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Caligula's secret garden is discovered after 2,000 years: Archaeologists uncover 'sumptuous terrace' in Rome belonging to the sexually depraved Roman Emperor
The sumptuous terrace where ancient Rome's most-depraved emperor snubbed his people as they pleaded for help has been unearthed in the path of a new underpass.
Despite reigning for just four years, Caligula is remembered as perhaps the cruellest, maddest, most perverted, extravagant, and murderous of Roman emperors.
His reign was also marked by a testy relationship with the empire's Jews, with the first-ever antisemitic pogrom unfolding during his reign in Alexandria, Egypt.
Now the very place where a delegation of Alexandria's Jews pleaded with Caligula for relief has been discovered on the banks of Rome's Tiber River during excavations for a new underpass.
Daniela Porro, special superintendent of Rome, who directed the excavation, was in no doubt that this was where the fateful – and ultimately futile – meeting happened.
The sumptuous terrace where ancient Rome's most-depraved emperor snubbed his people as they pleaded for help has been unearthed in the path of a new underpass
The very place where a delegation of Alexandria's Jews pleaded with Caligula for relief has been discovered on the banks of Rome's Tiber River during excavations for a new underpass
'It is obviously that place,' she said.
'We were lucky to find in one of the walls a fistula – a water pipe – with Caligula's name printed on it, which means that the portico was built by him.'
The discovery comprises a wall of brick and travertine marble that once formed a terrace on the River Tiber, with the foundations of a colonnaded portico behind.
There's also a large open area thought to be the former Horti of Agrippina, meaning Gardens of Agrippina, which were named for Caligula's mother.
The pipe from the portico bears the name Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.
This was the emperor's true name – Caligula being a nickname bestowed on him as a boy, when he would wear a mock soldier's outfit complete with little boots or 'caligae'.
The site also matches a description given by a member of the Jewish delegation, Philo of Alexandria.
In his work, Legatio ad Gaium, meaning The Embassy to Gaius, he describes Caligula 'receiving us favourably at first, in the plains on the banks of the Tiber (for he happened to be walking about in his mother's garden)'.
Porro said the find was surprising even to the spoilt archaeologists of Rome.
The discovery comprises a wall of brick and travertine marble that once formed a terrace on the River Tiber, with the foundations of a colonnaded portico behind
Despite reigning for just four years, Caligula is remembered as perhaps the cruellest, maddest, most perverted, extravagant, and murderous of Roman emperors
She said: 'Every time excavations are carried out in Rome it is easy to find archaeological finds.
'In this specific case, we knew that this was the area where the Horti of Agrippina and Domitia stood.
'These were marvellous imperial gardens with pavilions, porticoes, and buildings for idleness.
'So we imagined we would find something, but we didn't expect to find the foundations of Caligula's portico.'
The Alexandrian pogrom broke out at a time of rising tension between the city's Jewish and Greek populations.
Because of their monotheistic faith, the Jews were unable to comply with Caligula's orders to be worshipped as a living god.
On this pretext, Aulus Avilius Flaccus, the Roman governor of Egypt, had the city's Jews rounded up and forced into a ghetto.
Philo described the horrors that followed, saying their enemies 'slew them and thousands of others with all kinds of agony and tortures, and newly invented cruelties'.
'The most merciless,' he said, 'burnt whole families, husbands with their wives, and infant children with their parents, in the middle of the city.'
In his recollections, the historian describes the first encounter with Caligula by the Tiber as being superficially positive.
The site matches a description given by a member of the Jewish delegation, Philo of Alexandria
The pipe from the portico bears the name Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. This was the emperor's true name – Caligula being a nickname bestowed on him as a boy, when he would wear a mock soldier's outfit complete with little boots or 'caligae'
He says the emperor 'conversed with us formally, and waved his right hand to us in a protecting manner, giving us significant tokens of his good will'.
He continued: 'All those who stood around congratulated us as if we had already carried our point, and so did all those of our own people.'
Philo, however, was not fooled – and his cynicism was well-founded.
During a second meeting at Caligula's palace, Philo found that they 'had come not before a judge but before an accuser', an 'implacable tyrant, exhibiting uncontrolled authority and displeasure and pride'.
The emperor told them: 'You are haters of God, inasmuch as you do not think that I am a god, I who am already confessed to be a god by every other nation, but who am refused that appellation by you.'
Most outrageously, Caligula wanted a statue of himself as Jupiter installed in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism.
Most outrageously, Caligula wanted a statue of himself as Jupiter installed in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism
'It is obviously that place,' Daniela Porro said. 'We were lucky to find in one of the walls a fistula – a water pipe – with Caligula's name printed on it, which means that the portico was built by him'
Governor Publius Petronius, fearing a Jewish rebellion, was able to postpone the order until Caligula's assassination in 41AD.
After Caligula's death, the Horti of Agrippina would ultimately be inherited by his nephew, Nero – the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Porro said: 'He decided to build his own theatre not far from Caligula's portico, the remains of which we discovered last year.'
'During the subsequent Flavian dynasty the portico and other buildings of the Gardens of Agrippina were destroyed or reused for other purposes.
'In fact, above the foundations of the portico of Caligula we found a fullonica, or a laundry room.'
She added that the finds would be dismantled, with a view to potentially displaying them in an open-air museum.
The excavation was co-ordinated in the field by archaeologist Dora Cirone, with scientific direction from Alessio De Cristofaro.
Who was Caligula? Ancient Rome's 'mad' and 'perverted' third emperor slept with his own sisters and demanded senators worship him as a god
Caligula was born in AD 12 to renowned Roman general Germanicus and his wife, Agrippina the Elder.
He was given the nickname Caligula, or 'little boot', in reference to the tiny uniform his parents would dress him in.
Caligula's mother and brothers died in prison after being accused of treason, after which his great-uncle Tiberius adopted him and made him and his son equal heirs to the empire.
Although his appointment was initially welcomed by Rome when he started his reign, a serious illness – possibly epilepsy or hyperthyroidism – unhinged Caligula.
As well as indulging in the carnal pleasures of sex and gluttony, Caligula would torture high-ranking senators by making them run for miles in front of his chariot.
It is also believed he used to roll around in cash and drink precious stones dissolved in vinegar, and was so fond of his horse he tried to make it a consul.
The controversial 1979 erotic history film Caligula, recounting the rise and fall of the Roman emperor, starred Malcolm McDowell as Caligula (middle), Helen Mirren and Peter O'Toole
And he would jokingly threaten to have his the fourth and last wife, Caesonia, tortured or killed, who was said to be so beautiful Caligula paraded her naked in front of his friends.
He is quoted as having the catchphrase: 'Remember that I have the right to do anything to anybody.'
As well as indulging in the carnal pleasures of sex and gluttony, Caligula would torture high-ranking senators by making them run for miles in front of his chariot.
His lavish lifestyle drained the Roman treasury faster than he could replenish it with tax and extortion.
In AD 41, Caligula was stabbed to death, along with his wife and daughter, by officers of the Praetorian Guard led by Cassius Chaerea.
In the 1979 erotic historical drama Caligula, which depicts the Roman emperor's life, he is shown attending degrading sex shows which often involved children and deformed people.
The film, which was widely panned and described as a 'moral holocaust' by one critic, remains banned in its uncut form in several countries.