What does Caligula have to do with kicking the can down the road*?
(Rodrigo Peñaloza, 29-XII-2019)

Both Flavius Josephus, in “Antiquitates Iudaeorum”, lib. 18, cap. 8, and Philon of Alexandria, in “De Legatione ad Gaium”, tell this story about Caligula. There was this Palestinian city called Jamnia, where the non-jewish community erected an altar in honor of Caligula. The jews in town considered it sacrilegious and destroyed it right away. After hearing about it, Caligula ordered the erection of a huge golden statue of himself in the very Temple of God in the capital of Iudea. Petronius, his legate, received the imperial order with concern. He knew that the erection of this statue in the Temple of God would trigger a serious revolt in the region. He took all the measures he could to put off the imperial order. To help him kick the can down the road, the Jewish king Agrippa managed to get a temporary postponement. Fortunately, Caligula was murdered in 41 AD, which pretty much settled the issue, for the relief of Petronius and Agrippa and — why not? — everybody else in the civilized world.

We can draw two lessons from this story:

(1) it is okay to disobey your emperor if you are very far away from him in the middle of the desert, provided your emperor is a monster likely to be murdered;
(2) this episode is the first time in history in which the proverbial phrase “kick the can down the road” made perfect sense.

* In Portuguese, “empurrar com a barriga”.