Cassius Chaerea

Cassius Chaerea († 41 AD) was a Roman Praetorian tribune who was involved in the assassination of the Roman emperor Caligula .

Under the general Germanicus , Cassius Chaerea served in the year 14 as a young man in Germania inferior with the rank of centurion in a legion stationed there . During the mutiny of the legions, he was able to resist threats of abuse or death.

He later became a tribune of the Praetorian Guard in Rome. Emperor Caligula is said to have constantly humiliated him and ridiculed him as effeminate. In revenge, he and his fellow tribune Cornelius Sabinus started a conspiracy against the emperor, who Caligula fell victim to on January 24, 41. Chaerea also had Caligula's wife Caesonia and her daughter killed. He was against the proclamation of Claudius as Caligula's successor. Even before Claudius had become emperor, he had Chaerea tried and executed in an urgent process on charges of conspiracy by a hastily assembled consilium . The court came to the conclusion that the motive was honorable and that the success of the crime itself was to be welcomed, but that the perpetrators had forfeited their lives due to presumptuous infidelity. This should also act as a deterrent to possible imitators.

Remarks

↑ Tacitus , Annalen 1,32,2: Cassius Chaerea, mox caede Gai Caesaris memoriam apud posteros adeptus, tum adulescens et animi ferox, inter obstantis et armatos ferro viam patefecit .
↑ Suetonius , Caligula 56.2.
^ Cassius Dio , Roman History 59:29.
↑ Cassius Dio, Roman History 60,3,4.
↑ Josephus : Jewish Antiquities 19,268.
↑ Detlef Liebs : Court lawyers from the Roman emperors to Justinian , Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Munich 2010, CH Beck, Claudius, Tyrannenmord , p. 177.

personal data
SURNAME	Chaerea, Cassius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Praetorian Tribune, organized Caligula's assassination
DATE OF BIRTH	1st century BC BC or 1st century
DATE OF DEATH	41

[1] Tacitus , Annalen 1,32,2: Cassius Chaerea, mox caede Gai Caesaris memoriam apud posteros adeptus, tum adulescens et animi ferox, inter obstantis et armatos ferro viam patefecit .

[2] Suetonius , Caligula 56.2.

[3] Cassius Dio , Roman History 59:29.

[4] Cassius Dio, Roman History 60,3,4.

[5] Josephus : Jewish Antiquities 19,268.

[6] Detlef Liebs : Court lawyers from the Roman emperors to Justinian , Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Munich 2010, CH Beck, Claudius, Tyrannenmord , p. 177.