# Caligula and the Cesarean Operation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 11, 2003, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caligula-and-the-cesarean-operation/181177 "2003-06-11T19:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DeepField](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@DeepField](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepField)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caligula-and-the-cesarean-operation/181177/1 "2003-06-11T19:35:36Z")
On the staff report on [Caligula](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcaligula.html) I was surprised to find that there is no proof of **incest** by Caligula. I am not a historian, and my only “knowledge” of the matter is from Peter Grave’s _I, Claudius_, but I understood that the Cesarean Operation was named after Caligula’s extraction of his unborn child from Agrippina’s uterus. In the series, he killed both, just as he wanted, but I guess some physician got the idea that it could be done better. Is the operation’s name based on an unfounded myth? Was it some other emperor (Cesar?) who should be credited for the idea? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caligula-and-the-cesarean-operation/181177/2 "2003-06-11T20:06:38Z")
I wouldn’t say there’s _no_ evidence of incest. It’s just not particularly compelling evidence. Josephus, Suetonius, and Dio accept it as true, but not all modern historians accept their word. The medieval Scholiast on Juvenal also tells a story that has Caligula bragging about sleeping with his sister(s), but that’s an even more dubious source. There are a lot of fanciful stories about how the cesarean section got its name. Cecil discussed the question [Was Julius Caesar born by cesarean section?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_289.html) The answer is no, but it’s possible the operation was named after a popular misconception that he was born that way, or the tradition (possbily true) an ancestor of his was. Caligula’s sister Agrippina never underwent a Cesarean section. I can sort of see where the idea might have arisen. Years after Caligula’s death, when she was about to be killed on the order of her son Nero, she bared her midriff and told the soldiers to strike at her womb because it had borne such a monster. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caligula-and-the-cesarean-operation/181177/3 "2003-06-11T20:31:42Z")
Here’s another article on the origin of “cesarean”: [http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorc.htm](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorc.htm) (scroll down about a quarter of the way). I should note that in the novel _I, Claudius_ by Robert Graves, there is only a vague suspicion that Caligula had anything to do with Drusilla’s death, with no details given. The abortion scene is only found in the miniseries. In this scene, Caligula is reenacting the myth of Zeus and Metis (not Cronos and Rhea as many seem to believe). In the myth, Zeus slept with Metis and then ate her (along with the child she was carrying) because of a prophesy that she would bear a child destined to be wiser than himself. Later, suffering from a headache, Zeus had his head cut open and their offspring Athena came forth. Caligula’s action in the miniseries is different in that he apparently eats only the fetus, not its mother. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caligula-and-the-cesarean-operation/181177/4 "2003-06-12T20:48:53Z")
\<\< Caligula’s action in the miniseries is different in that he apparently eats only the fetus, not its mother. \>\> Well, he doesn’t have his head cut open, either.