Cassius Chaerea

Cassius Chaerea (died 41) was a centurion in the army of Germanicus and served in the Praetorian Guard under the emperor Caligula, whom he eventually assassinated.

According to Tacitus, before his service in the Praetorians, he distinguished himself with his bravery and skill in helping to subdue the mutiny on the German frontier immediately after the death of Augustus.[1]

Cassius was disturbed by the increasingly unbalanced emperor, and angered at Caligula's mocking of his voice and his supposed or real effeminacy, possibly due to a wound to his genitalia suffered while serving Caligula's father, Germanicus. It is reported that whenever Caligula had Chaerea kiss his ring, Caligula would, according to Suetonius, "hold out his hand to kiss, forming and moving it in an obscene fashion."[2] He was also made to use degrading watch-words at night, including "Venus" (slang for a male eunuch) and "Priapus" (erection).[2]

Unable to bear this any longer, Chaerea planned to assassinate Caligula during the Palatine games held in January. Cassius' plot was one of several that formed around the same time and eventually coalesced into one broad conspiracy including Praetorians, Senators, and Equestrians. On January 24, Cassius struck, and Caligula was killed. At the same time, Caligula's wife Caesonia and daughter Julia Drusilla were murdered, completing the task of destroying the emperor's family. Cassius was sympathetic to his fellow conspirators in the Senate, and so wanted the destruction of the principate.

Unfortunately for Cassius, he did not control the loyalty of the majority of the Praetorians. His men had proclaimed Caligula's uncle, Claudius, as emperor. Shortly afterwards, he was sentenced to death, one of the few assassins to be actually condemned. Cassius requested to be executed with his own murder weapon, and this was granted.

In popular culture

Robert Graves, in I, Claudius, invented the story that he was among the few survivors of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The character was also included in both the unfinished film and television series based on the book. In the latter, he was played by Sam Dastor.

In the film Caligula, he was played by Paolo Bonacelli. In the trailer for the fictional remake, he was played by Gerard Butler.

Sources

  1. ^ Cornelius Tacitus. Anthony John Woodman. ed. The Annals. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 9780872205581. http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.1.i.html. Retrieved 2011-01-24. 
  2. ^ a b "The Lives of the Twelve Caesars". University of Chicago Press. 2010. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Caligula*.html. Retrieved January 23, 2010. 

References