Caligula's tomb was found after a man was caught smuggling a statue.

www.guardian.co.uk...

This is interesting. I wonder how the smuggler was able to find the tomb? Did he have some foreknowledge or did he just dig around and hope to get lucky? I figure he did some research or something had had a general idea of where to look, or why bother?

got the link

Sorry, sometimes my fingers fly faster than my mind.

Wow, Caligula of all people, I wonder if there were any personal documents that could be recovered? I bet the tomb has been plundered for a long time and bit by bit it was being used as an income producer. We may never know what was destroyed or lost.

I hate the words, "tomb was evacuated immediately", but I guess there is no way to secure such a thing.

There are numerous articles popping up in the last 5 to 10 hours reporting this as an incorrect claim of discovery.

The news this morning is full of the "discovery" of the emperor Caligula's tomb at Nemi, by the lake about 30 kilometres out of Rome. The details are pretty murky. The police apparently arrested a guy who was loading a statue of the monster young emperor into the back of a lorry.

I havent seen a picture of this yet. But how do we know it was Caligula? Because, they say, it was wearing the 'caligae" or sandals that gave the emperor his nickname (his 'real' name was Gaius). Errr? Aren't there loads of Roman statues that wear these?

And why do we think that it marked his tomb?

Simple. Because it makes a good story that gets a load of press coverage for the discovery made by these no doubt brave policemen (the illicit antiquities business is probably second only to drug running in its nastiness). - The Times Online.

TIMES ONLINE
CBS NEWS
ATLANTIC WIRE

It's just a statue, and not even a complete one. Numerous icons of Caligula have been discovered over the centuries, this is nothing new. Why would someone who we know was assassinated be given such an elaborate tomb with statues and everything else? Speculation is that it may be one of his villas that has been found, not a tomb. I am inclined to agree, the geography and stratigraphical stance are not acceptable here.