History's Most Insane Rulers, Part 1: Emperor Caligula--Bankrupting Rome By Appointing Your Horse Senator

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2020

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Salvador Dali set out to paint a depiction of the infamous Roman Emperor Caligula in 1971, he chose to depict the thing nearest and dearest to the emperor's heart: his favorite racehorse, Incitatus. The painting “Le Cheval de Caligula” shows the pampered pony in all his royal glory. It is wearing a bejeweled crown and clothed in purple blankets and a collar of precious stones. While the gaudy clothing of the horse is historically correct, the Spanish surrealist artist managed perhaps for the only time to understate the strangeness of his subject matter.

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula) was born in 12 A.D. and reigned from 37-41. He was the first emperor with no memory of the pre-Augustan era, that is, before emperors were deified—and had no compunction about being worshipped as a god. As the object of a cultus, the boy emperor believed in his own semi-divine status and saw no reason not to follow whatever strange desire entered his mind, such as treating his horse better than royalty. The Roman historian Suetonius writes that he gave the horse eighteen servants, a marble stable, an ivory manger, and rich red robes. He demanded that it be fed oats mixed with flex of gold and wine delivered in fine goblets. Dignitaries bowed and tolerated Incitatus as a guest of honor at banquets. Caligula repeatedly mocked the system of imperial decorum in Roman upper crust society in incidents such as these. His actions led to his violent death at the hands of political rivals.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Sometimes running a business can feel like cycling uphill with square wheels.
0:07.0	But zero online accounting software can help predict the future cash flow of your business.
0:15.0	So you can stay one step ahead. Soon it'll feel more like free-wearing downhill.
0:21.0	On a tandem! What, mate? With a messer on the back.
0:25.0	Oh, that's nice.
0:27.0	Search zero with an axe because healthy business is beautiful business.
0:32.0	The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States, Canada, and Mexico,
0:41.0	from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:44.0	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time,
0:49.0	focusing on the compelling, wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants,
0:54.0	heroes, villains, leaders, environment, and geography.
0:59.0	I invite you to come along for the ride.
1:02.0	Scott here with a very short announcement before this episode begins.
1:05.0	This episode is part of a series I'm doing about history's most insane rulers,
1:09.0	because I have a book that just came out as available now called History's Nine Most Insane Rulers,
1:15.0	looking at the lives and reigns of people like Emperor Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, Kim Jong-il,
1:21.0	and some other lesser-known people, like Charles the Six, who thought he was made of glass,
1:25.0	Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I, who shot arrows at his court subjects,
1:28.0	and ordered his advisors to find the fatdest woman in the empire to join his harem,
1:32.0	and former president of Turkmenistan, Akbar Turkmen Basi,
1:35.0	who had an 80-foot tall golden statue made of himself that always rotated to face his son.
1:39.0	The book looks at what it would be like to be under the rule of somebody like this,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Unplugged, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Unplugged and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.