Well, it's fairly freezing here this morning, but I have the luxury of a warm blanket and a cuddley dog so let's crack on with a bit of violence to get the morning going...
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| A Roman Emperor 41AD (1871) Lawrence Alma-Tadema |
I love that the chap behind the curtain has the expression of 'they were like that when I got here, honest' about him. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was not a great ruler; better known as Caligula, his name is synonymous now with excess, weirdness and sadism. Interestingly, there are accounts that he was a fairly good ruler for the first few months of his reign but then became ill, which left him with severe mental problems. Accounts of his many acts of cruelty and insanity, including making his favourite horse his adviser, could well be stories after the fact of his poor rule, but I think there is no doubt that he was not a popular Emperor, although people were somewhat afraid of him so I don't think he knew...
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| Caligula Indulging in the Worship of the People (1877) Émile Lévy |
No spoilers, but he won't be the only murderous Emperor we see this Stabvent, but he was one to kill for fun and on one occasion during some games, had an entire section of the audience thrown in with wild beasts because he was bored. Unsurprising therefore that someone (most people) wanted to have a bit of a change of Emperor. In the end, it was three of his personal bodyguards, the Pretorian Guard, that did the deed, with the Senate and literally everyone else cheering them on. What tipped the scales was Caligula's plan to move his power-base to Egypt where he intended to be worshipped as a living god (all perfectly normal). As this would have stripped the Senate of their power and would have meant less checks on Caligula's debauchery (let's be honest, it was probably the former more than the latter that did it), the assassination plots started. A Pretorian Guard named Cassius Chaerea was possibly the catalyst as Caligula used to make fun of him for having a girly voice and being rubbish at collecting taxes. In my first job, my boss used to refer to me as 'the bloody girl', doesn't mean he deserved assassination. Well, actually...I digress, anyway the Guard accosted Caligula and the stabbing commenced, including stabbing his son too. Troops loyal to the Emperor arrived and some counter-stabbing commenced but in order to clean the slate, assassins went in search of the rest of Caligula's family, his wife, daughter and uncle, and killed the women, but the uncle escaped. This all happened in separate places but that is a nightmare in terms of composition. Better to make a lovely pile of corpses...
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By the bloody hand prints on the statue, you can tell this was all a bit violent and messy, but luckily it all seems wipe clean so your revolution can go ahead. Anyway, in getting rid of Caligula, there was a section of the Guard that wanted a Republic, no mad rulers throwing people to lions all over the place and making you call a horse 'Sir'. Uncle Claudius, who was next in line for Emperor-ship decided that he better hide behind a curtain because no-one would look for/stab him there...
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Rats. Luckily for Claudius, he was discovered by the least stabby member of the Pretorian Guard who whisked him out of the city to safety. I have questions why Uncle Claudius hid behind a curtain while the womenfolk got murdered but let's gloss over that, shall we? He was apparently slightly deaf, so maybe he was playing hide-and-seek and missed all the hubbub. He actually turned out to be a good Emperor, bringing peace and law, but then after his nephew, that bar was not exactly high.
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Good Lord, I love an Alma-Tadema and this is not the last you have heard of him this month as he does such a lovely murder scene. I especially like this crowd, all come to have a good gawk at the bodies - look at Maureen and Doreen at the front there, getting all dressed up to see the assassination. I appreciate the effort. All Alma-Tadema women look like they are related, because they all look like Laura to a greater or lesser extent, which is delightful.
I think the moral of this story is to not bump off your boss, even if he puts someone really stupid in charge of you. Certainly, Senator Horse's pro-hay stance wasn't for everyone, but who doesn't enjoy a good gallop? Anyway, assassinations are messy and who has the energy for that clean up?
See you tomorrow...
Thanks, Kirsty. it just goes to show what will happen to you if you think you are a living god. He should have been content with what he had. (Some men these days could do with remembering that!) However, killing your people for sport is never a good plan either. (Hmm, some leaders now would do well to remember that also).
ReplyDeleteIt also shows that people gawping at disaster/dead bodies/scenes of carnage is a human 'thing' - 'Maureen and Doreen' did at least get dressed up first, as you rightly pointed out - that made me laugh.
Best wishes
Ellie