Caligula: A Biography

by Aloys Winterling, Deborah Lucas Schneider (Translator), Glenn W. Most (Translator), Paul Psoinos (Translator)

Overview

The 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520248953
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Aloys Winterling holds a chair for Ancient History at Humboldt-University Berlin. He is the author of Aula Caesaris and Politics and Society in Imperial Rome, among other books.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations vii

Introduction: A Mad Emperor? 1

1 Childhood and Youth 9

2 Two Years as Princeps 52

3 The Conflicts Escalate 90

4 Five Months of Monarchy 132

5 Murder on the Palatine 172

Conclusion: Inventing the Mad Emperor 187

Epilogue to the English Edition 195

Notes 197

Bibliography 215

Index 219

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Seeks to rehabilitate one of the most infamous Roman emperors, commonly believed to have been deranged."—New Yorker

"A persuasive new Caligula emerges from this elegant revision: not mad at all, but just as bad and dangerous to know."—Maclean's

"In this lively biography of Rome's infamous third emperor, readers will not find the wild-eyed dictator . . . but a thoughtful argument for his sanity."—Publishers Weekly

"Accessible and graceful. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice

"Presents Roman emperor Caligula in a new light."—Booklist

Editorial Reviews

In this lively biography of Rome's infamous third emperor, readers will not find the wild-eyed dictator the public has, for nearly two millennia, come to expect. Offering not an apology for the "mad" emperor but a thoughtful argument for his sanity, Winterling, ancient history professor at the University of Basel, Switzerland (Aula Caesaris), debunks Caligula's most grotesque and oft repeated crimes. Accounts of his incestuous relationship with his sisters and his creation of a brothel on palace grounds (with senators' wives as prostitutes) were slander by biased historical sources such as Suetonius. Caligula's supposed plan to appoint his favorite race horse as consul (the highest ranking position below emperor) and his claim to be in direct contact with various gods, says Winterling, were cruel jokes misinterpreted over time. The emperor's crossing of the Bay of Baiae on a bridge of ships was not an expensive folly but an unprecedented display of power to the Germanic tribes he was targeting. Like a police interrogator, Winterling plays his ancient sources off each other, identifying holes in their accounts, "blatant contradictions," and conflicts of interest. In this brisk and well-measured biography, Caligula emerges a troubled and cruel man, but not a crazy one. Photos. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A persuasive new Caligula emerges from this elegant revision: not mad at all, but just as bad and dangerous to know.

Maclean’s

A worthy study, which covers significant aspects of Caligula’s reign and provides some new interpretations on this fascinating subject.

Ancient History Bulletin - Geoff W. Adams

Makes it clear that the behavior of the third emperor were the acts of a diffident, slightly paranoid youth, who lacked the patience that the most quarrelsome and important of his subjects required.

The New Criterion

No Roman emperor cries out more obviously for redemption, but Aloys Winterling’s Caligula, a calm reassessment of his reign, avoids revisionist whitewashing and takes the residue of hatred as inescapable.

Cathnews Perspectives

[Winterling] gives us a biography that brings the man and his times to life.

History

Seeks to rehabilitate one of the most infamous Roman emperors, commonly believed to have been deranged.

New Yorker

“Accessible and graceful. . . . Highly recommended.

Choice

“Presents Roman emperor Caligula in a new light.

Booklist

“Seeks to rehabilitate one of the most infamous Roman emperors, commonly believed to have been deranged.

New Yorker

A persuasive new Caligula emerges from this elegant revision: not mad at all, but just as bad and dangerous to know.

Maclean's

Winterling has produced an innovative biography which takes a novel approach to interpreting the historiography of Caligula’s reign.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR)

An eloquent and compelling study of Roman imperial history, and especially of the difficult relations between the imperial monarch and the traditional aristocracy.

London Review Of Books

Presents Roman emperor Caligula in a new light.

Booklist

A persuasive new Caligula emerges from this elegant revision: not mad at all, but just as bad and dangerous to know.

Maclean’s