Cassius Chaerea

AD 14 is the first time we hear of Caius Cassius Chaerea. Augustus, Rome's first emperor, has just died. A mutiny breaks out among the legions stationed in Pannonia and Germania due to the general political insecurity and the harsh terms of service of the common soldier.

Two armies camped on the Rhine revolt and begin killing their centurions. A dashing young Chaerea draws his sword and proceeds to hack a path through the rebel legionaries. For the entire account of the uprising see Tacitus' Annals 1.16-44

Surely Chaerea won his later post as Tribune of the Preatorian Guard at least in part as a result of this valorous action. He had not only remained loyal to the house of Caesar, but had also vigorously butchered as many of its enemies as possible.

During the republic Roman generals found it practical to select the best and brightest from their army to serve as their guard on the battlefield. When not in combat these men were normally stationed around the commander's headquarters, a tent called the "praetorium."

In the early days of the empire one of the first things Augustus did was to design a permanent imperial bodyguard at Rome, which was named after the earlier units mentioned above. Only a part of the Guard was on duty in the city at any one time, while the rest were stationed in local Italian towns (Suet. Aug. 49).

The first really ambitious prefect (chief) of the Guard was a man named Sejanus. About ten years after Tiberius took power Sejanus convinced him to centralize the entire Guard right outside the walls of Rome in one massive outpost called the Castra Praetoria.

While the Guard would gain infamy in later years for their habit of making and breaking emperors, in AD 41 (our second and last sighting of Chaerea) they were still a loyal tool of the emperors. Indeed, rather than set up their leader Sejanus as emperor they had aided Tiberius in his overthrow.

We don't know when Chaerea was born and can only estimate his age in AD 41. Tacitus describes him as "a youth of high spirit" (Annals 1.32) during the Rhine mutiny. Therefore, a rough guess could make him about 45-50 at the assassination of Caligula.

Chaerea makes an apperance in Robert Graves' novel "I, Claudius." Here, Graves fleshes out his life bewteen AD 9-41 in an imaginary way:

"So Macro was relieved of his command of the Guards. Caligula appointed nobody in his place for a time [...] But the man to whom he secretly promised it was the colonel of the battalion which found the Palace Guard-none other than the same brave Cassius Chaerea whose name you cannot have forgotten if you have read this story with any attention-the man who killed the German in the amphitheatre, the man who led his company back from the massacre of Varus's army, and who afterwards saved the bridgehead (ala Horatius Cocles); the man too who cut his way through the mutineers in the camp at Bonn and who carried Caligula on his back that early morning when Agrippina and her friends had to trudge on foot from the camp under his protection. Cassius was white-haired now, though not yet sixty years of age, and stooped a little, and his hands trembled because of a fever that had nearly killed him in Germany, but he was still a fine swordsman and reputedly the bravest in Rome." Graves pp 400-01

The only thing in this fun passage that is supported by the ancient historians is the part about the melee in Bonn. We don't know how Chaerea came to Rome or rose to the rank of Tribune. There is certainly no mention anywhere but in I, Claudius of his brief stint as a gladiator. Nor is there any evidence to support the idea that he was attached to the legions that were destroyed in the Teutoburg forest in AD 9.

Although Caligula was indeed the soldiers' favorite mascot when his dad Germanicus was general (they had nicknamed him Caligula meaning "Little Boot"), there is nothing but Graves' own musing to verify the story of Chaerea carrying the little future emperor on his back to escape the mutineers.

We also know nothing of Chaerea's physical condition in AD 41 (palsy and fever being Graves' invention), despite what the author(s) of the Wikipedia stub for Chaerea claim (that he sufferred a wound to his genitals while serving in the army?). Wiki is clearly mixing up a passage from Suetonius. During the assassination the emperor suffered about 30 sword wounds, including some stabs to his genetalia (Suet. Caligula 58).

In the BBC TV miniseries version of I, Claudius Chaerea was played by Sam Dastor. But of course Jon Hurt as Caligula stole the show. If you can't stomach a whole miniseries watch Hurt's episodes at least!

In the 70's Vidal-Guccione "historical porn" production of "Caligula" Chaerea was played by Italian actor Paolo Bonacelli. I've included a picture of him in this section above.

Victim: 29 year old male.
Height: tall.
Complexion: pallid.
Body: hairy and badly built.
Neck: thin.
Legs: spindling.
Eyes and temples: hollow.
Forehead: broad and forbidding.
Scalp: almost hairless, especially on the top.

Officer arrived and found decedent, one Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus alias "Caligula", lying on the ground in a corridor connecting his house with the nearby theater. Evidence of massive blood loss resulting from multiple stab wounds. Murder weapon not recovered.

Wittnesses report that one or two unidentified men with short swords followed the victim as he left the show for lunch. Shortly thereafter shouts and scuffling were heard followed by the victim shrieking, "I am still alive!"

A group of Greek children, on a school field trip, found the body initially. Suspects were able to elude apprehension due to the large crowds that were clogging the streets for the festival.

Unfortunately, Chaerea's fellow Guardsmen quickly abandoned him when they found Caligula's malformed, bookish uncle Claudius hiding in the palace. While Chaerea was busy patting himself on the back in the senate, Claudius was being acclaimed as the new emperor outside the city walls in the Praetorian Camp.

You'd a thought that Claudius, the constant brunt of Caligula's dark humor, would have had something in common with Chaerea. That they'd have tossed back a few tankards of wine and swapped Little Boot stories. Well, Fortuna is a female dog (or so they say).

Perhaps the fact that Chaerea had ordered the deaths of Caligula's wife and little daughter had been a bit too thorough for Cla-Cla-Claudius. Perhaps he thought a troublesome precedent had been set by Caligula's murder.

Whatever the reason Chaerea soon found himself swept up in the subsequent events and found himself sentenced to death. He not only submitted to his execution bravely, but actually requested that he be struck down with his own sword (the same one with Caligula's blood encrusted on it).