More on Roman Emperor Caligula!

I suppose this post should be called "go back to original sources" because in the course of researching the seven or eight ancient accounts of his reign, I sure do get a different picture of him.

Most of the modern constructions of his reign must use a single definitive scholarly work written in the last century or so, as they all follow the same standard lines; Caligula emerged from illness and went crazy, with his mental illness manifested at first by humiliation of important people and culminating in his desire to be worshipped as a god.  It is this latter act that seems to be the justification for assassinating him, given standard accounts of his reign.

The problem is this modern research, portrayed through pop culture or documentaries, are wrong.  Flat, dead, completely wrong!

Omitted from most accounts of Caligula's 4 years as Emperor are the fact that the ancient sources all mention he restarted democratic elections.  Also omitted, that the ancient sources talk about how democracy was a bad thing.  Seriously, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, Philo write that putting elections once again "in the hands of many . . . aggrieved the sensible" or that wise men recognized that when more people vote "many intrigues result."  The ancient sources of his reign were against democratic elections!  We must recognize that the ancient sources do not share our cultural values, and as such, call their objectivity into question.

There are exactly two. . . TWO sources, Philo of Alexandria and Seneca, who were alive at the same time as Caligula.  The others write more than 60 years later, largely drawing on anecdotal accounts of the time period from people who had stories about the man.  People who likely were not alive during the period, and if they were, could only have been children at the time Caligula ruled Rome.

They had to draw on anecdotal stories because the official records present from all other imperial eras, consisting of official senate records, notes made by the college of pontiffs, etc, were destroyed by Caligula's successor, Emperor Claudius.  Suetonius notes this destruction in his account of Claudius's reign.  Why were the records destroyed, if Caligula was the madman and tyrant history has claimed he was?

If we use the ancient sources to create a rough timeline we can place specific events within them, relating one thing to another, referencing common details with known events, and get a better picture of Caligula.  A glaring example of how history is wrong: caligula ordered his statue placed in temples, prompting the claim he thought he was a god, but did so in the second year of his reign.  We know this because Philo of Alexandria tells us Caligula's governor in Alexandria was in the 5th year of a 6 year term as governor when Tiberius died and Caligula became Emperor.  A year later this governor stirred up unrest against the jewish population of Alexandria, and Philo was appointed to petition Caligula for a release from this oppression.  While he was in Rome, having made the trip during a "tempestous" season on the Mediterranean, Philo gets word that Caligula has ordered his statue put in the temple of Jerusalem.

We know from other ancient accounts that the emperor's man in Jerusalem dithered for another year about putting the statue up, and that when Caligula returns from spending a season with his troops just prior to his assassination, he told the governor of Judea to forget the idea of putting the statue up.  So we see that during the time that he was to have had the idea, just before being killed, and offering justification for it, he was telling people not to worry about putting his statue up anymore.

I've seen many "experts" perpetuate myths about the man.  The experts are wrong, and so clearly wrong that the only excuse for it is they are using the same scholarly source material, rather than consulting the ancient sources directly and thinking critically.

On the future of the American economy

Lets assume that whatever next big idea that might pull the economy out of its slump will not be manufactured, since anything that can be made will be made overseas.  The jobs that remain will likely be service jobs, which require little to no skills in most cases.  High paying and skilled exceptions would be medical, which require an investment in education and face-to-face interaction that cannot be outsourced.  However, most service work is low to no skilled labor, with its paltry pay and benefits.

What are the implications of this?

Workers will not be able to afford their own homes.  Their parents, struggling to retire, will likely leave nothing for them to inherit short of the house they die in.  Renting will be the way most will house themselves, but those accommodations will prove expensive when demand will be so high.  In time, it will be difficult for children to leave the home at all, which will prove advantageous in the end.  Aging parents will have family to take care of them in their advanced years, and children will not need to resort to daycare to watch their kids. In short, the family unit will return to what has been the norm for most of human history, to say nothing of American history.

The idea that once a child has graduated from school they should set out on their own came along with the rise of cities, which were structurally unsuited for multiple generations to live in one unit.  In the US, home ownership became possible in the years following the first and second World Wars as America's economy produced the goods that the world demanded while Europe rebuilt.  By the 1970s these European and Asian nations recovered sufficiently to be our economic competitors, and the workforce adjusted.  In pursuit of ever cheaper labor to drive up profits, companies hired immigrants, and eventually outsourced labor overseas.  The boom economic years were unsustainable, since by the 70s our factories had competition.  The wages and guaranteed lifetime employment for those that fought the wars allowed a standard of living that cannot be realized today.

The tax base will shrink as well, as high paying jobs become a rarity, and the reliance on government support will strain the social safety net further.  The notion that graduates should immediately leave home and incur a lifetime of debt in order to support an unsustainable fantasy is both financially harmful and psychologically stressing.  Much better to recognize the reality, and carry on the tried and true practice of having multiple generations live together!

Everyone will benefit from it.

Egypt's Greatest Pyramids Are Not Tombs

Numerous myths about the Giza pyramids have been dispelled through archaeology; that they were not built by slaves, Jewish or otherwise, would be the most prominent example.  A worker's village was uncovered that included communal eating areas, housing, and cemeteries that indicated the workers were compensated for their tremendous efforts.  Remains in the cemetery include signs that injuries were treated, and broken bones mended in what was top-notch medical care for the day.  The graves of supervisors listed their job titles, and the topmost bureaucrats had elaborate inscriptions in tombs designed for them.  Work crews labeled stones in the pyramid themselves, and inscriptions indicate various crews competed against each other with prizes and honors for the greatest number of stones laid.  In fact, the workers' presence is so well documented through graffiti and grave inscriptions in the cemeteries that surround the pyramids, their number and obvious pride in their work underscores the lack of official inscriptions to support the idea that they were built as tombs for a single pharaoh.

Take Khufu's pyramid, for example.  The only sign that structure is linked to Khufu comes from graffiti hidden in the upper parts of what has been called the "king's chamber" that was not meant to be seen.  It was only by tunneling through ceiling stones in pursuit of treasure that early European explorers even found these structural voids, the uppermost of which contains the stained words "friends of Khufu" or something to that effect, designating which work crew set the stone.  What Egyptologists call the king's chamber, thought to be the resting place of Khufu's remains before grave robbers and looters cleared the room, doesn't contain a single heiroglyph or inscription to note the occupant of the tomb.  Choose any of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and the walls are decorated with stories depicting the king in life, scenes of battles, family, or other achievements.  Pick any obelisk or temple, and within minutes you can locate the name of the king that erected it as well as their reasons for doing so.  None of the three great pyramids contain the same inscriptions.  Even the stone sarcophagus in Khufu's pyramid is devoid of word of its supposed occupant.  An obelisk erected in a few months is covered in inscriptions, but a mountain of stone erected by men over an estimated 20 years for the singular purpose of giving the king a final resting place contains none?  What gives?

There is a school of thought that the pyramids were actually public works projects.  With their alignment on the compass, as well as shafts pointed at various contellations, the pyramids could be intepreted as "resurrection machines" built to allow a person a speedy transition to the afterlife.  Used by the royal family, but open to use from others as well, a body would likely rest in the pyramid for a particular length of time, before their mortal remains are interred in the necropolis that surrounds the pyramids.  In the case of royalty, perhaps their bodies would move on to the Valley of the Kings after ceremonies in the pyramids.  Given the lack of inscription or claim of ownership, the public works idea makes sense.  If they were built for community uses, no individual's name would belong on the project.  It also explains why Khufu's alleged sarcophagus has no lid; rather than being taken away by grave robbers (silly on its face since it would have been tremendous in weight, with little monetary value) there in fact was no lid, since the sarcophagus was not meant to be sealed.

As a final note, under this new paradigm the roles ascribed to the various chambers need to be
reassessed, since the roles were created with the idea that this was the final resting place for a king and his queen.