So bad that Roger Ebert walked out of the theater 2 hours into its 170-minute length, feeling "disgusted and unspeakably depressed."
There was a similar incident that almost cost a flattering patrician his head. Caligula did not have a good history with pointless flatterers. A member of the upper classes tried his luck and was expounding on how godlike Caligula was. Caligula, ever the sarcastic rapscallion, told his audience he was just at that moment conversing with Diana, goddess of the moon. He casually asked the flatterer if he could see the goddess there beside him.
Now, the patrician, immediately realised this was a trap. If he said no, then he was denying Caligula's divinity, but if he said yes, then he was stating that he too was a god and essentially a rival to the Emperor. So, being a quick witted toady, he declared that because he was not a god, there was no way he could see Diana himself in comparison to the Emperor, who was.
600 in the Republic, 900 by Caesar, 1000 by Augustus. The figures are from my undergraduate lecture course on the Roman Empire.
I’m talking about Goldsworthy’s biography of Augustus. Anyway, I’ll give you the references.
Yeah you’re talking about good ol’ Lucius Vitellius. His family had just been promoted to the Senate though, and he was deep in Caligula’s confidence. Perhaps he could get away with it while others couldn’t.
That's a very interesting analysis and point of view!Caligula's sense of humor was very much like Peter Griffin of his day.
: Caligula was not killed in some grand conspiracy to overthrow tyranny. He was murdered by one of his Praetorian captains, who had a very high effeminate voice and a lisp. Caligula, who was rather rude and uncouth according to the histories, used to laugh uncontrollably every time his captain gave his daily report on palace security and when choosing a password Caligula always insisted on "Venus" or something vaguely feminine with an 's' in it to humiliate him.
Was he twisted? Definitely. Evil? No. He was unwise and blatant. The psychology of having to mask his feelings to survive growing up made him mistrust the people around him..when he retreated and got sick I believe he regurgitated on all his fears and loathing, until he said fuck it. He knew he could never be as good as his father Germanicus who was murdered. Or Caesar. The documentry I watched said just before his illness, he began to pace at night. And was brooding. Like many overthinkers do, he was highly intelligent but emotionally suffering from this awesome weight and power. So his style of trying to see 4 or 5 steps ahead like a game of chess always came to his getting murdered. I believe he made peace with it and threw all caution to the wind when he reemerged to rule after his long illness.
I'm new here, I'm so impressed by all of you and how well some of you study this stuff. I feel unqualified to comment much next to many in this group. But this was my own impression of the man. He was the victim of a smear campaign