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.
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 Introduction: A Mad Emperor? 1. Childhood and Youth 2. Two Years as Princeps 3. The Conflicts Escalate 4. Five Months of Monarchy 5. Murder on the Palatine Conclusion: Inventing the Mad Emperor Epilogue to the English Edition Notes Bibliography Index
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
