Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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for my topic. I chose
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caligula. Famous or infamous.
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I believe that caligula was famous.
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Not only because he was, he is in many history books,
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but because he made many great decisions for his country,
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led his country through some wars and came out victorious.
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However,
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many of people will disagree with me because he is seen as insane and a cruel tyrant.
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This connects to the big idea of government
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because caligula ruled Rome the roman empire for four
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years and while he was in charge he made big changes and eventually was put to death.
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Okay,
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so caligula born in roughly 12 82.
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His parents Germanicus Julius caesar and Agrippina born
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to the name Gaius Julius caesar Germanicus.
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He lived with his family in military camps where he got the
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nickname caligula which translate out which translates out to little Boots Now.
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However, when he was only about 18 months old,
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his parents left for Ryan and this started to deteriorate his mental health,
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caligula spent six years when his parents
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returned traveling with them across the eastern
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portions of the empire and sadly his father passed away in 19 A.
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D.
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And it is said that the current emperor at that time
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Tiberius poisoned Germanicus because he was jealous of all the attention.
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He was getting
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Caligula as he grew older finally became the emperor in 37 80.
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But unfortunately he was only the emperor for four short years
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before there was a plot to end his life that went through
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now caligula when he ruled.
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There are many questionable decisions that he
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made one of the most popular decisions
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of caligula was that he tried to install a horse into the senate.
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Now caligula is reported to reported inviting
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this horse into his home many times for
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dinner where the horse would eat golden barley and drink his fair share of wine.
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Now, as crazy as this sounds,
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caligula also declared himself to be a god in the flesh.
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This seems to happen a lot when rulers gain a
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lot of power and gain support from the people.
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However, it didn't go over very well with the roman people.
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The romans are very strict about their deities.
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They have a firm belief that the deities play a huge role in their everyday life.
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So for them when caligula declared himself a god,
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they took this as an insult
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and plotted his death
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caligula,
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as I said earlier,
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made very many decisions that were questionable to the
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people who had been there for a long time.
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So those in the senate, the elders in the senate, those in the palace and when they,
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when he finally declared himself as a god,
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that's when they reached their breaking point,
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they knew what they had to do.
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They had to get rid of caligula, but they weren't sure how to do it.
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The senators decided that the best course of action for them
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was to not be involved in the plot at all.
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This was because if they are known to
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be plotters and murderers then when the new emperor
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comes he would know this and he wouldn't want them to be a part of his empire.
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So they said, let's push it onto the paraders, the or the protectors of the emperor.
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To kill caligula. These two paraders, Kyra and Sabinas,
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um sweet erroneous says that there are 22
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ways that caligula possibly could have died.
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The first one being that, well caligula was talking to the two paraders,
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Kyra being behind him,
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drew his sword and swung it as hard as he could at caligula neck killing him.
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The second way is that while Sabina's was talking to caligula,
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he asked him for something and while caligula turned around to grab it for Sabina's,
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Sabina's struck him and split his jaw.
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The emperor
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lay on the ground writhing in pain, calling out that he was still alive.
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So the other senators conspirators as they're called seeing this charged forward
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and stabbed him 30 more times until he was finally dead.
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The paraders,
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after following the death of caligula realized that they
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would need a whole new family to rule Rome.
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So they left, they sought out caligula is daughter and they killed her.
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It is said that caligula daughter fought
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with bravery and courage against her Attackers
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before they threw her against a wall
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and killed her.
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These two players,
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knowing what they had just done weighing on their conscience
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knew that their lives would be in danger very shortly.
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So they fled into the city to hide themselves where they would not be found
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overall. I believe that caligula was famous.
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Many historians believe that he suffered from
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mental illness and this ran his life. This illness ruined it for him.
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He could have had a great life. He could have served a long time as an emperor.
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But as he grew older, it worsened and he he just couldn't lead a normal life.
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Uh there are people quoted, I believe saying that he would
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pass out. He had the fainting disease.
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So this is why many people believe that he suffered from frontal lobe epilepsy
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using everything here.
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And more,
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many people agree that caligula was famous because he did
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everything in his power for the good of the romans.
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Now, I think this is quite important for me.
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At least I think it's really,
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really cool to uh learn more about big figures in ancient history.
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Caligula was always one who seemed to interest me.
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I've heard little tidbits here and there about what
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he did and I thought it was always funny.
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But now that I've spent time researching this and looking into this,
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I see now that it is more than just that he lived his whole life with the
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disease and a lot of people disagree with
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this and they don't believe that he truly was
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ill. But looking at all the decisions that he made and the timing and what happened.
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I believe that he truly did suffer from an illness and this is why he was
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incapacitated and unable to do his deed as the emperor to the best of his abilities.
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This project informs me of how ancient romans were so quick to turn on their leaders.
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Uh
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sorry caligula who ruled for a while.
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His father was a huge huge name in ancient Rome
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because he was at war general who won many battles
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and came back and was celebrated and he had parades
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thrown for him and caligula who was his son,
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Well known, well regarded in the military camps when he became powerful,
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it got to his head and as soon as he did something that the people didn't like.
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They killed him.
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My least favorite part about this whole thing
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was that
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I when I found out that caligula is daughter was also murdered.
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I didn't truly understand that. I thought that emperors, it was like a patriarchy.
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So the male was the male was the lead.
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I didn't realize that having her still be alive would be that big of an impact on them.
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That that they had to go find her and kill her. That really surprised me