Thus, the preconditions for the development of Caesarean madness were abundantly present in Roman political life, which was already so rotten. Gaius was considerably burdened on both sides to begin with (let us recall Julia, her son Gaius, and the last years of his great-uncle Tiberius); moreover, the circumstance that he had attained power at such a young age had to make all the seeds that were present sprout luxuriously, since the stark disparity between external position and internal entitlement was like poison to his youthful spirit, which had always tended toward excesses of every kind.
Still, Caligula fell into real madness only after a serious illness from which he recovered to his and the nation’s misfortune. But one may say that this illness in all likelihood merely accelerated the development, since clear tendencies were already present beforehand, and the unfavorable external factors that invariably promoted them were inseparable from his imperial position in Rome at that time.
* * *
The picture of Caesarean madness that Caligula presents to us is perfectly typical. Nearly all manifestations that we otherwise encounter in various rulers are united in him, and if we combine the seemingly healthy beginnings with the dreadfully rapid intensification into the utmost excesses, we also gain a picture of the development of the illness.
One manifestation, which need not be pathological in and of itself, but within which (if one looks at it in conjunction with other symptoms) the megalomania of Caligula announced itself early on, is the excessive passion for luxury and wastefulness – a character trait of nearly all princes who lose a healthy judgment regarding the limitations of their own position, from Oriental despots to certain wearers of the tiara, to the two Louis of France and their German imitators, a line that for now has found its last famous representative in the unfortunate king of Bavaria. After a short time, not only had the very considerable treasure left behind by the frugal old emperor been used up (22), but it was also necessary to resort to very alarming measures to increase revenues and cover debts (23). The taxes that had just recently been repealed were reintroduced, new ones, some very oppressive or disgraceful in nature, were added; the judicial system was abused to supply the treasury with fines and confiscated property; finally, the principle was proclaimed that the wealth of the subjects was at the disposal of the prince (24).
(22) Suetonius 37; Dio Cassius 59.2.
(23) Suetonius 38. Dio Cassius 59.15 and 18.
(24) Suetonius 47.
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