Philo reports a rumour that in 40, Caligula announced to the Senate that he planned to move to Alexandria, and rule the Empire from there as a divine monarch, a Roman pharaoh. Very similar rumours attended Julius Caesar's last days, up to his assassination and very much to his discredit. Caligula's ancestor Mark Antony took refuge in Egypt with Cleopatra, and Augustus had made it a so-called "Imperial province", under his direct control. It was the main source of Italy's grain supply, and was administered by members of the equestrian order, directly responsible to the ruling emperor. Egypt was, more or less, Caligula's property, to dispose of as he wished. Roman knowledge of pharaonic brother-sister marriages to maintain the royal bloodline would have shored up the many flimsy, scandalised allegations of adolescent incest between Caligula and Drusilla, supposedly discovered by Antonia but reported as rumour, and only by Suetonius. Barrett finds no further evidence for these allegations, and advises a skeptical attitude.
Philo reports a ,rumour that in 40, Caligula announced to the Senate that he planned to move to Alexandria, and rule the Empire from there as a divine monarch, a Roman pharaoh. Very similar rumours attended Julius Caesar's last days, up to his assassination and very much to his discredit. Caligula's ancestor Mark Antony took refuge in Egypt with Cleopatra, and Augustus had made it a so-called "Imperial province" under his direct control. It was the main source of Italy's grain supply, and was administered by members of the equestrian order, directly responsible to the ruling emperor. Egypt was, more or less, Caligula's property, to dispose of as he wished. Roman knowledge of pharaonic brother-sister marriages to maintain the royal bloodline would have shored up the many flimsy, scandalised allegations of adolescent incest between Caligula and Drusilla, supposedly discovered by Antonia but reported as rumour, and only by Suetonius. Barrett finds no further evidence for these allegations, and advises a skeptical attitude.