Caligula - by Aloys Winterling

About the Book

Edition statement inferred from Epilogue.

Book Synopsis

The infamous emperor Caligula ruled Rome from A.D. 37 to 41 as a tyrant who ultimately became a monster. An exceptionally smart and cruelly witty man, Caligula made his contemporaries worship him as a god. He drank pearls dissolved in vinegar and ate food covered in gold leaf. He forced men and women of high rank to have sex with him, turned part of his palace into a brothel, and committed incest with his sisters. He wanted to make his horse a consul. Torture and executions were the order of the day. Both modern and ancient interpretations have concluded from this alleged evidence that Caligula was insane. But was he?

This biography tells a different story of the well-known emperor. In a deft account written for a general audience, Aloys Winterling opens a new perspective on the man and his times. Basing Caligula on a thorough new assessment of the ancient sources, he sets the emperor's story into the context of the political system and the changing relations between the senate and the emperor during Caligula's time and finds a new rationality explaining his notorious brutality.

From the Back Cover

"Caligula enjoys a reputation as one of the most brutal and tyrannical Roman emperors. In this accessible narrative of Caligula's life, Winterling uses his deep knowledge of Roman society and the imperial court to investigate why contemporaries chose to assassinate Caligula's reputation as well as his person. Caligula emerges here as rather less insane, if no less loathsome, than his posthumous reputation made him out to be."

--Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, author of Rome's Cultural Revolution

Review Quotes

"[Winterling] gives us a biography that brings the man and his times to life."-- "History" (10/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"Accessible and graceful. . . . Highly recommended."-- "Choice" (12/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"An eloquent and compelling study of Roman imperial history, and especially of the difficult relations between the imperial monarch and the traditional aristocracy."-- "London Review Of Books" (4/26/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"Winterling has produced an innovative biography which takes a novel approach to interpreting the historiography of Caligula's reign."-- "Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR)" (4/10/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"A persuasive new Caligula emerges from this elegant revision: not mad at all, but just as bad and dangerous to know."-- "Maclean's" (10/12/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"A revisionist take on the man."-- "Library Journal" (11/18/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"A worthy study, which covers significant aspects of Caligula's reign and provides some new interpretations on this fascinating subject."--Geoff W. Adams "Ancient History Bulletin" (9/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"In this lively biography of Rome's infamous third emperor, readers will not find the wild-eyed dictator . . . but a thoughtful argument for his sanity."-- "Publishers Weekly" (5/30/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"Makes it clear that the behavior of the third emperor were the acts of a diffident, slightly paranoid youth, who lacked the patience that the most quarrelsome and important of his subjects required."-- "The New Criterion" (9/6/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"No Roman emperor cries out more obviously for redemption, but Aloys Winterling's Caligula, a calm reassessment of his reign, avoids revisionist whitewashing and takes the residue of hatred as inescapable."-- "Cathnews Perspectives" (9/14/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"Presents Roman emperor Caligula in a new light."-- "Booklist" (6/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"Seeks to rehabilitate one of the most infamous Roman emperors, commonly believed to have been deranged."-- "New Yorker" (1/9/2012 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Aloys Winterling holds a chair for Ancient History at Humboldt-University Berlin. He is the author of Aula Caesaris and Politics and Society in Imperial Rome, among other books.