The Emperor’s Crazy Groove

Rome had some nutty rulers named Caesar back in its heyday. But none was nuttier than Caligula, also known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Caligula was a cruel tyrant who exhausted Rome’s treasury for his own personal gain, introduced himself to folks as a god (sometimes he was Hercules;...

By Chris Joseph

June 14, 2012

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Rome had some nutty rulers named Caesar back in its heyday. But none was nuttier than Caligula, also known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Caligula was a cruel tyrant who exhausted Rome’s treasury for his own personal gain, introduced himself to folks as a god (sometimes he was Hercules; other times he was Venus), arbitrarily ordered his people to be massacred because he was bored, held wild orgies at his palace, and once appointed a horse as a council and priest. He had sex with his sisters and other men’s wives, turned his palace into a brothel, and was generally a mean, perverted creeper who was eventually assassinated by his own bodyguards after they’d had enough already. Caligula is almost cartoon-like in his villainy. And that’s what makes him so damn interesting.
Thu., June 14, 8 p.m., 2012

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