Suetonius said that Tiberius's successor, Caligula, 'could not control his natural cruelty and viciousness'. He lived incestuously with his three sisters, prostituted them to his favorites. He had any man or woman he wanted. None dared refuse. He married the wife of one of his generals and took pleasure in displaying her naked to his friends. He often wore women's clothing and ordered torture and brutal executions as mealtime entertainment. Eventually the Praetorian Guard turned against him and stabbed him to death.
Born the son of a Roman general, Gaius Germanicus was nicknamed Caligula- 'Little Boot '- after the army footwear he wore as a child. When he was seven, his father, his mother, Agrippina the Elder, annd his two older brothers were executed by the emperor Tiberius in his paranoid purges. But Caligula and his three sisters survived. He was summoned to. Capri where he managed to ingratiate himself with Tiberius. There he witnessed the old man's sexual depravity and his fondness for torture and executions. And as Tiberius's favourite, he got to indulge perverted whims of his own.
'Even at that time he could not control his natural cruelty and viciousness,' wrote Suetonius. 'He was a most eager witness of the tortures and executions of those who suffered punishment, revelling at night in gluttony and adultery, disguised in a wig and a long robe, passionately devoted besides to the theatrical arts of dancing and singing, iin which Tiberius very willingly indulged him, in the hope that through these his savage nature might be softened. This last was so clearly evident to the shrewd old man, that he used to say now and then that to allow Gaius to live would prove the ruin of himself, and of all men.'
Tiberius was right. After Caligula had gone through a number of marriages and affairs, he killed Tiberius, possibly out of revenge for the murder of his father, mother and brothers. The Romans were delighted that Tiberius was dead and crowds cheered Caligula as he made his way to Rome. He celebrated by brutally sacrificing 160 victims and expelling the spintriae-homosexual prostitutes - from Rome.
Unlike Julius Caesar or Tiberius, Caligula was a great fan of the games. He was inordinately proud of the size of his penis and liked to flash it at the crowds. He could even be seen masturbating or being attended to by Rome's most skilled and beautiful prostitutes while below, in the ring, victorious gladiators would spell out the emperor's name in their victims' blood, dotting the i with the severed head. Caligula often ordered the death of the loser by removing his thumb, or perhaps his whole fist, from the anus of a catamite from Mesopotamia, where rectal elasticity was said to be greatly prized.
The defeated would be despatched in the most brutal way - chopped up while stilll alive, prodded with a red-hot poker or finished offf by a butcher with a cleaver. Not only did Caligula enjoy the bloodshed, he also enjoyed the gladiators. Hiss favourites were as accomplished in the bedroom as they were in the ring and, after the games, h would appear in the changing room to view the blood - splattered gladiators naked.
Since childhood, Caligula had maintained an incestuous relationship with his sister Drusilla. It was said that he was deflowering her when they were caught in bed by his grandmother Antonia. Once he was emperor, he flaunted :their affair. They lived openly as man and wife, although she was married to a man of consular rank. Incest, he claimed, was no shame, boasting that his own mother had been born as res ult of the emperor Augustus's incest with his daughter, Julia. Caligula could be seen riding round the seedier quarters of Rome with Drusilla, masturbating with one hand and hurling gold coins to the crowds with the other. He also had an amphitheatre built so that, for a small fee, the plebeian rabble could watch him bugger his sister on a solid gold stage, sometimes with favourite gladiator entering him anally at the same time.
At some point, Caligula and Drusilla planned to have a boy child who would inherit the empire. When Caligula was afflicted with aa serious illness, he named Drusilla his successor. One aristocrat offered his life if the gods would save the emperor. Caligula took him at his word. The heads of those who predicted his death were piled on his sick bed, so he could draw strength from them.
Caligula's other two sisters, Livilla and Agripm to his paranoia. They were put on display in a tent erected in front of the palace where, for five days, they were forced to have sex with all comers, including cripples and lepers. Agrippina was pregnant at the time. An imperial commission kept a tally and recorded that an astonishing 7,000 sex acts took place.
After the death of Drusilla, Caligula lived in incest with Livilla and Agrippina, while prostituting them to his catamites. He married them off, but after their weddings he took them back to his house, warning their new husbands 'not to take liberties with my wife '. He also had sex with them openly in front of his own wife. Finally he had them banished.
Eventually, the spintriae were allowed back into Rome to put on ever-more spectacular displays of public copulation, and dancers, singers, actors and prostitutes were summoned from the four corners of the empire. Meanwhile Caligula grew more cruel. Philosophers who criticized him had their mouths sewn up so they could not speak and their hands cut off so they could not write.
Caligula ordered executions on a whim, or to fill the imperial coffers. He was forever thinking up more sadistic deaths for his victims. Parents were forced to watch the execution of their children. Torture, decapitation and dismemberment were provided as entertainment while he was eating. Caligula himself appeared in the arena with a razor sharp sword, facing gladiators armed only with wooden daggers, and, to earn more money for the imperial coffers, Roman matrons and their sons and daughters were forced into prostitution. Caligula had them displayed naked in a brothel set up in his palace.
He had any man or woman he wanted, simply sending divorce papers to their spouses if necessary. His passion for. Pyrallis, a common prostitute, was also notorious. He counted among his lovers a beautiful young pantomime actor, whom he was not ashamed to kiss in public, his brother-in-law and various hostages. He abducted the wife of Gaius Piso and raped her, then banished her when he suspected she was seeing Piso again. Later he married the wife of one of his generals, then abandoned her, giving orders that no other man was to make love to her.
Caesonia, reputedly the most lascivious woman in Rome, was often seen in his company. Although she was seven years older than him, her masculine looks appealed to the effeminate Caligula. He named the little girl he sired with her Drusilla and aimed to make her his heir.
Members of distant tribes known for their sexual dexterity - the Garamantes, Cietae and Quinquegentanei- were summoned to teach him the. 'Seven secrets of sexual self- annihilation'. He had himself buggered publicly by his favourite gladiator, who had his head cut off at the moment of orgasm so Caligula was bathed in blood.
Plied with drugs to enhance his sexual performances,Caligula often worn women's clothing or dressed as a god with a blonde beard or as Venus or a triumphant general, wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great, which he had stolen from his sarcophagus in Alexandria. One accused traitor was forced tto publicly sodomize his own father, before strangling him. Other traitors were burnt to death with Caligula looking on in flowing women's robes.
Caligula humiliated those of rank around him. He would insist on sleeping with their wives and, afterwards, tell the husbands publicly that his wife was no good in bed, or hire her out as a whore to any low life who wanted her. However, he made the mistake of humiliating the tribune of the Praetorian Guard in this way. The Guard cut him down at the Palatine Games and Caligula was despatched with a sword thrust through his private parts.
Born the son of a Roman general, Gaius Germanicus was nicknamed Caligula- 'Little Boot '- after the army footwear he wore as a child. When he was seven, his father, his mother, Agrippina the Elder, annd his two older brothers were executed by the emperor Tiberius in his paranoid purges. But Caligula and his three sisters survived. He was summoned to. Capri where he managed to ingratiate himself with Tiberius. There he witnessed the old man's sexual depravity and his fondness for torture and executions. And as Tiberius's favourite, he got to indulge perverted whims of his own.
'Even at that time he could not control his natural cruelty and viciousness,' wrote Suetonius. 'He was a most eager witness of the tortures and executions of those who suffered punishment, revelling at night in gluttony and adultery, disguised in a wig and a long robe, passionately devoted besides to the theatrical arts of dancing and singing, iin which Tiberius very willingly indulged him, in the hope that through these his savage nature might be softened. This last was so clearly evident to the shrewd old man, that he used to say now and then that to allow Gaius to live would prove the ruin of himself, and of all men.'
Tiberius was right. After Caligula had gone through a number of marriages and affairs, he killed Tiberius, possibly out of revenge for the murder of his father, mother and brothers. The Romans were delighted that Tiberius was dead and crowds cheered Caligula as he made his way to Rome. He celebrated by brutally sacrificing 160 victims and expelling the spintriae-homosexual prostitutes - from Rome.
Unlike Julius Caesar or Tiberius, Caligula was a great fan of the games. He was inordinately proud of the size of his penis and liked to flash it at the crowds. He could even be seen masturbating or being attended to by Rome's most skilled and beautiful prostitutes while below, in the ring, victorious gladiators would spell out the emperor's name in their victims' blood, dotting the i with the severed head. Caligula often ordered the death of the loser by removing his thumb, or perhaps his whole fist, from the anus of a catamite from Mesopotamia, where rectal elasticity was said to be greatly prized.
The defeated would be despatched in the most brutal way - chopped up while stilll alive, prodded with a red-hot poker or finished offf by a butcher with a cleaver. Not only did Caligula enjoy the bloodshed, he also enjoyed the gladiators. Hiss favourites were as accomplished in the bedroom as they were in the ring and, after the games, h would appear in the changing room to view the blood - splattered gladiators naked.
Since childhood, Caligula had maintained an incestuous relationship with his sister Drusilla. It was said that he was deflowering her when they were caught in bed by his grandmother Antonia. Once he was emperor, he flaunted :their affair. They lived openly as man and wife, although she was married to a man of consular rank. Incest, he claimed, was no shame, boasting that his own mother had been born as res ult of the emperor Augustus's incest with his daughter, Julia. Caligula could be seen riding round the seedier quarters of Rome with Drusilla, masturbating with one hand and hurling gold coins to the crowds with the other. He also had an amphitheatre built so that, for a small fee, the plebeian rabble could watch him bugger his sister on a solid gold stage, sometimes with favourite gladiator entering him anally at the same time.
At some point, Caligula and Drusilla planned to have a boy child who would inherit the empire. When Caligula was afflicted with aa serious illness, he named Drusilla his successor. One aristocrat offered his life if the gods would save the emperor. Caligula took him at his word. The heads of those who predicted his death were piled on his sick bed, so he could draw strength from them.
Caligula's other two sisters, Livilla and Agripm to his paranoia. They were put on display in a tent erected in front of the palace where, for five days, they were forced to have sex with all comers, including cripples and lepers. Agrippina was pregnant at the time. An imperial commission kept a tally and recorded that an astonishing 7,000 sex acts took place.
After the death of Drusilla, Caligula lived in incest with Livilla and Agrippina, while prostituting them to his catamites. He married them off, but after their weddings he took them back to his house, warning their new husbands 'not to take liberties with my wife '. He also had sex with them openly in front of his own wife. Finally he had them banished.
Eventually, the spintriae were allowed back into Rome to put on ever-more spectacular displays of public copulation, and dancers, singers, actors and prostitutes were summoned from the four corners of the empire. Meanwhile Caligula grew more cruel. Philosophers who criticized him had their mouths sewn up so they could not speak and their hands cut off so they could not write.
Caligula ordered executions on a whim, or to fill the imperial coffers. He was forever thinking up more sadistic deaths for his victims. Parents were forced to watch the execution of their children. Torture, decapitation and dismemberment were provided as entertainment while he was eating. Caligula himself appeared in the arena with a razor sharp sword, facing gladiators armed only with wooden daggers, and, to earn more money for the imperial coffers, Roman matrons and their sons and daughters were forced into prostitution. Caligula had them displayed naked in a brothel set up in his palace.
He had any man or woman he wanted, simply sending divorce papers to their spouses if necessary. His passion for. Pyrallis, a common prostitute, was also notorious. He counted among his lovers a beautiful young pantomime actor, whom he was not ashamed to kiss in public, his brother-in-law and various hostages. He abducted the wife of Gaius Piso and raped her, then banished her when he suspected she was seeing Piso again. Later he married the wife of one of his generals, then abandoned her, giving orders that no other man was to make love to her.
Caesonia, reputedly the most lascivious woman in Rome, was often seen in his company. Although she was seven years older than him, her masculine looks appealed to the effeminate Caligula. He named the little girl he sired with her Drusilla and aimed to make her his heir.
Members of distant tribes known for their sexual dexterity - the Garamantes, Cietae and Quinquegentanei- were summoned to teach him the. 'Seven secrets of sexual self- annihilation'. He had himself buggered publicly by his favourite gladiator, who had his head cut off at the moment of orgasm so Caligula was bathed in blood.
Plied with drugs to enhance his sexual performances,Caligula often worn women's clothing or dressed as a god with a blonde beard or as Venus or a triumphant general, wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great, which he had stolen from his sarcophagus in Alexandria. One accused traitor was forced tto publicly sodomize his own father, before strangling him. Other traitors were burnt to death with Caligula looking on in flowing women's robes.
Caligula humiliated those of rank around him. He would insist on sleeping with their wives and, afterwards, tell the husbands publicly that his wife was no good in bed, or hire her out as a whore to any low life who wanted her. However, he made the mistake of humiliating the tribune of the Praetorian Guard in this way. The Guard cut him down at the Palatine Games and Caligula was despatched with a sword thrust through his private parts.
