What Made Caligula Crazy?

[Octavia]

Hey all. I am new here and looking for people to discuss Roman stuff with. Here's a discussion for you all. What do you think made Caligula crazy? Some people say he had a fever that fried his brain or a mental illness. What do you all think? Also, was Caligula the culprit who poisoned Germanicus?

[Nephele]

Suetonius wrote: "It is thought that his wife Caesonia gave him a drug intended for a love potion, which however had the effect of driving him mad." (The Life of Caligula, 50)

 

Or maybe he just consciously acted crazy because he knew he could get away with doing whatever he wanted: "When his grandmother Antonia gave him some advice, he was not satisfied merely to listen but replied: 'Remember that I have the right to do anything to anybody.'" (Suetonius, The Life of Caligula, 29)

 

Welcome to UNRV, Claudia Octavia.

 

-- Nephele

Edited July 24, 2007 by Nephele

[Ingsoc]

Of course the popular view that he was crazy is in itself rather disputed, since 27 BC when Augustus establish the Princeps and became Rome first emperor he held the real power however officialy the republic was "restored". now it's seem Caligula prefer to end this deception and establish an Eastern-Hellenistic style absolute monarchy, now some of his actions design to do that like proclaming himself a god (in the ancient world absolute rulers had to receive divine honors) or appointing his horse to consul (in order to humiliate the senate) were misunderstand as "crazy" by his contempereries and later generations.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, guys!

 

The following link goes to an X-cellent previous UNRV thread about more or less the same topic but with the more conservative title Was Caligula Mad?

I would highly recommend to check it out. It's an X-traordinary material.

[Octavia]

Thanks for the info about the other forum topic about Caligula. I'll check that out.

[docoflove1974]

I recently saw a documentary on the History Channel that discussed both Nero and Caligula. It was suggested that because Caligula saw what Nero did to his family, and it made him into a ruthless bastard, basically. This isn't to say that there wasn't a chemical alteration which changed him, too, or at least helped him along, but if one saw their entire family taken away at such a young age, perhaps it would alter your perspective on life.

[Ingsoc]

I think you mean to Tiberius.

[Octavia]

That may be true. I never thought about that. But when you think about it, the possibility that family being killed, banished, ect, could have made him crazy. In the felm, I, Claudius, it was said that his head kept hurting and he fell sick and went in to a coma. When he woke up, he announced he was zues. Lol! I like these different oppinions.

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

Ave

The dividing line between eccentric and crazy is a thin one indeed. Gaius Caligula used to practice making scary faces in front of the mirror and also used to go out and about in Rome disguised at night just to find out what people were saying about him. He reputedly kept a dagger with him with which he used to murder anyone that recognized him in his nocturnal forays. Sure sounds like someone that would qualify for some kind of therapy, even without being classified as clinically insane.

Welcome to the forum Claudia Look forward to some enlightening discussions.

Edited July 24, 2007 by Gladius xx

[Ingsoc]

Ave

The dividing line between eccentric and crazy is a thin one indeed. Gaius Caligula used to practice making scary faces in front of the mirror and also used to go out and about in Rome disguised at night just to find out what people were saying about him. He reputedly kept a dagger with him with which he used to murder anyone that recognized him in his nocturnal forays. Sure sounds like someone that would qualify for some kind of therapy, even without being classified as clinically insane.

Welcome to the forum Claudia Look forward to some enlightening discussions.

 

It's very problematic understanding Caligula because the ancient source are fill with gossip and misunderstanding of his actions so it's hard to know what of them is true.

 

For example Suetonius wrote "He did not wish to be thought the grandson of Agrippa, or called so, because of the latter's humble origin; and he grew very angry if anyone in a speech or a song included Agrippa among the ancestors of the Caesars. He even boasted that p439his own mother was born in incest, which Augustus had committed with his daughter Julia;" (Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Life of Caligula, 23)

 

Now we know that this passage is untrue and is no more that gossip about Caligula, in a letter that king Agrippa I send Caligula he refered to him as the grandson of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, it's is also know that Caligula minted coins to commemerate his maternal grandfather.

[Primus Pilus]

Also, was Caligula the culprit who poisoned Germanicus?

 

Gaius was only 7 when his father died. He may have turned into a raging megalomaniac as he grew older, but I find it unlikely that a 7 year old would've been conspiring against his father in such a manner.

[Klingan]

When discussing if Caligula was mad, it's quite important to remember that Suetonius isn't really a pro-imperial source. He's negative to just about everything the emperors do. The whole book more or less is built up on how horrible and bad they were.

 

Caligula wasn't really the healthiest lad mentally thou probably.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, guys!

 

A frequently quoted evidence of Caligula's madness is his delirious "victory over the Ocean" after beginning a fake campaign against the Germans (Suetonius, 45-47) (SEE HERE).

 

Now, Jona Lendering resumes the evidence that there was indeed a real campaign of Caligula against the Chatti in 40 AD HERE.

[docoflove1974]

I think you mean to Tiberius.

 

I do...sorry about that!

[caldrail]

Hey all. I am new here and looking for people to discuss Roman stuff with. Here's a discussion for you all. What do you think made Caligula crazy? Some people say he had a fever that fried his brain or a mental illness. What do you all think? Also, was Caligula the culprit who poisoned Germanicus?

Caligula wasn't crazy. At least not a screaming looney anyway, although it does read that way sometimes. No, instead he was a young man with behavioural problems. Combine that with a great deal of power and you get someone who wants to test the limits of what he can get away with, plus extraordinarily nasty sense of humour.

 

According to sources he poisoned a gladiator named Columbus with a mix of his own devising, a poison he called 'Columbinum', so he wasn't above murder. After all, the victim was only a gladiator...

 

The sort of misinterpreted incident that points to his supposed madness is suggesting that his horse Incitatus should be made consul. This wasn't the act of a crazy man, just a very barbed insult toward those wealthy men who were getting in the way of his fun. From a remote viewpoint, it seems crazy. "Have you heard? Caligula wants to make his horse a consul!"

 

Did he poison Germanicus? We'll never know, but given his behaviour it isn't so unbelievable. But not without help - not at that age. Did he bonk his sister Druscilla? We'll never know, but his relationship was indeed somewhat close.

 

The illness he went through is usually given as one of the causes of his idiosyncracies, but these were in evidence before so I really can't see any connection.

 

As a child Caligula must have been the sort of kid you wanted sent somewhere else. I rather suspect his parents did that too when they were too busy, and over-indulged him as roman parents often did. He was used to attention given his status as a mascot to the legions. I've wondered if the soldiers gave him more attention than his parents, leaving him a very confused young man. Caligula did seem to lash out, to enjoy watching others suffer, to stamp his foot when things didn't go his way. I see him as an immature emperor emotionally unsuited to the role, more concerned with getting pleasure from other peoples misfortune than ruling wisely.