{"title":"Caligula, Midas, and the Failure to Make Gold","authors":"Serena Connolly","doi":"10.1086/727862","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Suetonius reports that the emperor Caligula was fond of saying that a man ought to choose between being frugal (frugi) and being a Caesar. While generally understood as a self-referential declaration of Caligula’s excess, it has also been interpreted as a pun on the name of M. Licinius Crassus Frugi, whose son was an enemy of the emperor. This paper identifies an additional pun that contrasts the Phrygian king Midas, famed for his golden touch, with Caligula, whose attempt to turn arsenic sulfide into gold had failed. This newly identified pun reveals Caligula’s witticism to be self-aware and self-deprecating.","PeriodicalId":46255,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY","volume":" 10","pages":"140 - 145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/727862","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"CLASSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Suetonius reports that the emperor Caligula was fond of saying that a man ought to choose between being frugal (frugi) and being a Caesar. While generally understood as a self-referential declaration of Caligula’s excess, it has also been interpreted as a pun on the name of M. Licinius Crassus Frugi, whose son was an enemy of the emperor. This paper identifies an additional pun that contrasts the Phrygian king Midas, famed for his golden touch, with Caligula, whose attempt to turn arsenic sulfide into gold had failed. This newly identified pun reveals Caligula’s witticism to be self-aware and self-deprecating.
期刊介绍：
Classical Philology has been an internationally respected journal for the study of the life, languages, and thought of the Ancient Greek and Roman world since 1906. CP covers a broad range of topics from a variety of interpretative points of view. CP welcomes both longer articles and short notes or discussions that make a significant contribution to the study of Greek and Roman antiquity. Any field of classical studies may be treated, separately or in relation to other disciplines, ancient or modern. In particular, we invite studies that illuminate aspects of the languages, literatures, history, art, philosophy, social life, and religion of ancient Greece and Rome. Innovative approaches and originality are encouraged as a necessary part of good scholarship.
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