Marginalium

Was Caligula Depraved as Suetonius Would Have Him?:

it is hard to resist the conclusion that, whatever kernel of truth they might have, the stories told about him are an inextricable mixture of fact, exaggeration, willful misinterpretation and outright invention — largely constructed after his death, and largely for the benefit of the new emperor, Claudius.

Was Caligula depraved as Suetonius would have him? Or was he an example of what Hermann and Chomsky would call an anti-ideology. New archaeological evidence points us a little more to the latter than the former.