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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tejas, post: 8024054, member: 84905&quot;]True, Claudius may not have been the incompetent fool as which the ancient sources portrayed him. Then again, Gaius Caligula may not have been the mad tyrant as which the ancient sources portrayed him either. Often it is hard to know the truth.</p><p>I guess the question of whether he was incompetent or not depends on the question if he deliberately put capable freedmen in charge of affairs, or whether he was just lucky that these people were around. Favouring is second wife&#039;s son Nero over his natural son Britannicus, however, turned out to be very unfortunate and probably a sign of his weakness of character.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Hm, debasement is a means to multiply nominal money if real wealth had been destroyed. Caligula did not destroy real wealth (he did but much less than other emperors), he only shifted it within the Roman Empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tiberius amassed a furtune by extorting money from people whom he falsely accused of treason in order to confiscate their money. Hence, money moved from the population to the Emperor.</p><p><br /></p><p>Caligula partly restituted this money to the families of Tiberius&#039; victims and largely spend it on luxury goods. Hence, money moved from the Emperor to the population, i.e. to craftsmen, farmers, traders, entertainers etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>The important thing is that real wealth was not destroyed by Caligula&#039;s spending spree. The main reason for the destruction of real wealth were military campaigns that failed to pay off. To finance such campaigns, emperors resorted to money debasement. </p><p><br /></p><p>To find the reason for the debasement of the denarius between the 1st and the 3rd century, we have to look for emperors who waged unfavourable wars, i.e. wars that may have been victorious, but that eventually cost the empire more than they actually returned in real wealth.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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