Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Roman Emperors in Marble - 3. Caligula
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58 ROMAN DA YS.
commonly was Priapiis ! But Cerea held himself this
time somewhat in the background, and it was to the
other captain Caligula gave the word, Jupiter ! Hardly
was the word spoken, ere a cry sounded : Thus let his
wrath fall upon thee I and Cerea’s sword was red with
the blood of his body. Many conspirators fell upon him,
and before the German guard had arrived, Caligula lay, a
bloody and lifeless mass upon the ground.
• •••••••• •
The statues and busts we have of Caius Caesar, show
that in a comparatively short time—he was murdered in
his twenty-ninth year—he succeeded in his constant effort
to acquire a forbidding appearance. Between the hand-
some youth in the gallery of the Museo Capitolino and
the toga-draped statue in the Villa Borghese, the dis-
tance is immense. One would not deny the former the
possibility of a noble development. In the basalt bust
before mentioned, in the imperial hall of the same muse-
um, nothing but evil is to be read ; but still, in a (so to
speak) imitated hand. Here, he tries to look repulsive.
The statue in mail in Naples, the heroic statue in the
Vatican and the toga-draped statue in the Villa Bor-
ghese, are like milestones on the road to open villainy. In
the last named work of art, and in the excellent bust in
the Villa Albani, he is represented in priestly attire ; and
this, as well as the expression of the face, reminds us of
an occasion on which he appeared as priest of the sacri-
fice, and with the axe felled —the victim? No, but the
unsuspecting servant of the altar, who stood by its side.
The Caligula of the Villa Borghese, with its eyes looking
obliquely, and its evil contraction of the mouth, seems
to be brooding upon a jest like this.
After Caligula’s death, the innumerable statues in
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