Anyone want to share their sestercii?

I remember reading that when I played Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey.

It takes place in 5th century BC Greece and one of the rare materials to purchase the best equipment is “Orichalum”.

Except in the game it’s green, blue and gray as seen in this screenshot.

 

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Assassin's Creed: Odyssey... I remember playing the game. Really fun running around the Parthenon with the huge Athena statue. Medusa was so hard to beat though.

 

Yeah for sure I have 200+ hours in it.

I enjoyed getting to explore a pretty cool recreation of Ancient Greece.

I'll never forget when I was just riding my horse from one place to another and accidently came upon the Numidian Lion xD

I also loved that the beginning of the game let me play as Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae.

 

Yes, the feeling of being "part" of the Greek history is cool. So bad all the drachmae we earned are just virtual coins, not real Athenian Owls.

 

It’s ok I already have an Athenian owl ^_^.

I think it’s funny though that my Kassandra character somehow is able to carry around 100,000+ drachmae. Not to mention she doesn’t even have pockets. Lol

 

Have you checked caligula tetradrachms featuring his sister agripinna? I love those and was lucky to get one few years ago

 

Hmm nope I haven’t seen on of those yet.

I do know Caligula was seperated from his 3 sisters Agrippina, Drusilla and Livilla when he was a child and that when he became Emperor he brought them back to Rome to serve as advisors.

Eventually he impregnated his sister Drusilla (she was considered to be the most beautiful of the 3) and she died.

Shortly after her death is when his madness began. He named Drusilla a Goddess (a big deal since not even Augustus’s wife had been made a goddess) and then declared “days of mourning” where no Roman could go about their trade.

Rumor is one unfortunate Roman was executed for selling hot water during one of these “days of mourning.”

Although when you realize what a traumatic life Caligula had its actually surprising he didn’t go crazy earlier.

I think his traumatic life (his earliest days as a child were spent with his father Germanicus in war zones, not exactly great places for children) & his “brain fever” that left him in a coma for months are what drove him mad.

He wasn’t always crazy though.

It’s just a shame Germanicus died/was killed before he became Emperor. Historians call him “The greatest Emperor that Rome never had.”

 

Wow you know his history quite well so go for a coin of him. BTW, I don't necessarily against tyranny but not the Caligula type of it. Making a horse consul and having sex with a consul wife in front of him is just pure madness. I like when tyranny is goal oriented. I see the Ghengis khan's tyranny way more understandable than caligula's. Ghengis was very goal oriented in his tyranny. For every killing he did , he had a political goal not just for pure fun of killing.

 

This is the coin I am talking about by the way. It worth 1600 Euro

https://www.sixbid.com/enzmnxslqwyj.../6647736/gaius-caligula-with-agrippina-senior

 

Are we having conversations with ourselves again?

 

Here is mine,

Gordian III
30mm
16.25 g.
RIC 318a

Reverse: Libertas standing left, holding pileus and vindicta.

 

Awesome coin!

 

Edit: First of all I want to apologize for the length of this post. I kind of got going and it was huge before I realized it. Feel free to skim.

Yeah he did alot of bizzare and awful stuff but I mean look at his life.

As a young boy he is marched from war camp to war camp with his father. I'm guessing he saw a lot of post-combat carnage even if he wasn't actually fighting. That wouldn't just traumatize a little boy it would also de-sensitize him to violence and suffering.

Then his father is poisoned by Tiberius. His mom (a woman with intelligence & influence) starts making a fuss implicating Tiberius had ordered Germanicus killed so Caligula's mom gets exiled along with his 3 sisters.
His older brothers are killed.

As for his fate he is taken hostage in Rome under house arrest by Tiberius, the same man who destroyed his family, and lived every single day wondering if some praetorian guard member would show up and slit his throat as he slept. Living with that fear every single day while also being alone with no family contact for years would've impacted him emotionally for life.

I'm just saying I can understand why he might have believed he was surrounded by enemies. The brain fever and coma definitely didn't help.

Basically I'm saying what do you expect when you take a horribly traumatized 20 something year old man and hand him all the power of Emperorship?'


He was generally a good person with good intentions in his earlier years. The first 7 months of his reign it's said that Romans were extremely pleased with him and everything he did the people loved.

For example he funded construction projects like the aquaduct "Aqua Claudia" (which was completed under the reign of his successor & uncle Claudius).

He did spend ALOT of money that's for sure. Estimates are 3 billion sesterces (750 million denarii) in the first year of his reign alone. Although he spent a lot of that on himself not just public works and stuff for the people.

Then the "Brain Fever" (noone knows exactly what) and coma and he completely transformed.

It's a shame. He could've been an amazing Emperor. He would've been familiar & knowledgeable about politics & warfare via living & learning alongside his father Germanicus on his war campaigns. Generals like Germanicus needed to be skilled politicians as they dealt with leading legions and had to deal with the Senate & people regarding what they were supposed to do with said legions. Even today US military generals are regularly speaking before Congress, President, etc., so the political aspect of generalship is still there.

Everyone loved Germanicus and they expected (and I believe Caligula originally wanted) him to be a younger Germanicus. An Emperor who would reign for many decades and bring a golden age to the Empire.


Honestly it's one of my big "What Ifs?" thoughts about history.
"What if Caligula hadn't gotten the brain fever?"

Photo of the "Aqua Claudia" (The waters of Claudius): Construction begun by Caligula and completed under Claudius.

 

I totally agree with you. He was definitely traumatized by scenes of war and violence in childhood but so was genghis. Have you watched the movie on genghis life? This is the trailer but you can find the full movie in YouTube.



if you watch this you will know from very early age genghis went through way more suffering than Caligula. As a child his father was murdered then his whole family was almost killed and enemy kidnapped him and turned him into slave . He ran away miraculously and joined his family . He end up killing his brother during a dispute and the married a girl and his newly married wife was kidnapped and raped by his enemies (Some even said one of his child was from his enemy while his wife was enslaved) but although his life was worst than Caligula he managed to come out as a very sane but cruel ruler. However, as I said his cruelty was very well aimed towards his goals. in one word I would say Caligula was a wolf who killed just for sake of pleasure of killing but genghis was a wolf who killed to eat.

 

I’ll definitely check it out when I get some time. Thanks!


I think there is one huge difference between Caligula & Genghis Khan.

The brain fever & coma. Prior to that even with his traumatic past he was a good Emperor.

For example: When Tiberius died he wrote in his will that he wanted Caligula & Tiberius’s grandson Gemmelus to rule as co-emperors.

Caligula ultimately got Tiberius’s will rendered null & void (with the help of Macro his head of the Praetorian Guard) and claimed the Emperorship for himself.

He could have had Gemmelus killed or exiled as a potential threat. That was common among Roman Emperors to eliminate all threats.

Instead he named Gemmelus his successor and let him live. For a while.
He ultimately killed Gemmelus after the brain fever & coma. That shows a change in thinking & personality.

It wasn’t until after the brain fever hit him that things got crazy like naming horses consul and stuff.

I wonder how Genghis Khan would’ve come out if he had the same brain fever & coma.

Brain damage/illness can cause serious personality changes.

 

This is very interesting point . I am not too sure how reliable is the fact that he got a brain fever and how much that affected his behaviors? Could it be that he just had a change in the behavior for whatever reason and ancient historians were just looking for something external to blame it on and they made that brain fever and coma as a culprit in his mood change?

 

Haha and I bet if genghis got that brain fever , me and you would not be talking in English now but in Mongolian

 

Well I mean I don’t really think he could fake a 3 month long coma. I don’t think anyone could.

I really believe he had some sort of illness that affected his brain. Believe me when I say there are many many stories of people whose personality was dramatically changed by brain damage/illness.


But based on the fact that he was a good person until then I don’t think he just became a bad person or a crazy person overnight.

I mean his dream was to be like his father Germanicus. Germanicus was an intelligent, charming, charismatic leader respected by all. Not because they feared him but because he treated them well so they respected him.


I think mental illness on top of a damaged brain would’ve made his behavior even worse.

But I just see him more as a tragic victim of circumstance than a psychopathic sadist who was cruel for enjoyment.

 

Fortunately for us across the pond horses can’t swim.

 

True but don't forget Gebghis and his descendants had a very powerful warships and naval army.