Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

‘​De Monstris​’: The Madness Of Isolation In Suetonius’ “Caligula” And “Nero”, Maya Menon

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

In The Lives of the Caesars , Suetonius delves into the enduring legacy of madness and depravity of the emperors Nero and Caligula. By highlighting their extreme personal shortcomings in their roles of princeps to the Roman people, he shows how the two rulers were almost entirely divorced from reality. Our thesis is the following: by juxtaposing “Caligula” and “Nero” , we can see how Suetonius attributes the unacceptable aspects of their reigns to the isolation that was a direct result of not only their personal education and ideology, but also the expectations and pressures of the Roman perception s …