Caligula: Decadence and Despotism

How the "Little Boot" emperor nearly destroyed Imperial Rome with his manic sadism.

Caligula’s name is synonymous with the perversion, insanity, and decadence which many modern people associate with the ancient Romans. “Food and sex, those are my two passions,” George Costanza once joked to Jerry on Seinfeld. “I’ll tell you what you did, Caligula,” Jerry replied. “You’ve combined food and sex into one disgusting, uncontrollable urge.” That joke sums up Rome’s third emperor. Whatever you might imagine about Caligula’s depraved life, the truth is even wilder and darker than that!

There are hardly any reliable, contemporaneous sources on Caligula. Information about the deranged emperor comes from the histories of Suetonius and Cassius Dio. Both men lived long after Caligula’s death. Dio was not born until at least 120 years later. Nevertheless, modern historians have worked tirelessly to reconstruct an image, however imperfect, of one of Rome’s most reviled emperors. 

Early Life

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus was born on August 31, 12 AD. He came from a powerful military family, and his father Germanicus was an esteemed hero of the empire. His mother, Agrippina the Elder, came from one of Rome’s most prominent political dynasties. His childhood was spent at various military camps on the western frontier along the Rhine. The young child often paraded around in large military gear. This is how he got his famous nickname Caligula, which is Latin for “little boot.” 

Back in Rome, a political storm was brewing. For nearly 40 years, the imperial throne had been in the hands of Augustus Caesar. A succession crisis was in the making. Augustus had appointed two of Agrippina’s sons as his heirs, but both had died. Augustus was forced to turn to a general named Tiberius. Germanicus, Caligula’s father, was next in line for Rome’s imperial throne, but he died under mysterious circumstances in Syria in 19 AD. To make matters worse, his mother was exiled. It was a life-changing moment for Caligula. He was left without a family. He drew closer to his surviving three sisters. Rumors were later spread that he had incestuous relations with the youngest of them, a girl named Julia Drusilla. 

Tiberius’ Tyranny

Around 32 AD, Emperor Tiberius summoned a 19-year-old Caligula to live at his villa on the island of Capri. There, the insane and cruel emperor ruled Rome with an iron first, stamping out political dissent with his treason trials. At the island, the degenerate Tiberius engaged in sexual impropriety with underage boys and girls, who were then flung off a cliff to their deaths. Random people at the villa would be tortured for Tiberius’ sadistic amusement. It was pure insanity!

To survive, Caligula resorted to flattery, and he was treated more like a servant than a family member. Before long, Tiberius was allowing Caligula to indulge in orgies of his own. Caligula began to arrange and watch sadistic tortures at his leisure. Soon enough, the young man was becoming even more of a bloodthirsty, uninhibited tyrant than his mentor. “I am nursing a viper for the Roman people,” Tiberius begrudgingly admitted. 

Sometime in the mid-30s AD, Tiberius named Caligula as one of his heirs. Slowly but surely, Caligula secured his grip on power through behind-the-scenes machinations. He forged ties with the Praetorian Guard. On March 16, 37 AD, Emperor Tiberius died peacefully in his sleep. Rome, which abhorred Tiberius, was very receptive when Caligula marched into the city as its new emperor. The 24-year-old Caligula was now in charge of the world’s mightiest empire. 

Oddly enough, Caligula began his reign as a widely beloved figure. He ended Tiberius treason trials. He restored confiscated property. He eased the persecutions. He lowered taxes, and gave a pay raise to the army. To further shore up loyalty, the benevolent emperor splurged the Roman public with an endless torrent of gladiator games and feasts to celebrate his rise to power. It seemed like a new era. For over 20 years, ordinary Romans had lived under a brutal tyranny. Bread and circuses were a much-needed alternative to arbitrary arrests. 

From Sickness to Just Sick

In October of 37 AD, the beloved new emperor suddenly fell ill. He was possibly poisoned. He spent much of the month at the threshold of death. There was weeping in the streets. The Senate offered prayers to the gods to spare their much-loved leader. A handful even offered themselves to die in Caligula’s place to appease Jupiter. Fortunately, Caligula recovered. But he came back a changed man. 

Caligula convened the senators, demanding that they fulfill their promise to offer themselves up to Jupiter. Weirdly, the emperor forced them all to commit suicide. It was the beginning of the madness that would soon grip the empire. Caligula began to dress in outlandish costumes, including women’s clothes. He went to great lengths to humiliate the Senate. Senators were forced to run alongside his imperial carriage for miles. Those who refused were humiliated in other ways. He forcibly slept with the wives of his senators at dinner parties. 

The capricious Caligula married and divorced women at whim. At times, he even forbade the husbands from resuming a relationship with those women. There were rumors that Caligula slept with everyone, ranging from prostitutes to famous male actors. The most enduring, and downright appalling, of these rumors was that Caligula slept with his own sister. Julia Drusilla was elevated to the status of the emperor’s wife. The army was forced to pledge loyalty to her. The two always appeared together in public. When Julia died in June 38 AD, the heartbroken Caligula declared her a goddess, and forced Rome to worship his sister. Despite their uncomfortably close relationship, many of the stories about Caligula’s impropriety with his sister are untrue. Thankfully, it is not true that Caligula consumed a fetus from Julia’s body. In one famous legend, Caligula promoted his horse to the rank of consul. However, this was probably intended as an insult, not as a literal command. 

Despite his notoriety, Caligula’s reign did see some good deeds. The emperor expanded Rome’s aqueducts, introducing clean drinking water to many parts of the Eternal City. New ports were built to facilitate trade. He lavishly spent on himself and his own ostentatious lifestyle. 

Crossing the Line

When the treasury dried up in 39 AD, the emperor resorted to his characteristic cruelty and violence. He reinstated Tiberius’ treason trials, which became even worse than before. Romans were selected at random, and their property was confiscated. Other victims were thrown into exile, or else executed. The executions of Caligula were even worse than any previous emperor. They were drawn out to maximize suffering, and relatives were forced to watch these gruesome displays. Parents were forced to applaud as their children were murdered before their very eyes. Rome was drained in the blood of innocents, but the rest of the empire continued to function as normal. 

The corrupt emperor fell in love with Milonia Caesonia, a woman as amoral and psychopathic as her husband. She bore him a daughter, whom Caligula named after his deceased sister. The sick Caligula expressed his affections for his wife by constantly reminding her that he could have her tortured and killed at his will. 

Much to Rome’s relief, the emperor left the city to engage in conquests in Gaul and Germania. In 40 AD, Caligula decided to invade Britannia, where he massacred 200,000 of the island’s inhabitants. 

Back in Rome, the conspiracy against Caligula grew more powerful. It was fed by Caligula’s belief that he was literally a god. Caligula’s god complex made him oblivious to his impending doom. He ordered statues of himself to be placed in every temple of the empire. When news reached Judea, it nearly caused an armed revolt. It was only thanks to Herod Agrippa’s diplomacy that the emperor waived the rule for the Jews, thus preventing a civil war. 

On January 24, 41 AD, Caligula was assassinated. Outside the Palatine Games, a military unit led by Cassius Chaerea surrounded the emperor and stabbed him to death. His wife and child were killed as well. It seemed like the empire was finally over, and the Republic would finally be restored by the Senate. But the Praetorian Guard was too afraid to change the system, and they chose Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, as Rome’s new emperor. Caligula statues were smashed. His name was scrubbed from monuments. Legend holds that the army even tracked down and killed Caligula’s horse. Before Claudius could even mount Rome’s imperial throne, the tyrannical Caligula was eradicated from Rome’s memory. In just four years, the degenerate Caligula had nearly brought Imperial Rome to the brink of collapse. 

Legacy

Today, Caligula is one of the few Roman emperors that everyone can name. His outlandish life is full of amusing, albeit untrue, anecdotes. More importantly though, Caligula’s reign of corruption and cruelty—of decadence, derangement, and despotism—is a stark warning from history about the dangers of absolute power.