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Caligula’s Domestic Rule
Before his death, Tiberius took in Germanicus's son Gaius, better known as Caligula, and prepared him to be his heir. Caligula’s rule began the Julio-Claudian dynasty, with all members related by blood to Augustus (related himself to Julius Caesar), or to Augustus’s third wife Livia (previously married to T. Claudius Nero).
Caligula began his rule well. He stopped the rash of treason trials, recalled political exiles, gave shows for the Roman populace, and brought his uncle Claudius into the political arena. However, in October of 37 CE, after recovering from a near-fatal illness, Caligula became a monster. He refused to cooperate with the Senate, and began purging both his political enemies and allies through forced suicides and the return of treason trials. His public image fared no better than his political image, as he participated in gladiatorial games (thought to be below the emperor) and was well-known for his hedonism and depravity.
In 39 CE, there was a supposed conspiracy against him in the Rhine-area legions, for which he killed the accused conspirators. He then led the army into battle against the Germanic tribes, which were only somewhat successful, but not noteworthy. He also readied his forces to attempt a conquest of Britain in 40 CE, but, possibly due to mutinies, supposedly (and infamously) ordered his legions to simply collect seashells at the British Channel.
Caligula and Judea
Despite all of this, Caligula’s most prominent foreign disaster occurred in Judea. It was a client kingdom previously ruled by Herod, who was friendly to Rome. He had died in 4 BCE, dividing up the realm among his three sons, with the core Judean lands going to his son Archelaus, whose rule was so poor that the Jews petitioned Augustus to annex the area. In 6 CE, Judea was thus made a Roman province.
Conflict between Greeks and Jews, settled all over the empire, had long been an issue. In Alexandria, in particular, one hot-button issue was the Jews’ refusal to participate in the imperial cult (the veneration of Roman emperors as deities). When Alexandrian Jews tore down an altar to the emperor, built by the Alexandrian Greeks to provoke them, Caligula commanded that his likeness be placed in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, violating Jewish religious law and exacerbating the conflict.
The End of Caligula’s Reign
Caligula brought to light the hidden problems of the Principate clearly. The Princeps was too powerful and unchecked, but the state still required the administration of the Senate to function as well. Thus, when Emperor-Senate relations broke down, so did the rest of the government. Tiberius’s cool attitude towards the Senate was magnified in Caligula’s complete disregard for them, leading to chaos and violence. Caligula’s reign of terror only ended in 41 CE, when he was assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard. This was the kind of violence that unchecked power could create. When the emperor’s powers only ended with his death, his death would become duty to those who saw him as a threat to Rome.
Caligula's demise illustrates three key points about the changing political and cultural landscape in Rome. First, the emperor’s power depended on the army, without which he had no real power. Caligula lacked the support of the military, and thus their power. Second, the animosity Greeks had for Rome and other cultural groups was becoming a real problem for the Empire, as seen with the conflicts in Alexandria. Third, the Praetorian Guard was becoming a player on the political stage as well. Caligula’s assassination, and his subsequent replacement with Claudius, both by the Guard, was just the beginning of their impact on Rome’s government.
