译文札记（666）：卡利古拉
2022-03-25 11:31阅读：
卡利古拉
卡利古拉，罗马帝国儒略克劳狄王朝第三位皇帝，全名盖乌斯•尤里乌斯•恺撒•奥古斯都•日耳曼尼库斯（拉丁语：Gaius
Julius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus，公元12年8月31日-公元41年1月24日），原名盖乌斯•尤里乌斯•恺撒•日耳曼尼库斯（Gaius
Julius Caesar
Germanicus）。罗马帝国第三位皇帝，朱里亚•克劳狄王朝第三位皇帝，公元37年3月18日-公元41年1月24日在位。
卡利古拉是他自童年起的外号，意为“小军靴”，源于他儿时随其父日耳曼尼库斯屯驻日耳曼前线时士兵为他穿上的军靴。公元37年，皇帝提比略于卡普里岛驾崩，卡利古拉经元老院认可，继承提比略的所有权力，成为皇帝。卡利古拉被认为是罗马帝国早期的典型暴君。他在位时期，建立恐怖统治，神化皇权，行事荒唐、暴虐。由于他好大喜功，大肆兴建公共建筑、不断举行各式大型欢宴活动，帝国的财政急剧恶化。后来，他企图以增加各项苛捐赋税来减缓财务危机，引起帝国所有阶层的怨恨。公元41年，卡利古拉被近卫军大队长卡西乌斯•卡瑞亚刺杀身亡。
Caligula
Roman emperor
Alternate titles: Gaius Caesar, Gaius Caesar
Germanicus
Born: August 31, 12 Anzio Italy
Died: January 24, 41 (aged 28) Rome Italy
Title / Office: emperor (37-41), Roman Empire
House / Dynasty: Julio-Claudian dynasty
Notable Family Members: father Germanicus mother Vipsania
Agrippina sister Julia Agrippina
Caligula, byname of Gaius Caesar, in full Gaius Caesar
Germanicus, (born August 31, 12 CE, Antium, Latium [Italy]—died
January 24, 41, Rome), Roman emperor from 37 to 41 CE, in
succession after Tiberius. Caligula effected the transfer of the
last legion that had been under a senatorial proconsul (in Africa)
to an imperial legate, thus completing the emperor’s monopoly of
army command. Accounts of Caligula’s reign by ancient historians
are so biased against him that the truth is almost impossible to
disentangle.
Born Gaius Caesar, he became known as Caligula (“Little
Boot”), a childhood nickname bestowed on him by the soldiers of his
father, Germanicus Caesar, nephew and adoptive son of Tiberius. The
deaths of his father in 19 CE, of his mother, Vipsania Agrippina,
in 33, and of his two elder brothers, Julius Caesar Nero in 31 and
Drusus Caesar in 23, were popularly ascribed to the machinations of
Tiberius. Gaius and his three sisters survived. Adopting his
father’s distinguished name, he became Gaius Caesar
Germanicus.
He was severely ill seven months after his accession. After
this he restored treason trials, showed great cruelty, and engaged
in wild despotic caprice; e.g., he bridged the Bay of Naples with
boats from Baiae to Puteoli in the summer of 39. In 38 he executed
Naevius Sutorius Macro, prefect of the Praetorian Guard, to whose
support he owed his accession, and Tiberius Gemellus, grandson of
Tiberius, whom he had supplanted in the succession. He made
pretensions to divinity and showed extravagant affection for his
sisters, especially for Drusilla, who on her death (in 38) was
consecrated Diva Drusilla, the first woman in Rome to be so
honoured. Some scholars believe that he intended to establish a
Hellenistic-type monarchy after the brother-sister marriages of the
Ptolemies of Egypt. Others thought that after his illness he was
mad; however, much evidence of this is suspect and some—e.g., that
he made his horse consul—is untrue. (See Researcher’s Note:
Caligula’s horse.) He may have suffered from epilepsy.
Caligula appeared unexpectedly on the Upper Rhine in October
39 and suppressed an incipient revolt, executing Drusilla’s widower
M. Aemilius Lepidus and Gnaeus Lentulus Gaetulicus, commander of
the Upper Rhine armies. After his accession Caligula quickly
squandered the vast sums Tiberius had accumulated in the state
treasury. To procure the revenues needed to finance his
extravagances, he then resorted to the extortion of prominent Roman
citizens and the confiscation of their estates. Early in 40
Caligula marched with an army into Gaul, whose inhabitants he
plundered thoroughly. He marched his troops to the northern
shoreline of Gaul as a prelude to the invasion of Britain but then
ordered them to collect seashells there, which he called the spoils
of the conquered ocean.
Caligula pursued his pretensions to divinity further; in the
summer of 40 he ordered his statue to be erected in the Temple at
Jerusalem, but, under the suave persuasion of Herod Agrippa,
Caligula countermanded this potentially disastrous order. The Roman
populace had by now grown weary of this mad and unpredictable
tyrant, and several conspiracies were formed against him. In
January 41, four months after his return to Rome from Gaul,
Caligula was murdered at the Palatine Games by Cassius Chaerea,
tribune of the Praetorian guard, Cornelius Sabinus, and others.
Caligula’s wife Caesonia and his daughter were also put to death.
He was succeeded as emperor by his uncle Claudius.
The ablest of the line was Tiberius. He was undoubtedly a
capable and vigorous ruler, who enforced justice in the government
of the provinces, maintained the integrity of the frontiers, and
husbanded the finances of the empire; but he became intensely
unpopular in Roman society and in his last years became a cruel
tyrant. His successor, Gaius, generally known as Caligula, became
known for his wild caprices and uncontrolled passions, which issued
in manifest insanity. Upon his assassination he was followed by his
uncle, Claudius, whose personal disabilities made him an object of
derision to his contemporaries but who had many statesmanlike
faculties. His reign left an abiding mark on the history of the
empire, for he carried forward its development on the lines
intended by Augustus. Client-states were absorbed, southern Britain
was conquered, the Romanization of the West received a powerful
impulse, public works were executed in Rome and Italy, and the
organization of the imperial bureaucracy made rapid strides. Nero,
the last of the Julio-Claudian line, has been handed down to
posterity as the incarnation of monstrous vice and fantastic
luxury. But his wild excesses scarcely affected the prosperity of
the empire at large; the provinces were well governed, and the war
with Parthia led to a compromise in the matter of Armenia, which
secured peace for half a century. The dynasty ended amid rebellion
and civil war. Nero died, probably by suicide, and was succeeded by
the general Galba, who had been a leader of one of the
revolts.
