Cassius Dio's account of Caligula's principate pivots on the divide between Caligula's 'democratic' debut and his later decline into despotism. As Dio reports, the murder of the emperor in 41 CE polarised the Senate on the question of whether to abolish the Principate or to confirm it. It is likely that Dio's interest in such a crucial passage depends on his own experience of the end of Commodus and the accession of Pertinax in 192-193 CE. The underpinning of his political thought is Stoic: when the relationship between the princeps and the Senate collapses, the solution is not so much 'republicanism' as a 'republican spirit', to be intended as a fruitful cooperation between the two.
The essay focuses on a selection of case studies referring to Gaius Caesar's mission to the East (early 1 B.C.-A.D. 4). The first concerns a reassessment of Plu. Mor., 207 E and Mor. 319 D, and Jul. Caes. 332 D, all referring to the same historical episode. The three versions differ from each other in some significant details that have been overlooked by critics, and that are here analyzed specifically. The episode they refer to may be reconstructed as a public speech held by Augustus as augur, solemnly celebrating Gaius' departure. Another possibility is taken into account, i.e. that the episode refers to a celebrative epigram composed by Augustus. In this respect, the comparison with AP 9.59 highlights the analogy with an ekphrastic propemptikon by Antipater of Thessalonica in honour of Gaius, which must be coeval with the episode narrated by Plutarch and Julian. The similarity of the final verses of Antipater with Plutarch's and Julian's words concerning the prayer of Augustus is notable, but the idea that the episode relates to a poem by the princeps is only seductive. An appendix is dedicated to the ekphrastic construction of Antipater' composition, revealing that the occasion for the poem was given by the inauguration of a painting in Gaius' house on the Palatine, where Antipater may have been present. ; The essay focuses on a selection of case studies referring to Gaius Caesar's mission to the East (early 1 B.C.-A.D. 4). The first concerns a reassessment of Plu. Mor., 207 E and Mor. 319 D, and Jul. Caes. 332 D, all referring to the same historical episode. The three versions differ from each other in some significant details that have been overlooked by critics, and that are here analyzed specifically. The episode they refer to may be reconstructed as a public speech held by Augustus as augur, solemnly celebrating Gaius' departure. Another possibility is taken into account, i.e. that the episode refers to a celebrative epigram composed by Augustus. In this respect, the comparison with AP 9.59 highlights ...
