person
Gaius Caesar (Caligula)
Caligula
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, nicknamed Caligula, Roman emperor AD 37-41, notorious for extravagance. Here the 'Gaius Caesar' who dined on ten million sesterces — distinct from Julius Caesar in ch. IX.
Reading notes
- Consolation to His Mother Helvia §10 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Caligula (r. 37-41), cited as proof of what the highest vices can do amid the highest fortune; he once spent ten million sesterces on a single dinner.
- Consolation to Polybius §13 under Gaius
Gaius (Caligula), Claudius's predecessor and 'the former princeps' whose reign Seneca casts as ruinous madness; contrasted with Claudius's clemency.
- On Benefits §2.12.1 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Caligula (r. AD 37–41); his demand that a consular kiss his jeweled slipper typifies his insolent corruption of every benefit.
- On Benefits §4.31.2 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Caligula (reigned AD 37–41), here the bloodthirsty tyrant whose throne was owed to his father Germanicus's standing.
- On Benefits §7.11.1 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Caligula, who offered Demetrius two hundred thousand sesterces and was laughingly refused.
- On the Shortness of Life §18.5 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Caligula (r. AD 37–41), whose bridge of boats at Baiae and near-famine Seneca recalls as recent folly.
- On the Firmness of the Wise Man §18.1 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Gaius (Caligula, r. AD 37–41); Seneca's case-study in insult, whose compulsion to brand others with mockery recoiled, through Chaerea, upon himself.
- On the Firmness of the Wise Man §18.4 Caligula
'Little boot' — the nickname the emperor earned as a child mascot of the legions on the Rhine; now, on the throne and 'buskined,' he took it as an insult.
- On Anger §1.20 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Caligula (AD 12–41); his challenge to Jupiter, quoting Homer, exemplifies the swollen, empty 'greatness' of anger.
- On Tranquility of Mind §11.10 Gaius
The emperor Gaius (Caligula, r. 37--41), 'an old kinsman, a new host,' who starved his relative Pompeius in the palace; the dialogue's recurring figure of capricious cruelty (also the 'Phalaris' of XIV and the 'Caesar our god' of XIV.9).
- Moral Letters to Lucilius §1.4.7 Gaius Caesar
The emperor Gaius (Caligula), reigned AD 37–41, byword for arbitrary cruelty; Seneca pairs the death he ordered with the one he himself suffered to show that fortune threatens the tyrant with what he inflicts.
- Natural Questions §4.pr.15 Gaius
The emperor Gaius (Caligula, r. AD 37–41), under whom Seneca's loyalty to Gaetulicus was tested.