To differ from Caligula’s start to madness was subtle whereas Nero’s was apparent as soon as he was in succession albeit that he was under his mother’s thumb for the beginning of his rule that would shift to Seneca and Burrus that would push their agenda on the young Emperor. Even at that time with a young boy showed signs of malice, according to Edwards Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, “… Seneca dreamed that he was teaching the Caligula and the soon afterwards Nero provided confirmation of the dream revealing his monstrous nature at the earlies possible opportunity.
There was a simple way to described the way he governed due to his mood, according to an author Shotter’s Nero goes on to state,” A content Nero basking in popularity may be generous; an angry Nero, smarting at what he saw as his subject’s ingratitude, could just as easily deny the generosity- and worse”. Before Nero’s change of heart he was like Caligula a moderately good ruler, but in his case the “moderately good” were not his own actions, yet his mother Agrippina with head for politics and taste for power.
Along with Seneca and Burrus his tutors or puppeteers that tried to use Nero’s position to their advantage this would be a lesson learned when they met their demise. Agrippina was losing her power with her son, he slowly let people that were aligned with his mother go, like the praetorian guards in a plan steer Nero back into embrace of his mother, she threatened to back his brother Britannicus .
In many more signs of breaking free from his mother, he started a love affair with Poppsea Sabina a woman respected reputation once again rebellion to do what he wished an to rule as he sees fit in time he kills his mother. With the 3, gone he had free range to rule which meant people suffered a great deal, around this time a new religion surfaced which was Christianity this would be a constant conundrum for the Romans in general the response of Nero was to set some of the later actions of Nero.
Equally important, was the way Caligula decline of his mental health effect his people as well for the his actions became more hard to not notice when it came to the way he spent money, to his sexual escapades and lastly the actions that lead people to believe Caligula was insane. As for many emperors it was not uncommon for them to stray from their wives with many discrepancies, yet Caligula’s sexual conguest involved encounters with his sisters which of the two he had favored Drusilla the most.
The Italian Almanac biography goes into further detail of what his relationship with his sister Drusilla grew into in stating, “Caligula forced Drusilla to live with him as his wife, following the practice of the Egyptian pharaohs. It was said that when Drusilla became pregnant, Caligula couldn’t wait for the birth of their god-like child and disemboweled her to pluck the unborn baby from her womb. True or not, Drusilla died and Caligula had her deified. Caligula would boast about bedding the women he stole from other men, taking whatever he wanted was not out of the norm for an emperor, but when there were rumors of him and his sisters the people became to openly question their emperor.
He exiled or killed many family members not to mention the enemies or the people who dared to comment on the ruler in an aspect if he got wind of the word they would be put to death immediately. Forcing families to watch their loved ones to be executed, he reveled in other’s pain it amused him like the theater would tickle his fancy even going as far as prolonging the execution.
It was clear to see that he may have suffered from mental illness like schizophrenia after his first bouts of being sick in more depth explanation, “Caligula’s behavior, a splitting of emotions and thoughts, is nowadays diagnosed as schizophrenia. The absolute power that Caligula enjoyed strengthened and developed the worst features of his character… If this disease was encephalitis, then it could very likely have been a contributory factor to the bizarre features of his behavior, for ncephalitis can cause a marked character change and give rise to impulsive, aggressive and intemperate activity, similar in its symptoms to those of schizophrenia.
In addition, Caligula had inherited epilepsy. Some forms of epilepsy have symptoms similar to those of both schizophrenia and the post-encephalitic syndrome… ” In hindsight this can explain most of what was perceived of Caligula as being insane, it was due to his illness that played a huge factor that lead him in to frenzy of madness if he was healthier would this be the case would he have been known for such heinous acts?
