Roman Propaganda techniques and the Story of Emperor Caligula
By Agha Iqrar Haroon
“Kill him, kill them all. Nobody shall place two coins for boatman on Senator’s eyes. Let him die without the opportunity of sailing out of this world and return back”.
These words are cited referring to the brutality of Roman Emperor Caligula. The writer of these words was historian Suetonius who said that Caligula was exceptionally ruthless and he showed no mercy even to his deceased opponents. Placing two coins on eyes is a myth of Charon and the deceased had a moral right of having two coins on his eyes in Roman culture because when he would wake up out of the dream of death, he would give one coin to the sailor of life to bring him back to the human world.