What are some facts that made Caligula mad or crazy?

*facts* PLease?





10 points for most facts!
What are some facts that made Caligula mad or crazy?
He got sick to what only was described as brain fever. There is a debate on whether he was clinically insane. Follow the links for more information.


http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caligula....


http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcal...
What are some facts that made Caligula mad or crazy?
One of the most overlooked facts concerning the Roman Empire was their piping system. A good deal of their water conduits were made of lead.


For centuries they used lead pipes for conduits to homes and wells for drinking water.


Drinking utensils were made of lead as well. Wine cups and other drinks were poured into as well as poured out of as in pitchers of water into goblets and cups for refreshments. The Romans had a tradition of mulling their wine and this was done on low heat in lead goblets as well. That naturally increased the lead contents of the drink.


The toxic poisoning was passed on from one generation to another through procreation as well as tradition. Eventually a great number of Romans succumbed to the poisoning effects of lead. It's no wonder; the metal permeated the social structure from the plebeians to the Emperors.


Caligula was a product of incestuous relationships in his ancestery, and he drank from the same cup as his underlings did. His insanity may not have been due to this poisoning entirely, but! .... it sure as hell did have a great deal to do with his insanity.


(It has been suggested that this common poisoning within the Roman Empire was one of the major factors in the decline of the Roman Empire. This theory has been in amongst the historians %26amp; scholars for some time now.)
Reply:There are no facts that tells exactly why Caligula went crazy, only speculative theories. There are many facts that illustrate his insanity, however, from his capricious murders to naming his favorite horse, Incitatus, to the Senate. (Well, Suetonius actually says he was only planning to name him co-consul, but you can't be a consul without being a senator). What caused the insanity? Growing up in stream of military camps? Being part of a family where you might be murdered by your relatives at any moment? The amount of lead in your drinking water? Maybe all of those were contributing factors, and all indications were that he at least a few screws loose before he became emperor, but best bets are that the fever he fell victim to early in reign may have been some sort of encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, from which he never fully recovered.





Edit: if lead poisoning contributed to the fall of the roman empire, it was a really slow acting poison. Caligula was one of the very first emperors, and the "fall" of Roman was further from Caligula's future than the length of time that United States has existed.
Reply:In the first months Caligula's reign was mild and his policies showed some political judgement. Even then, Caligula took much pleasure in attending punishments and executions and he preferred to have them prolonged. In May his grandmother Antonia, who might have been a good influence, died. In October Caligula fell seriously ill, and after his recovering Caligula seems to have changed for the worse. In a few months he entirely exhausted the treasury, which Tiberius had filled by years of economizing. In 38, while having an affair with Macro's wife, he accused Macro of being her pimp and ordered him to commit suicide. Tiberius' grandson and heir, Tiberius Gemellus, once drank a cough medicine that Caligula mistook for an antidote to poison. When accused, the youth replied: "Antidote - how can one take an antidote against Caesar?" Soon afterwards Tiberius Gemellus was murdered. It became a capital crime not to bequeath the Emperor everything. In 39 Caligula revived Tiberius' treason trials. People suspected of disloyalty were executed or driven to suicide. A supervisor of games and beast-fights was flogged with chains before Caligula for days on end, and was not put to dead until Caligula was offended by the smell of the gangrene in his brain. On one occasion, when there weren't enough condemned criminals to fight the tigers and lions in the arena, Caligula ordered some spectators to be dragged from the benches into the arena. Another time, Caligula decided to proclaim his mastery of the sea by building a three mile long bridge of boats across the Bay of Naples. He crossed them on horseback, wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great. Thus he claimed that, like the god Neptune, he had ridden across the waters. He gave his horse, Incitatus, jewelled necklaces, a marble stable with furniture and a staff of servants to itself and made it a priest of his temple and even proposed to make it a senator. Caligula loved dressing up and used to dress in rich silk, ornamented with precious stones and he wore jewels on his shoes. Pearls were dissolved in vinegar, which he then drank, and he liked to roll on heaps of gold. Like his nephew, Nero (37 AD-68 AD), Caligula appeared as athlete, charioteer, singer and dancer. To increase his revenues Caligula introduced all possible forms of taxation and rich people who had involuntary willed him their estates were murdered. Once, when a supposedly rich man had finally died, but turned out to have left no money, Caligula commented: "Oh dear, he died in vain." Caligula even opened a brothel in his palace where Roman matrons, their daughters and freeborn youths could be hired for money.





Caligula was irresistibly attracted by every pretty young woman whom he did not possess. He even committed incest with his own three sisters. He would carefully examine women of rank in Rome and whenever he felt so inclined, he would send for whoever pleased him best. He debauched them and left them like fruit he had tasted and thrown away. Afterwards, he would openly discuss his bedfellow in detail. His first wife, Julia Claudilla, died young. In the first year of his reign Caligula attended a wedding and ran off with the bride, Livia Orestilla, whom he divorced after a few days. He soon tired of his rich third wife, Lollia Paulina, too. He made the older Milonia Caesonia (卤5-41) his fourth wife in 38, when she was already pregnant. The sensual and immoral Caesonia was an excellent match for him. Caesonia gave birth to a daughter, Julia Drusilla, whom Caligula considered his own child, because "she was so savage even in childhood that she used to attack with her nails the faces and eyes of the children who played with her". Whenever Caligula kissed the neck of his wife or mistress, he used to say: "This lovely neck will be chopped as soon as I say so". In addition, Caligula had sexual relations with men like the pantomime actor Mnester, Valerius Catullus and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Lepidus was married to Caligula's favourite sister Drusilla and also engaged in affairs with Caligula's other sisters. Meanwhile, Caligula forced Drusilla to live with him as his wife, following the practice of the Egyptian pharaohs. It was said that when Drusilla became pregnant, Caligula couldn't wait for the birth of their god-like child and disembowelled her to pluck the unborn baby from her womb. True or not, Drusilla died and Caligula had her deified. The next year Caligula had Marcus Aemilius Lepidus murdered. In addition, he had his sisters Livilla and Agrippina the younger (to the right), Nero's mother, exiled to an island and confiscated their possessions.





Caligula demanded that he be worshipped as a god. Caligula's self-indulgence in his supposed divinity deteriorated his insane behaviour. He was convinced that he was entitled to behave like a god. Thus, he set up a special temple with a life-sized statue of himself in gold, which was dressed each day in clothing such as he wore himself. As a sun god he courted the moon. He claimed fellowship with the gods as his equals, identifying himself in particular with Jupiter, but also with female gods like Juno, Diana or Venus. Standing near the image of Jupiter, Caligula once asked the actor Apelles whether Jupiter or Caligula were greater. When Apelles hesitated, Caligula had him cut to pieces with the whip, praising his voice as he pled for mercy, remarking on the melodiousness of his groans. He justified himself by saying: "Remember that I have the power to do anything to anyone."





Caligula's behaviour, a splitting of emotions and thoughts, is nowadays diagnosed as schizophrenia. The absolute power that Caligula enjoyed strengthened and developed the worst features of his character. His grandmother, Antonia, and his favourite sister, Drusilla, who could both have had a restraining influence on him, died during the first year of his reign. In his youth - as a favourite of the soldiers - he must have been thoroughly spoilt. The near-extinction of his family and the subsequent fear for his own life during his adolescent years will surely have marked his personality. However, Caligula's madness could have been organically influenced, because it was said to have become apparent after a serious illness which he had suffered in October 37. If this disease was encephalitis, then it could very likely have been a contributory factor to the bizarre features of his behaviour, for encephalitis can cause a marked character change and give rise to impulsive, aggressive and intemperate activity, similar in its symptoms to those of schizophrenia. In addition, Caligula had inherited epilepsy. Some forms of epilepsy have symptoms similar to those of both schizophrenia and the post-encephalitic syndrome. At times, because of sudden faintness, Caligula was sometimes hardly able to move his limbs, to stand up, to collect his thoughts or to hold up his head. He suffered severely from sleeplessness, never sleeping for more than three hours a night and even for that length of time he did not sleep quietly; he was terrified by strange manifestations.





After a 4-year-reign the Praetorians stabbed Caligula to death when he left the theatre. His fourth wife was stabbed to death too, while their infant daughter's head was smashed against a wall. One of the conspirators was Cornelius Sabinus, whose wife had been debauched and publicly humiliated by Caligula. Another conspirator was Cassius Chaerea, who hated Caligula, because he had remorselessly imitated his high, effiminate voice. Suetonius wrote that Caligula's reign of terror had been so severe that the Romans refused to believe that he was actually dead.


http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/madmonarchs...
Reply:One interesting theory is that his mental problems were the direct result of lead poisoning - not so farfetched, because drinking cups were made from alloys that contained lead and wine, or any other acidic liquid, would leach the lead from the alloy. It was also considered to be a reason for the drop in fertility and the low birthrate among the nobility. The poorer people couldn't afford the metal cups, so were not poisoned. Ironic, isn't it?

metal necklace