sources survive: Seneca the Younger refers to Caligula often but provides little by wayof political analysis; Philo of Alexandria makes no effort to conceal his hostility toward Caligula. Suetonius and Dio provide the most continuous narratives, but both embellish and exaggerate.Yet, even the most cautious assessment yields an unfavorable impression of the emperor. Caligula’s brief reign of threeyears, ten months, and eight days was riddled with intrigue from the outset, and not without good reason, according to Suetonius. His reckless behavior alienated both the senate and the imperial domus. He committed incest (Cal. 25.1). He flogged a quaestor suspected of conspiracy (26.3). On occasion, he would close the granaries, thereby starving the urban populace (26.5). He burned a poet alive for writing verses with a hidden meaning (27.4). He called for the disembowelment of a senator (28). He ordered especially painful executions, saying, ‘‘Strike so that he may feel he is dying’’ (30.1). He respected the chastityof none and engaged in novel...