Yeah, Caligula wasn’t the worst behavin’ emperor, even among the Julio-Claudians, his failing was he didn’t accomplish anything. Sometime in the past, oh, five or ten years, someone I knew online said he’d read about a great pile of Roman-era dead (from the arena, presumably) which only started to decay when they were exposed to air during excavations under Mussolini. That too is ridiculous of course, probably was WWII-era propaganda.
One of the most believable fictional versions of Caligula can be found (of all places) in a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. But alas, it just isn’t true (for the most part). If I were writing historical fiction about that time, I’d have Claudius as the key figure in the conspiracy to murder Caligula, I just don’t buy that a somewhat kooky, physically disadvantaged, chronically ill family scandal could be such a successful emperor (not least in surviving to become emperor) without having a hand in his own success.
Darn I like Edgar Rice Burroughs, too.
I can believe Claudius was a somewhat kooky, physically disadvantaged, chronically ill family scandal who became a successful emperor. He was not motivated by greed and when he got the job, just did it like a man who lived life humbled and took in a lot of knowledge for years.
Would like to get a guy like this in as President, but noooh, (as Belushi would say;)