Posted on 08/11/2003 12:44:41 PM PDT by LibWhacker
ROME, Aug. 11 — For centuries scholars have debated whether Caligula, the Roman empire’s eccentric third ruler, was a megalomaniac who dared to defy the gods or a maligned emperor whose caprices were exaggerated after his death.
NOW A GROUP of archaeologists digging up Caligula’s ancient palace say they have finally found concrete evidence that he was indeed a “maniac” who turned one of Rome’s most revered temples into the front porch of his residence.
“Everyone knows this guy was a little crazy. But now we have proof that he was completely off his rocker, that he thought he was one of the gods,” Darius Arya, one of the directors of the excavation, said on Monday.
“It’s like someone — a president or a king or you know, Bill Gates — turning St. Peter’s into their entrance hall,” he said during a break from the dig in the Roman Forum in the heart of Italy’s capital.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
This is hardly unique to Caligula.
This is hardly even unique to elite.
Bill just didn't think of it. Hillary might, though.
Seriously though, everyone knows Caligula was insane. He threatened to make his horse a member of the nobility and had a silence decree so the horse wouldn't be disturbed. Some historians say that was just his quirky sense of humor. I say it's proof he was a psychopath and a megalomaniac.
One day [Caligula] was on the Oration Platform in the Market Place dressed as Jove and making a speech. “I intend shortly,” he said, “to build a city for my occupation on top of the Alps. We Gods prefer mountain-tops to unhealthy river-valleys. From the Alps I shall have a wider view of my Empire -- France, Italy, Switzerland, the Tyrol and Germany. If I see any treason hatching anywhere below me, I shall give a warning growl of thunder so! (He growled in his throat.) If the warning is disregarded I shall blast the traitor with this lightning of mine, so! (He hurled his piece of lightning at the crowd. It hit a statue and bounced off harmlessly.) A stranger in the crowd, a shoemaker from Marseilles on a sight-seeing visit to Rome, burst out laughing. Caligula had the fellow arrested and brought nearer the platform, then bending down he asked frowning: “Who do I seem to you to be?” “A big humbug,” said the shoemaker. Caligula was puzzled. “Humbug?” he repeated. “I, a humbug!” “Yes,” said the Frenchman, “I’m only a poor French shoemaker and this is my first visit to Rome. And I don’t know any better. If anyone at home did what you’re doing he’d be a big humbug.”Caligula began to laugh too. “You poor half-wit,” he said. “Of course he would be. That’s just the difference.”
-- Robert Graves, I, Claudius.
Yeah, musta been that nasty Roman VRWC.
LOL!
Yes, but you've gotta admit it'd be fun to replace all the rats in the House and Senate with braying jackasses. :-)
LOL....think the public would notice the difference?
The decadence of the Romans is not much different from the decadence of contemporary "Liberalism", i.e. the Left.
So consuming is the hatred of the Left for America, Christianity, and Western Civilization that they seek to destroy them and replace them with anything--even naziism or its 21st century recrudescence fanatical Islam.
If not checked, the Left will lead the world into a hell of decadence and depravity.
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