Caligula acted crazy because...

[caesar novus]

OK, so there is enough interest to refresh my memories of "Ancients Behaving Badly" Episode: Caligula

Ugh. The latest new episodes are all coming at once in a five hour block tomorrow. Set up your recorders for Nero, Hannibal, Cleopatra, etc etc http://www.history.com/search.do?action=sc...+Behaving+Badly

 

I hate whatever the marketing reasons why they release these things in a big slug. Later they will show endless repeats with the episode you missed buried, so you have to watch all to find the ONE you want I guess.

 

Spare the complaints about their attempts to sex up their subject with loose adherance to the facts - they gotta pay for broadcasting those beautiful videos of ancient sites with something that will attract fickle general audience and sell commercials.

[DecimusCaesar]

My own opinion is that it was a mixture of all those things.

 

Personally though I'd say the events of his childhood had a large effect on his personality. He was the son of the greatest living military commander, Germanicus, while his mother Agrippina supposedly spoiled her son rotten. After his father's death he had some pretty terrifying years at Tiberius's court, and if we are to believe Suetonius then Tiberius was purposefully 'nursing a viper for the Roman people'. The mixture of terror at Tiberius's court on Capua, combined with his mother's smothering of him helped create a rather cruel figure. He had been given free reign to indulge himself when he was a child, while at Capua he indulged himself with watching bloodsports and various other cruelty.

[Klingan]

if we are to believe Suetonius then Tiberius was purposefully 'nursing a viper for the Roman people'.

 

We should be very cautious when dealing with Suetonius quotes such as this one.

 

By the way, I voted "other" - sure Caligula wasn't completely sane, but I believe that most of his sick side is to be attribute to later authors, including Suetonius.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Klingan

[Pompeii]

Two years into the reign of young Caligula, he seemed to go from admirable to crazy (or at least extremely cruel). Was this a result of an illness at the time, or was it's roots in his scary and politically violent childhood? If the good part of his reign works against a victimology excuse, were his actions a seeking out of alternate forms of gravitas for the first emperor without military laurels or typical forms of power? Did he experiment with eastern styles of getting respect or at least fear within a potentially hostile and dangerous political circle, or what?

"Let them hate so long as they fear me"

I know a website where they have a post about Caligula

[The Roadie]

I do not think he was crazy at all. Rather, it seems like he made a concerted effort to supplant the republican traditions of Rome with the traditions of the hellenistic despots and Egyptian pharaohs. Hellenistic kings did often portray themselves as gods. Do not forget that Caligula threatened the senate for dishonouring his grandfather Marcus Antonius (he banned the celebrations of the battle of Actium). As a child, he had travelled in the east, and wanted to replace the western traditions with eastern autocracy.