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Headword: Gaïos
Adler number: gamma,12
Translated headword: Gaius
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
Emperor of [the] Romans. At first he handled the affairs of the empire in a high-minded fashion and dealt with his subordinates professionally. But after two years he deviated from human nature and, in imitation of his [sc. adoptive] father [sc. Tiberius], deified himself and sent a statue of himself to be set up in the temples of each of the cities. And he issued an edict to the temple of Jerusalem, demanding that it be called the shrine of the young Gaius [....] When decreeing slave-rule he permitted [slaves] to denounce their masters if they knew of any transgression on their parts. This caused a horrible catastrophe to rock the entire realm, as slaves subjected their masters to grievous penalties. For each of them wanted to avenge himself on his own master for the punishments he had suffered previously at his hands. And that is not all: descending into madness he improperly clothed himself in women's robes and bedecked his hair with curls and a kind of hairnet, and bearing himself like a woman he compassed all manner of shameful deeds; he devised rituals and performed foreign mystery ceremonies. Moreover, one time he took his own daughter and put her into the lap of the statue, saying, "you begot her and you are her rightful father."[1]
This man became the most defiled and the most unholy and conceived such an impulse toward evil that he made people forget the shortcomings of Tiberius. For all that had been gained by Augustus in a great length of time he lost in a single day. Having become the most debauched of men he even seized upon betrothed and married women, and charging his own nurse with stupidity he drove her to the point where she was compelled to die by her own hand. He also took advantage of his sisters and joined with them in illegal intercourse, so as to become even the father of unholy offspring born from one of these very sisters. He arranged that there be temples and sacrifices [to himself] as a demigod. The Romans were at the mercy of him as emperor, in such a way that the actions of Tiberius, though they were thought to have been most grievous, were surpassed by those of Gaius as much as those of Augustus were by that one [i.e. Tiberius].[2]
This man reigned after Tiberius and was called 'Caligula'.[3]
Greek Original:
Gaïos, Rhômaiôn basileus, to men prôton megalophronôs dieipe tês basileias ta pragmata kai pasi tois hupêkoois kathêkontôs echrêto, meta de duo chronous ekstas tês anthrôpinês phuseôs kata mimêsin tou patros heauton apetheôse kai andrianta heautou kata polin en tois naois apesteile kathidrusasthai kai eis ton tôn Hierosolumôn naon thespisas neou Gaïou hieron prosetaxen onomazesthai. kai doulokratian nomothetêsas epetrepse katêgorein tôn despotôn, ei ti an eidoien autois plêmmelêma. kanteuthen deinê sumphora kateilêphei tên oikoumenên pasan, tôn oiketôn megalais timôriais hupoballontôn tous despotas. hekastos gar amunesthai ebouleto ton idion despotên huper hôn par' autou basanôn proepaschen. ou mên de alla kai eis manian trapeis athesmon stolas gunaikeias êmphiennuto kai tên komên plokamois kai plokêi tini peristellôn kai gunaikizomenos kai pasan aischrourgian diaprattomenos teletas epenoei kai xena mustêria epetelei. kai dê labôn pote tên idian thugatera kai eis tous kolpous tou agalmatos autên themenos ephê, su tautên gegennêkas kai patêr autês ennomos huparcheis. houtos miarôtatos te kai anosiôtatos egeneto kai tosouton hormathon kakôn suneilêphôs epekalupse ta tou Tiberiou meionektêmata. hosa gar tôi Augoustôi en pollôi chronôi periepoiêthê, houtos en miai hêmerai apektêsato. moichikôtatos te anthrôpôn genomenos kai gunaikas hêrmosmenas kai gegamêmenas elambane. tên te heautou tithênên epitimêsas anoias es anankên hekousiou thanatou katestêsen. echrêto de kai tais adelphais kai paranomôn ekoinônei mixeôn, hôs kai patêr anosias katastênai gonês ek mias autôn tôn adelphôn apogennêtheisês. naous te kai thusias hôs hêmitheôi ginesthai pareskeuaze. toioutôi autokratori hoi Rhômaioi paredothêsan, hôste ta tou Tiberiou erga kaiper chalepôtata doxanta gegonenai tosouton ta Gaïou, hoson ta tou Augoustou par' ekeinôi parênenkan. houtos meta Tiberion ebasileuse Kalligolas onomazomenos.
Notes:
Also known as Caligula (see, much more concisely, gamma 11), he reigned 37-41 CE. See generally OCD(4) s.v. Gaius(1).
[1] = (with minor variations and omissions) George the Monk (Georgius Monachus), Chronicon 1.323.7-324.8. (This passage is also referred to at delta 1418.) Its assertion, in passing, that Tiberius (tau 551, tau 552) deified himself is untrue.
[2] = (with minor variations) John of Antioch fr.82 FHG (4.571), now 162.1 Roberto; Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Excerpta de virtutibus 1.178.6-18), an account which seems to depend heavily on Book 59 of Cassius Dio (see particularly Dio 59.5 for the last sentence of the present account). A sentence from this source is also quoted at omicron 596. For Augustus see generally alpha 4412, alpha 4413.
[3] This sentence seems to combine material from the beginning of the account of George the Monk (see n. 1 above) and the source of gamma 11.
Keywords: architecture; art history; biography; Christianity; chronology; clothing; daily life; economics; ethics; gender and sexuality; geography; historiography; history; law; medicine; politics; religion; women
Translated by: William Hutton on 16 June 2003@05:31:20.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (added 2 notes; added x-refs to existing notes; cosmetics) on 16 June 2003@07:33:38.
William Hutton (augmented notes, tweaked tr., added keywords) on 27 March 2008@09:24:04.
Catharine Roth (cosmeticule, status) on 12 April 2008@20:40:52.
David Whitehead (tweaks) on 16 July 2012@10:17:51.
Catharine Roth (tweaked note) on 20 August 2012@00:46:48.
David Whitehead (expanded notes; cosmetics) on 20 August 2012@03:35:43.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 4 August 2014@02:47:27.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 29 January 2015@09:14:47.

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