Archaeologists unearth place where Emperor Caligula met his end

Times Online ^ | 17 Oct 2008 | Richard Owen

[BGHater]

Archeologists say that they have found the underground passage in which the Emperor Caligula was murdered by his own Praetorian Guard to put an end to his deranged reign of terror.

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (AD12–AD41), known by his nickname Caligula (Little Boots), was the third emperor of the Roman Empire after Augustus and Tiberius, and like them a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

His assassination was the result of a conspiracy by members of the Senate who hoped to restore the Roman Republic. However the Praetorian Guard declared Caligula’s uncle Claudius emperor instead, thus preserving the monarchy.

Maria Antonietta Tomei, a Rome archeologist, said a cryptoportico or underground corridor discovered beneath the imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill matched exactly the description given by the Rome historian Suetonius, who says that the Emperor was stabbed to death after watching an entertainment. He left via the passageway, where the Praetorian Guard led by its commander, Cassius Chaerea, was lying in wait.

Professor Tomei said she was “absolutely convinced” that the cryptportico was the one in which Caligula met his end. Although it bore builders’ stamps from the time of Claudius, it already existed at the time of Caligula, and had only been restructured by his uncle and successor.

“It is clear that it was Claudius and not Nero, as commonly thought, who gave shape to the imperial palace complex on the Palatine Hill,” she said.

[BGHater]

ping

[Candor7]

Caligobama?

[rvoitier]

INVESCO Field, Denver?

[Westlander]

[stevie_d_64]

Ahhhh, yes, the new catch phrase...;-)

[tutstar]

gnip...

[GOP Poet]

BOOKMARK

[NutCrackerBoy]

Maria Antonietta Tomei, a Rome archeologist, said a cryptoportico or underground corridor discovered beneath the imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill matched exactly the description given by the Rome historian Suetonius. -Richard Owen, Times Online

We have rules.

[JRandomFreeper]

Something happened to Slick Willie?

Was the location in Arkansas?

/johnny

[WellyP]

Caligula declared himself to be a living God! At least Obama hasn’t done that..................YET!

[Cheburashka]

Wasn’t Caligula a bizarre pervert? I seem to remember something about him swimming naked alongside little boys, they’d nibble on him like fish. Something along those lines.

---

Naah, that was Tiberius, his adoptive grandfather. You can't tell the Emperor-perverts without a program.

[Terpfen]

Obama isn’t a living god, he’s Superman. According to him. Jokingly. Maybe.

[PJ-Comix]

They found the spot by following Jay Robinson.

[Skooz]

Wasn’t Caligula a bizarre pervert?

Not at all.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

That was Tiberius who liked to swim with little boys. Caligua was an even sicker pervert. He fathered a child with his own sister, and then killed her, cut the child from her womb, and consumed it, in the manner of Jupiter’s father, Saturn, who eat his own children.

[Lockbar]

A bad movie to watch. You couldn't even try to enjoy the sex scenes cause you never knew when somebody’s head was going to get cut off.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Yuck. That looks like a scene from a gay pride parade.

[tlb]

>>>Wasn’t Caligula a bizarre pervert? I seem to remember something about him swimming naked alongside little boys, they’d nibble on him like fish.

The nibblers were the idea of the emperor before Caligula, his uncle Tiberius. As in James Tiberius Kirk. Although Caligula shared his uncle’s hospitality at the palace at Capri where the pool-boys worked.

Caligula had his own ways of having fun. His sisters were very cooperative.