There Once Was a Great Nation With an Unstable Leader
Suetonius, the Roman historian, recounted how Caligula’s boats had “sterns set with gems, parti-colored sails, huge spacious baths, colonnades
and banquet halls, and even a great variety of vines and fruit trees.”
Romans initially accepted Caligula’s luxurious tastes, perhaps intrigued by them.
Likewise, Rome survived Emperor Nero a generation later, even as Nero apparently torched Rome, slaughtered Christians, slept with
and then murdered his mother, kicked his pregnant wife to death, castrated and married a man and generally mismanaged the empire
Caligula was as abominable a ruler as a great nation could have, yet Rome proved resilient.
Edward Champlin, a historian of Rome at Princeton University, says
that Caligula pursued “a love of pranks that a 4-year-old might disdain” and had a penchant for “blurting out whatever is on his mind” — such as suggesting that Incitatus could become consul.
These rash statements rippled through Rome, for leaders of great powers are often taken not just seriously but also literally.
But Caligula’s lavish spending soon exhausted the surplus he had inherited, and Rome ran out of money.
What happens when the people of a great nation gradually realize that their leader may not be, er, quite right in the head?
