![viva caligula in hell tips viva caligula in hell tips](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_fWvyEcQtEA/maxresdefault.jpg)
He writes in On Anger 3.18, as translated by Aubrey Stewart: 4 BC – 65 AD) describes Caligula’s sadism in his treatise On Anger, which he probably wrote in around 45 AD, only a few years after the end of Caligula’s reign. The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger (lived c. It is probably true that Caligula was something of a sadist. Philon came to the emperor as a member of a group of Jewish ambassadors he claims that the emperor persistently belittled and insulted them and refused to listen to their concerns. 20 BC – c. 50 AD) gives a first-hand account of his experience with Caligula in his Embassy to Gaius. The Jewish Middle Platonist philosopher Philon of Alexandria (lived c. The surviving contemporary accounts of his reign unanimously portray him as a cruel tyrant. There probably is at least some truth to Caligula’s sordid reputation. Exaggerated and colorful stories have piled on top of exaggerated and colorful stories and, as a result, Caligula seems to have grown even more insane with each passing generation.
![viva caligula in hell tips viva caligula in hell tips](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2wMkcnrXigk/TPWumVOEVHI/AAAAAAAAAjE/P8ugG9KG1zU/s1600/leslie-nielsen.jpg)
Some sources of popular misconceptions about Caligulaĭoing historiography is especially difficult when it comes to Caligula, since he began to be mythologized while he was alive and this mythologization has only proliferated over the course of the past two thousand years since his death. Caligula was many things-including a jerk, a narcissist, a sadist, and a tyrant-but he probably wasn’t really insane. Most of them are definitely or probably false others are based on historical facts but have been greatly misrepresented. These are all stories that have accumulated over the years. Unfortunately, over the centuries, a tremendous mythology has grown up around him and many of the things that are popularly believed about him are simply not true.Ĭaligula is best known to the general public as an insane, sexually depraved emperor who thought he was a living god, murdered a little boy for coughing too much, had sex with all three of his sisters, murdered his sister who was pregnant with his child and ate the fetus, turned his palace into a brothel, drank expensive pearls dissolved in vinegar, made his horse a senator, and waged war against Neptune to collect seashells as “loot.” The Roman emperor Caligula, who ruled from 16 March 37 AD until his assassination on 24 January 41 AD, is undoubtedly one of the most notorious Roman emperors.