All language subtitles for Secrets of the Lost Series 3 Part 2 Caligula Sex Lies and Empire 1080p

Narrator: On January 22, 41 AD,

Rome's third emperor was going
for an afternoon bath

in his palace compound

when a group of soldiers
ambushed him,

beating him to death.

Beard:
Caligula was just 28 years old.

He'd been in power
for less than four years.

Narrator: It was an extraordinary
time in Roman history.

The third of Rome's emperors,
Caligula is known

for excessive paranoia
and carnage

during his short reign

one of Caligula's favorite
sayings was let them hate me

so long as they fear me.

Narrator: But how much
of this story is true?

And who was he really?

Now, professor of classics
Mary beard is on a hunt

for answers uncovering the truth

about Caligula's
fascinating history,

exposing damaging myths
from his successors

and coming face-to-face
with why Caligula

has gone down in history as
one of Rome's biggest villains.

♪♪

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus,
best known

by his childhood named Caligula
was born on August 31, 12 ad.

As great-grandson of Augustus,
the first Roman emperor

of the imperial dynasty,

Caligula was
a born-and-bred aristocrat.

In the world of ancient Rome,

you didn't get more
blue-blooded than Caligula.

Narrator: As the son of Rome's
distinguished

military general, Germanicus,
Caligula spent

most of his childhood
on the road

as his father traveled
from army camp

to army camp
on military campaigns.

Today professor of classics,
Mary beard,

is visiting
the Roman museum in Sandton,

built near one of
the battlefields Caligula

visited as a boy.

Inside the museum
there is a remarkable collection

of Roman military gear.

But perhaps the museum's
most intriguing artifact

is also its most humble.

This flawlessly preserved
hobnailed military sandal boot

or Roman Caligae
is made of tough leather.

There's one object that's really
associated with Caligula.

It's the Caligae.

The story goes
that when he was a boy

and he was living
on military camps

with his parents, his mum
had him dressed up

in the uniform of an ordinary
Roman soldier

right down to the Caligae.

Narrator: While his proper name
was Gaius,

the diminutive childhood
nickname Caligula,

meaning roughly little boots,
stuck.

The fact that even now
we still call him Booty kings

shows just how successful

his enemies were in
pouring scorn over him.

He himself would have
been horrified

to think of us
calling him Caligula.

Narrator: In 19 ad,
tragedy struck

the once decorated family.

When Caligula
was seven years old,

his father mysteriously died
on a mission to Syria.

Suspicion spread
throughout Rome.

Some claimed
the Roman governor Piso

was involved in poisoning him.

Others believe Germanicus' death

was orchestrated by Caligula's
uncle emperor Tiberius.

When the news of Germanicus'
death reached Rome,

there was an absolute
explosion of grief.

Life stopped it said, ordinary
people wept in the street.

They wrote up on the walls
"give us back Germanicus."

Narrator: Eventually Piso
was put on trial,

but a few days into the hearing,
he committed suicide

and the trial was turned
into a public investigation.

This is a copy
of that public inquiry,

the formal report
inscribed in bronze

dated the 10th of December,
20 ad.

Basically the message is
the only person

guilty here was Piso,
conveniently dead.

But the most extraordinary
bit of the document

and it's real point is down here

where it says
that one of these reports

is to be inscribed in
the chief city

of every province
and that it is be inscribed

[speaking native language]
In the winter quarters

of each legion.

[ Speaking native language ]

This is mass communication
Roman-style.

It's a major attempt
to get the official message

across everywhere.

Narrator: But the suspicion
surrounding Germanicus' death

didn't stop there.

After Germanicus died,
Caligula's family

fell from favor
in the eyes of emperor Tiberius.

Convinced that Caligula's
mother, Agrippina,

and older brothers
were plotting against him,

Tiberius banished them from Rome

and sent them to live
on a remote island

off the coast of Italy.

But surprisingly,
Caligula was spared.

In 26 ad,
12 years into his reign,

Tiberius withdrew
to the island of Capri.

From Capri,
he ruled the empire by proxy

from a suite of imperial villas
built high into the cliffs.

In 31 ad at just 19 years old,

Caligula was summoned
by Tiberius to live with him.

Tucked away
in a museum on the island

is one small trace
of Caligula's stay here.

This might not look very much,
just like a bit of old Roman

brick stuck in a wall,

but actually it's the only
physical evidence

that we have of Caligula's
presence on Capri

because it's got his name
stamped across...

It Gaius Caesar.

And that raises the question
what he was doing here

and why Tiberius brought him,

and there have been all kinds
of theories.

Was he here to be
under surveillance?

Was he here because Tiberius
like the kid?

Or was he here to be groomed
to be emperor

and learn to start building
like an emperor should?

Narrator: Roman writers later
surmised that it was here

that Tiberius cooled
the young Caligula

in the dark arts
of tyranny and excess.

The stories are varied
and they range

from fantastical
to downright chilling.

Some account stated
that Caligula witnessed

remarkable brutality during
his tenure at Tiberius' side.

In fact while Caligula
was living in the lap of luxury,

his mother Agrippina
was beaten so badly

that she went blind in one eye.

She eventually refused to eat
and starved to death

his brothers also suffered
violent deaths.

Beard: One by one,
Caligula had lost his father

and his mother
and his two older brothers.

He and his sisters were the
only ones in the family left.

Narrator: In the vault of
the British museum

is one McCobb memento from Capri

that sums up
the young Caligula's life

in the emperor's court.

This life-like marble skull

is a representation
of the poker face

it took to survive
Tiberius' court

and a reminder
of the consequences

if one failed to do so.

Beard: We're told that
when Caligula was on Capri

and his relatives were being
bumped off one by one,

he learned never to show
any emotion at all.

Announcer: Underlying this
constant family turbulence

was the messy matter
of succession.

Succession pose a problem
for the Romans for two reasons.

First,
the emperor isn't a real job.

It's supposed to be just
a bundle of personal powers.

And so you couldn't pass
those on in a normal way.

But the other problem
is that Augustus

and Livia didn't have children
with each other

even though each had children
with other people.

And what that means is

there isn't
a clear line of succession,

a son to follow a father,
a grandson to follow a son.

So when an emperor begins
to seem a bit sick or unreliable

or gets old, all sorts of groups
begin to jockey for power.

There's the legions
in the provinces.

There's the imperial
bodyguards in Rome.

You've got the [indistinct],

you have the ex-slaves
in the palace

who wants to know
who's going to own them next,

and then you've got various
imperial women

trying to get their
sons into power.

And so it's a very,
very unstable situation.

And it's that instability

and the uncertainty of it
all that both

produces real violence
and also allegations

and rumors of violence.

That's right.
First thing that Tiberius does

when he succeeds Augustus
is he sends a boat to an island

on which one of his relatives
has been kept in exile

for decades
to have the boy killed

because he could have been
an alternative.

And what does Caligula do
and he takes power?

One of the first things he does
is he has his cousin,

little boy named
Tiberius Gemellus murdered

because he's somebody else
who could have been emperor.

There is that story of Caligula
who some people said

that actually smothered Tiberius
when he was asleep

in order to take power himself.

And the other story
is he got the captain

of the praetorian guard
to do it for him

because emperors have people
who do the smothering for them.

On march 18, 37 ad, two days
after Tiberius' death,

the senate declared Caligula
to be Rome's third emperor.

He could now triumphantly
return to Rome

as the ruler of the known world.

At first Caligula's accession
was welcomed in Rome,

but the empire would soon find
out that Caligula's

new found power
would unveil his dark nature.

♪♪

Narrator: Just two days after the
death of emperor Tiberius in 37 ad,

24-year-old Caligula was named
the third emperor of Rome.

At first, the people of Rome
welcomed Caligula's accession.

As the son of the great
Roman general Germanicus,

he had the support of the army.

And as the great grandson
of the first Roman emperor

Augustus, he could claim
a direct bloodline

back to the dynasties founder.

Initially, Caligula appeared
to be a promising young ruler.

One of the first things he did
was give his mother, Agrippina,

a formal burial
in the family tomb,

the mausoleum of Augustus.

At the Capitoline
museums in Rome,

Caligula's mother's tombstones

still remains today,
and it's so much more

than just a grave marker.

Beard:
[ Speaking native language ]

These are the bones,
in fact, the ashes

of Agrippina,
the daughter of Marcus Agrippa,

the granddaughter
[Speaking native language]

Of Augustus, the first emperor,
who's now a god.

And she's the wife,
of Germanicus Caesar,

golden boy of the empire.

And she's the mother
[Speaking native language]

Of Gaius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus

[speaking native language]
Emperor Caligula.

In a way, it says just as much
about Caligula.

This is his manifesto
to his right to imperial rule.

Narrator: Another way Caligula
displayed his power

was by the money he minted,
stamped with his portrait.

Caligula was supposed
to be an absolutely

spectacularly generous.

He said on some occasions
to have gone up

to the first floor
of a building in the forum

and actually thrown money,
thrown coins at the crowd.

They would have got
some good cash to take home,

but more important in a way,

you'll also go home
with a message

because one of the ways
that emperors

could get their version
of events

or their slogan across
to the Roman people at large

was to put him on the coins.

Narrator: Caligula's coins
emphasized his royal ancestry,

and another key component
in his rise to power...

The military.

On the one side
is a really gorgeous portrait

of Caligula
and his name here, Gaius Caesar,

but on the other you can see
what must be him

standing on a box,
his arm outstretched

and he's talking
to a group of soldiers.

And it says at the top,
[Speaking native language],

short for speech of the emperor,

to his troops.

And underneath COH, short for

[speaking native language]

The cohorts
of the praetorian guard.

And the message of this
is clear.

Whatever family
background you have,

whatever deals you've done,

nobody in Rome
can become an emperor

unless they've got
the support of the army.

♪♪

Narrator:
Once established on the throne,

another way
Rome's new emperor cemented.

His power was to build.

Some of Rome's most iconic
ancient monuments

date back to Caligula's reign,

including two major aqueducts
and the Vatican obelisk.

And then there was
the most obvious statement

of Caligula's power...

The imperial headquarters
on the palatine hill

whose Latin name [speaks Latin]
gives us our own word, palace.

The emperor didn't live on
just the palatine hill.

Caligula also inherited vast
pleasure gardens called

Horti on the city's outskirts.

One of them, the Horti Lamiani
still exist today.

It's the site of the only
eyewitness account

from Caligula's reign

recorded in the book
"the embassy to Gaius."

The account was written
by Philo, a Jewish philosopher

from Alexandria who describes
his diplomatic mission to Rome

petitioning for the emperor
to secure the rights

of the Alexandrian
Jewish community.

But during his plea for
political equality,

Caligula's interests
are elsewhere.

When Philo and his delegation
get to their appointment,

they discover that
the emperor's mind

is actually on home
improvements.

And there's troops
around after him

through the gardens as he goes

from pavilion to pavilion
planning his makeover.

Narrator: According to Philo's
account, the emperor's true intentions

quickly became clear
from the moment

they entered his presence.

Beard:
When they get his attention,

they bow down to the ground,

but it doesn't cut much ice
with Caligula.

It simply says,
"so, you're the god haters.

You don't think I'm a god then?"

And he follows that up
by asking anyway,

"why don't you eat pork?"

Narrator: In the end
the emperor ordered Philo

and his colleagues to leave.

This dismissal
was documented evidence

that Caligula's greed
directly impacted his people.

In fact, during the 1870s
excavators made an astonishing

discovery in a Caligula
pleasure garden

that shows the true extent
of the emperor's

personal obsession
with extravagance.

100 of precious stones,
rubies, garnets,

carnelians,
pieces of rock crystal

and Amber are embedded
in amazing filigree silver

and gold frames.

When this stuff was first
discovered in the 1870s,

no one could quite work out
what it was.

An idea was that they come
across a throne room,

but there's just
so much this time.

I think we have to imagine
precious stones

literally embedded
in the palace walls,

twinkling in the lights
at night,

looking amazing or perhaps a bit
tacky during the day.

We do know that Caligula
was dead keen on pearls,

and one contemporary
witness says

he actually is to like slippers
with pearls sewn into them,

which if you ask me,

is a far cry
from those little military boots

he started out with.

Narrator: This is one of
the most iconic and impressive

imperial paintings
from ancient Rome,

the so-called garden room,

designed for Caligula's
great-grandmother, Livia,

whose home Caligula
spent time in as a boy.

It's a utopian scene.

The trees are full
of perfectly ripe fruit.

Every flower is in bloom,

and in the gleam
of the flickering lamps

2000 years ago
it would have been hard to know

whether we were looking at

a real garden
or a painting of one.

Of course that sort
of illusionism

is one of the most impressive
trademarks of Roman art,

but it's also
slightly unsettling

the blurring of the boundary
between the fake and the real

is one of the factors
about Roman culture that made it

so scary.

Narrator: Appearances were
always deceiving in the Roman court,

but with Caligula's rule,
deception reached

new and unpredictable heights.

There are stories of Caligula
offering guests food

only for them to realize
it was made of gold.

Other accounts have stated
that Caligula surprised

his opponents by using
a real sword

during gladiator practice

while his unsuspecting rival
wielded a wooden fake.

Because of his volatile nature
and extreme paranoia,

even the seemingly harmless
could and often did prove fatal.

♪♪

Narrator: In imperial Rome,
conspiracies were constant

and paranoia was pervasive.

In this world where the emperor
was always watching his back,

the people
he often ended up trusting

the most were the ones
he owned... his slaves.

In a museum in Rome
is the record of the staff

from one of Caligula's
actual palaces.

Each one tells us what they did.

Here's one, for example.

[ Speaking native language ]

Means ball player,

but perhaps
[Speaking native language]

Was a personal trainer.

We've got
[Speaking native language]

A helmsman,
perhaps on the imperial yacht.

But perhaps my favorite
of all this chap here,

[speaking native language].

That could be short
for [speaking native language]

Or Venice just might
have being a watchman or spy.

But it could also be short
for [speaking native language],

in which case he was the guy
who made the mirrors.

Narrator: While some
of Caligula's slaves

were primarily
focused on his comfort,

others were charged
with reinforcing his power

over the Roman aristocracy.

Some played a vital role

in the palaces strategy
of control and fear.

[ Speaking native language ]

He's the guy who controls

the guest list
at the palace dinner parties.

Now, Roman aristocrats
wouldn't touch

this a job with a barge pole,

but these guys could have
quite a lot of power.

And Romans told quite a lot
of sometimes wild stories

about just how powerful these
imperial slaves

and ex-slaves were.

Caligula supposed to have
one called Protogynous

who carried around with him
under each arm

with more than a bit of menace
and a bit of ham

acting at the same time
two different files,

one labeled dagger,
the other labeled sword

as if they contain
the lists inside of

who was to be put to death
and how.

It's not hard to see why the
emperor relied on these guys.

They didn't represent
a direct threat to him,

they weren't going
to become emperor themselves

and after all,
he owned most of them.

But in the end,
didn't actually do

Caligula or any good.

Some of them are supposed
to have been involved

in the final plot to kill him.

Announcer: At the height of
his reign, Caligula passed a law

that prevented anyone
from mocking his appearance.

A man who projected strength
and power was also fueled

by his own insecurities
and paranoia.

He learned an important lesson
under Tiberius

from the tragic fate
of his own family.

Conspiracies were an
absolutely inevitable

part of imperial life.

If Caligula's always
looking behind him,

if he's always watchful
are there people

who really are out to get him?

Yes, there were people out
to get him,

and I think there were two
quite different types.

Either there are people within
the extended family

who accept that Rome
is a dynastic autocracy

of which they are part
but want themselves rather

than Caligula to the autocrat.

But there's also another type
of potential opposition,

which is people who don't think
that Rome naught to be

a dynastic autocracy at all

and they want to put the clock
back to the republic

run by the Roman aristocracy,
run by the senate.

But it's really the first type.

It's the family
trying to replace him

from one of their own number

that looks like
it's the most important

that we have most evidence for.

Yes. His brother-in-law

Aemilius Lepidus was executed
for plotting against him,

and his wife, Caligula sister

and also Caligula's
other surviving sister

were both exiled as a result.

So clearly Caligula saw this
as a threat from those closest

to him inside the family
to his own position.

Historians have theorized

that Caligula's distrust
in his family

was one of the turning points
in his reign,

marking his transition
from a young emperor

with promise
to a maniacal monster

fueled by his extreme paranoia
and lust for power.

But the fact is that this is
the period of Caligula's life

during his time in power
about which we know the least.

Were these conspiracies real?

Were the salacious stories
of Caligula's cruelty true?

Or did his successors
rewrite history

to villainize the man
they murdered?

♪♪

Narrator: Today the story
surrounding the life of emperor Caligula

have reached
legendary proportions,

making it hard to separate
fact from fiction.

At first, Caligula succession
was welcomed in Rome.

But Caligula proved to be
so cruel and paranoid

that some have even attributed
his actions to madness.

Many of the most
enduring Caligula tales,

like his favorite horse
holding political office

are still debated by scholars.

But none are more contentious

than the rumors
surrounding his sex life.

As he became more paranoid,

he began to exercise his power
in more extreme ways.

It was said he turned his palace
into a brothel,

love dressing up
in women's clothing

and was so insatiable for sex

that he wore out
his male partners.

These stories may have been
embellished over the years

because they only first
appear in sources

written years after his death

primarily by the second century
biographer Suetonius

and they reveal as much about
the anxieties of the Roman elite

as they do about Caligula.

So you get these tales about
we go to dinner with Caligula,

you take your wife.

And then in the middle between
courses,

you suddenly discover
that the emperor's gone

out of the room with your wife.

They come back a bit later.

They all look a bit flushed,
and then they have bruises.

Well, she's not very good
in bed, is she?

Yeah, and I think associated
with those stories,

there's the account
of how people

come into the banquet.

Caligula's sitting on his couch,

people file past the end

and he acts like
someone at a slave market.

You know, sort of checking
out the girls,

trying to decide which one
he's going to select for later.

So this is how
the emperor shows his power

is by humiliating the elite
in all sorts of different ways.

And this is one way
amongst many.

But perhaps
the most damning story

was Caligula's incest with
his favorite sister Drusilla,

with whom as a boy

he was said to have been
discovered in bed

by his own grandmother.

There's no actual accusation
of incest by anybody

contemporary,
absolutely contemporary

with Caligula is there?

And even these
this Suetonius stuff

where he's talking about granny
finding them in bed.

And it is quite interesting
that even Suetonius

is only saying
people used to say that

the gossip was, where's it quite
clear that incest took place.

When it gets to the detail,
it's all...

Keep in the distance.

Yes, and I think even Seneca,
who's pretty much

Caligula's contemporary,

he does talk about
when Caligula's sister

Drusilla dies, Caligula's
excessive grief for Drusilla,

that he kind of doesn't know
what to do with himself.

He dashes off to the country.

He dashes back to Rome.

He tries to console himself
with gambling,

and he goes around
in a terrible state.

But he doesn't link that
to perverse sexuality.

I mean, I think there's
also this sort of

dynastic aspect of it.

I mean the stories about incest
are partly about their anxieties

about the way that powers now
transmitted in the Roman world.

That instead of it's going from
one lot of middle-aged men

to another lot
of middle-aged men

who have through a proper
process in the senate,

it's, you know, it's one family
that's holding on to power.

And the women in that family
then have an influence

in a way they never had

previously done under
the Roman republic.

So really what these stories
tell you

they're telling us about power?

I think that's right.
There he is, a youngish man.

He's not a great military leader
and thing like that,

but he's got all this power
as leader of the Roman world,

and his relations with
the senate clearly very uneasy.

So they tell these these stories
about his outrageous behavior.

Without the military pedigree
or political experience

to earn the elite's respect.

It's hardly surprising
he would search for alternative

means of exerting his authority.

One method included presenting
himself as both emperor and god.

The boundary between
Roman emperors

and the gods
was always a fragile one.

But Caligula trampled
right through it.

He said to have insisted
on being worshipped as a god

in his own lifetime.

Narrator:
And to make matters worse,

we're told he transformed
the most symbolic space in Rome,

the people's forum,
into his own stage

to be worshipped.

One story was that he turned
the temple of castor and Pollux

into the porch of his own house
and used to go

and sit there between
the statues of the gods

waiting to be worshipped.

Another story was he used
to go up to the Capitoline hill

to talk to Jupiter there,

and then built a bridge between
the palatine and the Capitoline

to make those conversations
a bit easier.

Narrator: Like so much of Caligula's
life, his efforts to deify himself

were so fabled historians
were unsure

of what was fact or fiction,
that is until modern

archaeologists
made a momentous discovery.

♪♪

Narrator: Today historians
often refer to Caligula

as a vicious,
paranoid narcissist

who deemed himself a god

when in fact much of what
we think we know

about Caligula remains unproven.

But archaeologists Henry Hurst
has uncovered hard evidence

of Caligula's efforts
to deify himself.

Caligula's fabled personal
walkway between the palace

and the most important places
in the city

may have actually existed.

We dug over all of this area,

and we're very lucky in that
we found some unusually

well dated remains
and we could date them

pretty much to around 40 ad,
around the time

of Caligula's reign.

And what they consisted
of was a large courtyard

going that way towards the hill

and behind it a very grand room
and a grand courtyard.

And then where we are,
a big enclosure

with a central monument,
and the combination of that

and this grand courtyard
and room

makes one think of some sort
of a palatial complex.

And on the other side
of that wall is

the temple of castor and Pollux.

Yes. So the story that Caligula

extended the palace
out towards the forum

and made the temple
his vestibule

seems quite possible

because these remains
are huge and palatial

and very close
to the back of the temple.

What about the story of
Caligula's fantastical bridge

to Jupiter
on the Capitoline hill?

Which, if true,
would have spanned

a distance of over 820 feet

and been 98 feet
above the ground.

The sane
and traditional view of this

is that the bridge
was just a timber footbridge.

So you wouldn't find any traces
archaeologically,

but we have the mystery
stray of what we're standing on.

What it looks really like

is a peer of the of
the Roman bridge Verona.

These look like
that quite a bit,

so we thought is this
a bridge pier.

And in favor of that
is this question of levels,

because the temple
behind us there

is one story up
from where we are.

There's also the story about
how Caligula threw coins

from the roof
of the basilica Julia,

also one story up,
and that was just over there.

So it would be quite sensible.

If you are having
a bridge for it

to be effectively one story high

so you could link these things
all at first floor level.

Like raised walkway
and then up to the Capitoline.

And then eventually up
to the Capitoline, yes.

It's a tantalizing clue
to the length Caligula

went for his own
self-aggrandizement.

But it also points
to the difficulty experts

have in separating fact
from fiction.

After just four years in power,

there is limited
archaeological evidence

that can be tied
to Caligula for certain.

But there is one site not far
from Rome that can be.

This is lake Nemi,
one of Caligula's

favorite places, and it's where
all the myths come together...

The uncontrolled extravagance,
the divinity and the violence.

It was known
in the ancient world

as the speculum dianae,
the mirror of Diana.

And in the 1930s it was the site
of one of the most remarkable

finds in Roman archaeology.

Two enormous floating palaces
that were so large and lavish

that they've become symbols
of Caligula's excess

towards the end of his reign.

Suetonius has left us
a vivid description

of other Caligulaian boats
so luxurious

they had jeweled prows,
sails of purple silk

and bathrooms
of alabaster and bronze.

Long thought to be a myth,
the boats of Nemi

hint the stories
might in fact be true.

Along with his lavish boats,

the emperor also
visited lake Nemi's

ancient shrines and temples.

One of them raises questions
about how cognizant

Caligula was of his
own impending doom.

This was once
the sanctuary of Diana,

a richly decorated temple
in a grove of sacred trees

overseen by the Rex Nemorensis
or king of Nemi.

He wanted to become
king of Nemi.

You came to the sanctuary,
you went and found

the special sacred tree.

You pulled off a branch.

If you manage to pull off
that branch,

you were allowed
to challenge the current priest

to a fight to the death.

If you won,
you became Rex yourself

because you've also got
a death sentence

because someone else
will be along sooner or later

to challenge you.

Narrator: The ritual of Nemi
harken back

to a very primitive
level of ancient Roman religion.

Caligula was said to have
revived it with relish

finding a slave to come
and kill the priest in charge.

However clever Caligula
might have been, in the end,

it didn't save him.

On January 22, 41 ad,
he was assassinated

after just three years,
10 months

and eight days in power.

And if the facts
of Caligula's life

might forever elude us,
ironically it's his death

about which we know the most due
in part to a graphic account

written by a Jewish historian,
Flavius Josephus.

Now professor Peter Wiseman
is taking Mary to the exact spot

where Caligula was attacked by
his own personal security force.

What happened in this alleyway
would end the young rulers life

and forever decide how
the world remembered Caligula.

♪♪

Narrator: Emperor Caligula has
paranoia was severe and renowned,

but it wasn't enough to
protect him from a violent end.

In 41 ad he was murdered
by some of the very few people

he trusted to keep him safe.

Today, professor Mary beard
is meeting up

with professor Peter Wiseman

to visit the site
of Caligula's assassination.

Wiseman:
He sees coming towards him

a colonel of the praetorian
guard called Cassius Chaerea.

[Indistinct],
who we thinks is safe.

Cassius Chaerea, however,
is the leader

of the assassination conspiracy.

And Chaerea draws his sword

and he brings it down
as hard as he can.

Gaius is staggering around
totally disoriented,

and the guy who actually
gave him

the final blow
was a man called Arcyon,

so is the one who has the credit

for the assassination
of the emperor Gaius Caligula.

Are people pleased
the tyrant's dead?

Some people thought that,

but you have to
understand about Gaius Caligula

is that he was enormously
popular

with the ordinary population.

He was a Caesar.
He was the son of Germanicus.

He was the
great-grandson of Augustus.

He was a great-great-grandson
of Julius Caesar

all these were popular heroes.

He was that popular hero,

and they hated the idea
that people,

senators, senior army officers
should take it upon them

to kill their man.

But there's a sort
of irony to this, isn't it?

Because this is not
an uprising of popular will.

This is a takeout move
by the praetorian guard.

Yes, a small group
of senior officers

who are also
involving a senior senators.

It's a question what they
expected to happen afterwards.

It seems that Chaerea
and the others were idealistic

enough to believe
that in killing Gaius

they will put an end
to what we call the principate.

There wouldn't be
an emperor anymore.

But in the end,
they get this very, very brief

little flowering of what looks

if it might be about to become
the overthrow of autocracy

entirely and the return
to the republican,

little bit of debate.

And then half an hour later,
they found Caligula's uncle,

Claudius, to put back
on the throne.

That's because
we praetorian guard itself

depended on there
being an emperor.

It was the ultimate betrayal
and a chilling reminder

that in imperial Rome
it was not the emperor,

but the army
who held the reins of power.

But there's one final chapter
in Caligula's story

which adds to his
terrible reputation.

There's evidence of his
reputation being defamed

before his body went cold.

To justify his assassination,
the new regime condemned him

as a tyrant.

His uncompleted building
projects were then taken over

and inscribed
with Claudius' name.

His coins were defaced,
his initials

symbolically scratched out,

and on many
of his official statues,

the heads were either replaced
or destroyed.

And at the Monte Martini museum
in Rome,

there's a strange sculpture
of Caligula's uncle

the new and in many ways
just as vicious emperor

which underscores the hasty and
superficial transition of power.

The face looks for all the world
like the emperor Claudius.

It's a bit middle-aged
and frowny,

just how Claudius
is often shown.

But he's got this strangely
bouffant fringe.

If you go up above him,

you can see
the whole booth or hairstyle

has been roughly chiseled off.

What's going on is that
a statue of Caligula

has been changed
into a statue of Claudius.

And it looks pretty weird,
except if you imagine

that this head
would be on a full-length statue

and if you get low down, well,
actually he works pretty okay

as Claudius from this angle.

Well, it's a way of saying
Caligula is obliterated.

Claudius is now on the throne.

A sneaking suspicion
that he also says

actually the new emperor

is only the old emperor
with a recut face.

Narrator:
This hybrid head gives us a clue

as to why it has
always been hard

to come face-to-face
with the real Caligula.

In the bloody transition
of power,

his real face has been lost.

As time passed,
the man and the myth

have become almost impossible
to separate.

Regardless, Caligula's story
of excess paranoia and cruelty

is a compelling reminder
of the perils of power

and how quickly
it can be destroyed.