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Emperor Caligula: Difference between revisions
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* [[Bodyguard Betrayal]]: Eventually his guards snapped and killed his ''entire family''. His successor, his uncle Claudius, was spared because they thought he was too stupid to be a danger. [[Obfuscating Stupidity|They fell for it.]]
* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]: He was accused of this with all three sisters.
* [[Carpet of Virility]]: Suetonius claimed that Caligula was so self-conscious of his exuberant body hair that he made it a crime to mention the word "goat" in his presence.
* [[Cool Boat]]: His massive pleasure boats. Jeweled sterns, onboard baths, and even fruit trees and vines.
* [[Daddy's Little Villain]] and [[Enfante Terrible]]: According to Suetonius, when he heard that his daughter, Julia attacked her playmates and tried to scratch their eyes out, he bragged that there was no dispute of who her father was. This portrayal of Julia may have been exaggerated to justify her murder after Caligula's assassination.
* [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]]: A favored execution method.
* [[Defiant to the End]]: As he was being murdered by his own soldiers, Caligula reportedly exclaimed: ''Vivo!'' (I live!)
* [[Depraved Bisexual]], [[Casanova]], and [[Villainous Crossdresser]]: More or less standard Roman invective, but [[Throw It In]].
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* [[Fluffy the Terrible]]: "Caligula" translates as "Little Boot", or "Bootsie". [[Kneel Before Zod|Kneel Before Bootsie, plebians!]]
* [[Forced Prize Fight]]: He forced a man who had vowed to fight as a gladiator if the emperor recovered from a serious illness to fulfill his vow. It took a lot of begging to convince Caligula to let him go after winning.
* [[Freudian Excuse]]: Given the lack of reliable historical sources, there's a lot of speculation as to what exactly made Caligula as crazy as he was. If sources are to be believed, his personality changed very suddenly, going from [[Troubled but Cute]] to [[Ax Crazy]] after surviving a bout of a serious, unspecified illness. Theories as to what actually happened to him range from a stroke, to brain damage brought on by lead poisoning, to syphilis or some other sexually-transmitted disease.
* [[Groin Attack]]: Favorite target of Roman assassins, it seems. Domitian was also stabbed there.
* [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]: There has been much scholarly debate on just how many of his evil deeds are real. Although it was common for writers to slander previous rulers, most historians still think that he was pretty unstable.
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* He's portrayed by Jay Robinson (in [[Large Ham]] style) in the 1953 film ''[[The Robe]]'' and its sequel, ''[[Demetrius and The Gladiators]]''.
* Albert Camus wrote a play about him entitled ''Caligula''.
* John Simm played him in a TV miniseries about Nero, and his performance is pretty much a first draft for his portrayal of [[The Master (trope)|The Master]] in ''[[Doctor Who]]''.
* He's mentioned in ''[[America (The Book)]]'', in the section "The 5 Greatest Moments in Negative Advertising", where it's said that he was nearly undone by a smear campaign that depicted him as a "pretty nice guy". He went into "damage control" by publicly sodomizing a puppy.
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'', it's stated that it was a member of the Assassins that finally put down Caligula.
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