Caligula: A BiographyThe infamous emperor Caligula ruled Rome from A.D. 37 to 41 as a tyrant who ultimately became a monster. An exceptionally smart and cruelly witty man, Caligula made his contemporaries worship him as a god. He drank pearls dissolved in vinegar and ate food covered in gold leaf. He forced men and women of high rank to have sex with him, turned part of his palace into a brothel, and committed incest with his sisters. He wanted to make his horse a consul. Torture and executions were the order of the day. Both modern and ancient interpretations have concluded from this alleged evidence that Caligula was insane. But was he? This biography tells a different story of the well-known emperor. In a deft account written for a general audience, Aloys Winterling opens a new perspective on the man and his times. Basing Caligula on a thorough new assessment of the ancient sources, he sets the emperor's story into the context of the political system and the changing relations between the senate and the emperor during Caligula's time and finds a new rationality explaining his notorious brutality. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
2 Two Years as Princeps | 52 |
3 The Conflicts Escalate | 90 |
4 Five Months of Monarchy | 132 |
5 Murder on the Palatine | 172 |
Inventing the Mad Emperor | 187 |
Epilogue to the English Edition | 195 |
Notes | 197 |
| 215 | |
| 219 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accused actions Agrippa Agrippina Alexandria ancient Annals Antonia Minor Antonius aristocrats assassination Augustus Augustus's banquets behavior bodyguard Caesar Caesonia Callistus Capri Cassius Chaerea Cassius Dio Chaerea Claudius conspiracy conspirators consulars consuls cult death Dio writes divine Drusilla Drusus Drusus III Embassy to Gaius Empire equestrian order favor fear flattery freedmen Gaetulicus Gaius Caligula Galba Gaul Gemellus Germania Germanicus Germanicus's grandson honor household igula imperial family inner circle insane Jewish Antiquities Josephus Julius later emperor legions Lepidus Livia Livilla Macro madness maiestas Marcus marriage military monarchy murder Nero nius Palatine Hill Philo political position Praetorian Guard Praetorian prefect Prosopographia Imperii Romani2 provinces rank reign relationship role Roman aristocracy Roman History Rome rule ruler Sabinus Sejanus Senate senatorial Seneca sesterces Silanus sisters soldiers sources status successor Suet Sueto Suetonius Suetonius reports Tacitus throne Tiberius Tiberius Gemellus Tiberius's tion took trials veneration Vitellius