08-16-2003, 07:15 PM
Was he a nutter? I've always thought that his most famous allegedly nutty actions showed a good sense of humour, as Antoninus Lucretius says above.<br>
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For example, the horse thing. There's the emperor, trying to run the empire, and the Senate were a bunch of sycophantic toadies without an ounce of independence or backbone; so Caligula says "I might as well make my HORSE a consul as one of you chaps..."<br>
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As for the army picking up sea shells and parading them through the streets of Rome in triumph; they had mutinied and refused to embark to invade Britain. So he made them pick up sea shells and then took them back to Rome and walked them through the streets for all the public to look at and think "What a bunch of cowards."<br>
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No wonder the army killed him... <p></p><i></i>
<br>
For example, the horse thing. There's the emperor, trying to run the empire, and the Senate were a bunch of sycophantic toadies without an ounce of independence or backbone; so Caligula says "I might as well make my HORSE a consul as one of you chaps..."<br>
<br>
As for the army picking up sea shells and parading them through the streets of Rome in triumph; they had mutinied and refused to embark to invade Britain. So he made them pick up sea shells and then took them back to Rome and walked them through the streets for all the public to look at and think "What a bunch of cowards."<br>
<br>
No wonder the army killed him... <p></p><i></i>
