Death of an Emperor

Caligula was assassinated in January A.D. 41. Since he was the last of the Julii, and he left no heir, it seemed that the dynasty of Caesar and Augustus was finished. Accordingly, the Republic was restored, but then a coup d'état b the Prætorian Guard put Claudius in power. The dramatic events of these few days are a crucial turning-point in Roman history -- the moment when the military basis of the Principate was first made explicit. Tacitus' account has not survived, and Suetonius and Dio Cassius offer no adequate substitute. Fortunately, however, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus chose to insert into his "Jewish Antiquities", as an example of the providence of God, a detailed narrative of the assassination plot and its aftermath taken from contemporary and well-informed Roman sources. This narrative, one of the most important texts in Roman imperial history, has until now been unaccountably neglected. -- Back cover.