What were some of the mistakes of the ancient Roman Emperor Caligula?

Answer 1

Rome had always had its fair share of bad emperors. Caligula, Nero, Commodus are such examples. In a time when Left-handed people were considered unlucky, Emperor Caligula often appeared in public dressed in women's clothing. His favorite horse, Incitatus, lived in a marble stable, with an ivory manger. Caligula also tried to make him a consul the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and the most important job in the government. All classical accounts of Gaius 'Caligula' agree that he possessed elements of madness, cruelty, viciousness, extravagance and megalomania. He is described as a coarse and cruel despot with an extraordinary passion for sadism and a fierce energy. He could get extremely excited and angry. Caligula was tall, spindly, pale and prematurely bald. He was so sensitive about his lack of hair that it was a capital crime for anyone to look down from a high place as Caligula passed by. Sometimes he ordered those with a fine head of hair to be shaved. He made up for lack of hair on his head by an abundance of body-hair. About this too he could be equally sensitive; even the mention of "hairy goats" in conversation was dangerous. He used to grimace, which he practiced in front of a mirror, and he was an impressive orator. His great-uncle, the Emperor Tiberius, once said: 'There was never a better slave not a worse master than Caligula.