Caligula
eBook - PDF

Caligula

A Biography

  1. 240 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Caligula

A Biography

About this book

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.

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Yes, you can access Caligula by Aloys Winterling in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Ancient History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. List of Abbreviations
  4. Introduction: A Mad Emperor?
  5. 1. Childhood and Youth
  6. 2. Two Years as Princeps
  7. 3. The Conflicts Escalate
  8. 4. Five Months of Monarchy
  9. 5. Murder on the Palatine
  10. Conclusion: Inventing the Mad Emperor
  11. Epilogue to the English Edition
  12. Notes
  13. Bibliography
  14. Index