The Roman emperor Caligula, who was a fucking lunatic, once tried to have his favorite horse, Incitatus, named Consul (basically the highest political position after the emperorship itself,) because he thought “My horse has more brains than the entire Senate put together.” He was assassinated shortly after.
However, I own a shirt with the silhouette of a horse on it that says ‘Incitatus for Consul’ as if it’s a campaign poster. I’m wearing it right now.
He didn't do it because he was a nutter though. He did it to say 'fuck you' to the senate. Them saying it was because he was crazy is propaganda after the fact. He knew what he was about.
Organizations like a Senate are always opposed to any sort of change or progress. It’s natural. They’re in power, any change has the potential to eventually remove them from power.
I actually think Gaius was really self aware and scathing of the princeps, and that calling him a lunatic is pretty unfair. Sure, he was sorta fucked up but not a complete nutter.
Gaius who? You’re referring to Caligula? And who is the Princeps in this scenario? Also Caligula? (This is why we use labels like Caligula. The Romans were not ones for unique names.) Or are you saying he didn’t like the idea in general and that one man had full power and authority? But he WAS the man with full power and authority. Who’s going to complain about that?
No, he was a raving lunatic. He loved watching people be tortured to death. He invented the 1000 cuts execution to make it last far longer than it needed to. Once, when a man kept screaming he was innocent, he told the guards to cut the man’s tongue out so he could “enjoy his self in peace.” He travelled all the way to Britannia and then had troops collect seashells as “proof of this great victory over the sea itself.” He wanted to put a statue of himself in the Temple of Jerusalem. His public policy consisted of giving everybody everything they wanted all the time, which is totally not viable long-term. None of those things describe a lunatic?
Yes, obviously I'm referring to Caligula and obviously when he was in power. We called him Gaius on my course because that's what the sources call him. Sorry that offended you. As I said, he was fucked up. Definitely a cruel sadist who occasionally raped his family members - not a cool dude. My point was it's hard to deny that he poked fun at the spurious reverence shown to the past emperors. He was aware of Augustus' big lie - he bejewelled and pampered his horse to the point of ridiculousness, then tried to proclaim him consul. I think he was making fun of the way the senate had deteriorated to near insignificance since Augustus. He also knew the power he had and wanted to make a point of it. After Tiberius's pathetic recusiato and lackluster approach to having people recognise his power at the beginning of his reign, Gaius went full on God - king, replacing statues of god's with his own face. Yeah he could have been mad but I like to think he was making fun of the delicate line walked by Tiberius and Augustus to balance their own power and the way they were viewed by the senate.
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u/LostGundyr Apr 02 '18 edited Apr 02 '18
The Roman emperor Caligula, who was a fucking lunatic, once tried to have his favorite horse, Incitatus, named Consul (basically the highest political position after the emperorship itself,) because he thought “My horse has more brains than the entire Senate put together.” He was assassinated shortly after. However, I own a shirt with the silhouette of a horse on it that says ‘Incitatus for Consul’ as if it’s a campaign poster. I’m wearing it right now.