Caligula | Page 6

millions of sesterces. To prove to the world that he was ready
to encourage good examples of every kind, he gave to a freed-woman
eighty thousand sesterces, for not discovering a crime committed by
her patron, though she had been put to exquisite torture for that purpose.
For all these acts of beneficence, amongst other honours, a golden
shield was decreed to him, which the colleges of priests were to carry
annually, upon a fixed day, into the Capitol, with the senate attending,
and the youth of the nobility, of both sexes, celebrating the praise of his
virtues in (262) songs. It was likewise ordained, that the day on which
he succeeded to the empire should be called Palilia, in token of the
city's being at that time, as it were, new founded. [407]
XVII. He held the consulship four times; the first [408], from the
calends [the first] of July for two months: the second [409], from the
calends of January for thirty days; the third [410], until the ides [the
13th] of January; and the fourth [411], until the seventh of the same
ides [7th January]. Of these, the two last he held successively. The third
he assumed by his sole authority at Lyons; not, as some are of opinion,
from arrogance or neglect of rules; but because, at that distance, it was
impossible for him to know that his colleague had died a little before
the beginning of the new year. He twice distributed to the people a
bounty of three hundred sesterces a man, and as often gave a splendid
feast to the senate and the equestrian order, with their wives and
children. In the latter, he presented to the men forensic garments, and to
the women and children purple scarfs. To make a perpetual addition to
the public joy for ever, he added to the Saturnalia [412] one day, which
he called Juvenalis [the juvenile feast].
XVIII. He exhibited some combats of gladiators, either in the
amphitheatre of Taurus [413], or in the Septa, with which he
intermingled troops of the best pugilists from Campania and Africa. He
did not always preside in person upon those occasions, but sometimes
gave a commission to magistrates or friends to supply his place. He

frequently entertained the people with stage-plays (263) of various
kinds, and in several parts of the city, and sometimes by night, when he
caused the whole city to be lighted. He likewise gave various things to
be scrambled for among the people, and distributed to every man a
basket of bread with other victuals. Upon this occasion, he sent his own
share to a Roman knight, who was seated opposite to him, and was
enjoying himself by eating heartily. To a senator, who was doing the
same, he sent an appointment of praetor-extraordinary. He likewise
exhibited a great number of Circensian games from morning until night;
intermixed with the hunting of wild beasts from Africa, or the Trojan
exhibition. Some of these games were celebrated with peculiar
circumstances; the Circus being overspread with vermilion and
chrysolite; and none drove in the chariot races who were not of the
senatorian order. For some of these he suddenly gave the signal, when,
upon his viewing from the Gelotiana [414] the preparations in the
Circus, he was asked to do so by a few persons in the neighbouring
galleries.
XIX. He invented besides a new kind of spectacle, such as had never
been heard of before. For he made a bridge, of about three miles and a
half in length, from Baiae to the mole of Puteoli [415], collecting
trading vessels from all quarters, mooring them in two rows by their
anchors, and spreading earth upon them to form a viaduct, after the
fashion of the Appian Way [416]. This bridge he crossed and recrossed
for two days together; the first day mounted on a horse richly
caparisoned, wearing on his head a crown of oak leaves, armed with a
battle-axe, a Spanish buckler and a sword, and in a cloak made of cloth
of gold; the day following, in the habit of a charioteer, standing in a
chariot, drawn by two high-bred horses, having with him a young boy,
Darius by name, one of the Parthian hostages, with a cohort of the
pretorian guards attending him, and a (264) party of his friends in cars
of Gaulish make [417]. Most people, I know, are of opinion, that this
bridge was designed by Caius, in imitation of Xerxes, who, to the
astonishment of the world, laid a bridge over the Hellespont, which is
somewhat narrower than the distance betwixt Baiae and Puteoli. Others,
however, thought that he did it to strike terror in Germany and Britain,
which he was upon the point of invading, by the fame of