CALIGULA


Caligula,  the  son  of  the  beautiful  Germanicus,  was  by  far
the  ugliest  of  the  Caesars.  He  %Yas  tall  and  large  in  person,
with  slender  neck  and  legs,  of  a  pale  complexion,  with  hollow
eyes,  and  a  broad  and  stern  forehead ;  and  though  otherwise
a  rough,  hairy  man,  the  locks  on  his  head  were  scanty,  and
the  crown  was  entirely  bare.*

This  is  the  substance  of  the  picture  by  Suetonius.  It  is,  in
every  respect,  borne  out  by  the  description  of  Caligula  given
by  Seneca,  who  must  have  been  w^ell  acquainted  with  the  em-
peror's person.  He  describes  his  paleness  as  of  a  horrible
kind,  and  indicative  of  madness — his  crooked  eyes  lurking  un-
der a  wrinkled  forehead  {sub  f route  anili ;)  and  the  expression
is  strange  w^hen  we  recollect  that  at  his  death  the  emperor
was  only  twenty-nine.  Though  his  head  w^as  destitute,  his
neck  was  thick  set  with  hair  ;  his  legs  were  slender,  and  his
feet  very  large. f

This  ill-made  man  had  a  particular  delight  in  jeering  at  the
deformities  of  others,  and  in  the  most  minute  criticisms  on
their  personal  appearance.J  He  would  cause  any  good-looking

*  Suetonius,   '*  Caligula,"  c.  50.
t  Seneca,  "  De  Constantia,"  c.  xvm.
-}:  Seneca,  ut  supra.
(109)


110  CLASSIC    AND   HISTOEIC   POKTKAITS.
person  whom  he  met  with  to  be  disfigured,  by  ordering  his
hair  to  be  cut  in  a  ludicrous  fashion.  His  own  horrid  and
dismal  countenance  he  studied  to  make  more  frightful  than  it
naturally  was,  by  practising  the  making  of  terrible  faces  before
a  mirror.
