Caligula's Galleys

Near the little woodland lake of Nemi. 20 miles from a Rome as yet unborn. Rome's Father Aeneas, at the Sibyl's bidding, plucked a branch from a tree in the Sacred Grove before he essayed his perilous journey into the world of the dead. In time Nemi's Sacred Grove withered, ultimately to be immortalized in Sir James Frazer's memorable journey through the world of dead religions -- The Golden Bough. Meanwhile Rome, too, was born, flowered and withered into decay. One early expression of Rome's decay whom today's dictators might particularly have admired was Rome's monstrous Emperor Caligula (A.D. 12-41), whose favorite order was: "Kill him so that he knows he dies." Caligula built two incredibly magnificent pleasure galleys, in which to float imperially on charming Lake Nemi. The galleys were constructed of oak, pine and fir, covered with wool, sheathed in lead, studded with the bronze heads of wolves and lions, marbles, mosaics, porphyry and precious metals. According to one legend they sank to the bottom of Lake Nemi with all hands aboard except Caligula, who was something of a practical joker. According to another legend they were stripped, allowed to rot and sink by successors to whom even the memory of Caligula was odious. For some 1900 years they remained faintly visible in about 60 feet of water. From the 15th Century on, people tried to raise them, merely succeeded in damaging them with grappling hooks. From the 16th Century on, divers brought to the surface excited reports and portable relics. In 1896 the eminent marine engineer, Vittorio Malfatti, worked out a feasible plan for raising the sunk galleys. But it remained for Benito Mussolini to carry out the plan. By his order a Roman drainage tunnel, which led out under a mountain, was reopened. Four huge electric pumps were installed. With his own hand II Duce started the pumps (1928). A little less than three years later the water-logged galleys were raised. In 1940 Mussolini presented the venerable hulls, mounted on concrete, as a pious gift to Rome on her 2,695th birthday (April 21). On the last day of May at lovely Lake Nemi the defeated Nazis paused in their flight from the U.S. Fifth Army long enough to give themselves a little pleasure. With fire they destroyed forever the galleys of Caligula.

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