Caligula has been the subject of press hatchet jobs from the 1st century A.D. through the 21st century, branded one of the “bad” Roman emperors: tyrannical, cruel, perverted, insane, and convinced of his own divinity. This surviving portrait in Copenhagen is often hailed as evidence of his madness, on account of the partially preserved pigment in the eyes.
In reality, he was son of Augustus’ golden-boy Germanicus, an army brat (his nick-name Caligula – “little boots” – was coined by the adoring troops when he was a child growing up on campaign and dressing up as a soldier), and later jetted into a VERY uncomfortable position after his father died unexpectedly. His mother and siblings were variously imprisoned and killed off by the emperor Tiberius, and Caligula was shipped off to Capri under his paranoid care, later to succeed him as the next emperor. While he was initially popular with the people, sought to boost the power of the emperor, bringing him into direct opposition with the Senate before his assassination 4 years later.
Portraits of the young emperor proliferated, and combined a number of facial features with other members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (broad forehead, almond-shaped eyes, sharply defined eyebrows), but are distinguished by his small mouth recessive lower lip, and the arrangement of the fringe of locks over his forehead.
Crazy and debauched? Probably not. Spoiled and autocratic? Probably. Perhaps his memory would have been better served by an Oprah interview rather than a posthumous Suetonius take-down…
