Mar 20, 2020
Caligula plans his invasion of Britain. It would have been the first time any Roman solider had been there since Julius Caesar. What motivated his plans? Was he even serious? It’s often portrayed as a stupid stunt. But we discover there may be more to it. How...
Mar 14, 2020
Sometime around the year 40, Caligula executed Ptolemy, the king of Africa Proconsularis and Roman ally. It’s usually portrayed as evidence of his insanity and greed – but perhaps there is an alternative...
Feb 26, 2020
Caligula suspects a grand conspiracy against his person and the sword falls on a variety of people – including the commander in Gaul, his two surviving sisters and his best friend / lover,...
Feb 21, 2020
Caligula built a 3-mile long bridge over the Bay of Naples. Why? So he could ride over it to prove someone wrong. Then he marries his third and last wife, Caesonia. Then he fires two consuls for not celebrating his birthday and starts a general purge of governors who...
Feb 15, 2020
In 39 CE, Caligula walked into the Senate and tore them all a new one. The gloves came off. The nice guy act was over. He criticized them for enabling Sejanus’ persecution of his family and for criticizing Tiberius when in fact they urged him on. Then he...
Feb 3, 2020
While I wait for my IT guy to set up a new website for The Psychopath Epidemic, I thought I’d share you with the first episode of The Psychopath Epidemic podcast. My inaugural guest is Dr Nathan Brooks PhD from CQUniversity. He’s a forensic psychologist...
Jan 28, 2020
When Caligula’s favorite sister, Drusilla, suddenly died in 38 CE, he couldn’t cope. He made her a god, to be worshipped as Panthea, the “All-Goddess,” or “all-embracing deity”, Divae Drusillae Sorori Caius Augusti Germanici. One senator declared under...
Jan 23, 2020
From his sickbed he named his favorite sister, Drusilla, to inherit the imperial “property and the throne”. But when he recovered, he decided to rid himself of some enemies, real or imagined, including Gemellus, Macro and Silanus, his former...
Jan 18, 2020
Caligula’s absolute favourite thing in the world, apart from spending money, is screwing. And seriously, who can blame him. It’s good to be the king. And, like Ray, he was happy to be a power bottom. He liked horse racing, and was fond of poisoning other...
Jan 7, 2020
The Nemi ships were two pleasure barges, one larger than the other, built under Caligula at Lake Nemi. Although there were several attempts to recover them from the 15th century onwards, it wasn’t until 1929 that Mussolini ordered the whole of Lake Nemi would be...
Dec 20, 2019
According to Suetonius, Caligula was quite proud of his “adiatrepsia” – shamelessness. He lived in habitual incest with all his sisters and was especially fond of Drusilla. He made her divorce her first husband and marry his friend and lover Marcus...
Dec 15, 2019
How does a 24 year old kid, who’s never even been on a battlefield, let alone lead an army to victory, get declared “imperator”? How would you handle it if you were granted ius arbitriumque omnium rerum (‘power and authority over all things’) and...
Nov 29, 2019
One of the other first things Caligula did when he took power was to release Herod Agrippa from jail – King Herod from the New Testament. The grandson of Herod the Great. Which all gives me an excuse to talk about The Maccabean Revolt and a short history on...
Nov 22, 2019
By all accounts, Caligula was extremely popular with the people, as his father, Germanicus, had been. Suetonius reports that Caligula was “the emperor most earnestly desired”. When he entered Rome, the celebrations are said to have gone on for almost three months, and...
Nov 16, 2019
We all think we know something of the story of Caligula. We have a picture of him as a destructive monster, an insane sadist. But truth is rarely that simple. Let’s take a look at the sources and their individual biases. And let’s keep in mind...
Oct 30, 2019
We continue and finish our live commentary on the 1979 epic film, CALIGULA. Picking up where we left off last week, Caligula is fisting the married couple and he doesn’t even remove his ring. A dark and stormy night leads to night terrors, a super hot threesome...
Oct 23, 2019
We continue our live commentary on the 1979 epic film, CALIGULA. Picking up where we left off last week, still in Tiberius’ sex palace on Capri, with a lady holding a writhing legless lizard that she is apparently about to place inside her woo-hoo. Around the 18...
Oct 19, 2019
To kick off our Caligula series, we are doing a commentary on the 1979 epic film, CALIGULA. Written by Gore Vidal, directed by Tinto Brass, produced by Bob Guccione, starring Malcolm McDowell, Hellen Mirren, Peter O’Toole, John Gielgud, Teresa Ann Savoy,...
Sep 25, 2019
In March 37 CE, aged seventy-seven years, four months, and nine days, of which time he had been emperor twenty-two years, seven months, and seven days, Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti filius Augustus fell ill and died. OR DID...
Sep 5, 2019
Sejanus decided to remove the next in line of Germanicus’ heirs, Drusus, and finally married Livia Julia, the widow of the other Drusus, son of Tiberius. He also became Tiberius’ official partner in power – in 31CE Tiberius took his fifth consulship, with...
