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Show TODAY IN HISTORY WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1910. Birthday of the First Imperial Madman. On August 31. A. D. 12, Gaius Caesar, tho firat of tho Imperial madmen of Rome, was born. He Is usually known In history as Caligula, a nickname given lo him by the soldiers of his father's command, among whom he was a great favorite In his childhood. The name was derived from "Callga," a kind of foot covering worn by the common soldiers, sol-diers, and 13 sometimes translated "Little "Lit-tle Boots." Caligula was .born at Antrum, An-trum, and was educated In the camp. On the death of his brother Drusus. he was made augur in his stead, and on the death of Tiberius, when Caligula was 1!5 yeaiH old, who. It was suHpocted, had received foul play at. his hands, It was found that he had been appointed tfi-hclr tfi-hclr along with the grandson of Tiberius, Ti-berius, but the senate and the people allowed al-lowed Caligula supreme and sole authority. au-thority. In the beginning of his reign ho appeared ap-peared hardly to fulfill the threat of Tiberius, who had talked of educating Caligula "for the destruction of the Ko-man Ko-man people." There was a good sldo to the emperor, which is shown In the just laws he enacted, en-acted, and the ancient ones he restored. But It later turned out that his ostentatious osten-tatious magnanimity was Itself a disease, an unwholesome affectation, founded on no principle or even humanity of heart. In consequence of this ho turned his rule Into the ravels of a madman, doing all sorts of ridiculous things, and was finally aHsassInatod when he was 39 years of age. Caligula succeeded In spending In one year the enormous wealth that had been left by Tiberius. He banished or murdered mur-dered his relatives. Tie filled Rome wltn executions, confiscating the estates of his victims. Ho amused himself while dining by having victims tortured and slain In Ills presence. He uttered tho wish that "all tho Roman people had but one ncek, so that ho might docapl-tate docapl-tate Romo at a blow!" To vie with Xerxes he made a bridge of ships over tho bay between Balae and Puteoll and celebrated the exploit by a costly banquet ban-quet in the middle of the bridge, and by collecting on It a great number of people peo-ple and causing them to be drowned. His favorite horse was stabled In a palaco, fod at a marble manger with gilded oats, was a member of the college of priests and afterwards raised lo the consulship. As a climax to all his ab-curdltlos ab-curdltlos he declared himself a god and had temples erected and sacrifices offered of-fered to himself. He used to complain aloud of tho state of the times because It was not rendered remarkable by any public calamities. He wished for soma terrible slaughter of his troops, a famine, a pestilence, conflagration conflagra-tion or an earthquake. Some senators who had borne the highest offices In tho government he suffered to run by his Utter Ut-ter In their togas for several miles together, to-gether, and to attend him at supper, sometimes at the head of his couch, sometimes at hlf feet, with napkins, others of them, after he had privately put them to death, he nevertheless continued con-tinued to send for, as If tncy were still alive, and after a few days protended that they had laid violent hands upon thcmselvos. When flesh was only to be had at a high price for feeding his wild beasts, he ordered that criminals should be given them to be devoured. As there was no one to make war upon him he decided to make an imaginary one upon himself and assembled his army upon the shore of the ocean and compelled them to gather up the shells and fill their helmets and folds of their dress, calling them "the spollB of the occctn due to the capltol and the Palatlum." As a monument to his success he raised a lofty tower. Caligula was crazy both In body and mind, being subject, when a boy. to the falling sickness. What most of all disordered him was want of sleep, for he seldom had more than three or four hours' rest In a night; and even then his sleep was not sound. lie was slain by Cassius Chaerea. ono of his bodyguards, body-guards, to whom he had been exceptionally exception-ally cruol, on January "A, M A. D. |