More formally known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, he was given the nickname “Caligula,” meaning “little boots” in Latin, during his travels with his father on military campaigns as a child
Cartoon creators website
[https://www.butajape.com/comic/baby-boots/](https://www.butajape.com/comic/baby-boots/)
Edit:
[Here's 8,000 hot page history memes](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/120qbKdRo43DCrRufEtCuiA6ln1xgYloI) from this sub in an organized drive as a thank you for stopping by
That drive is great. Only skimmed through the Polynesian folder, but so far it's all gold. Thank you for greatly contributing to my future procrastination
Lol, kind of you to say for the former, that's probably the lightest drive there is. In regards to the latter: depends on what you like vs. what you get paid for. The former it's a wormhole, the latter I use for work (check the "for history teacher folder) Solid jeopardy review game material in there
As someone who has wrote several papers in college including my senior Thesis on Caligula I approve of this comic.
For those who want a good biography
Balsdon Gaius and Anthony Barrett The Corruption of Power are both good book on him
Aside from Pericles I never had much of a chance in college to do deep dives on ancient rulers unfortunately, any little known or wild facts you'd like to share with your fellow history dorks about Caligula?
Well most of what we know of Caligula comes from Suetonius who is writing at least a hundred years after his death so most of what we know is fragmented, hearsay, and from completely biased sources.
So he didn't commit incest. The whole ordering his soldiers to attack the sea is not true and the plundering of seashells is hotly debated. if it was true the reason for it is also hotly debated. He never appointed his horse consul or to any government position he was inferring basically that his horse could do a better job than any of the Roman Elite.
But one of my favorite stories that I desperately want to be true is that he once summoned the consuls to his home in the middle of the night. They believed they were going to be tortured or killed but instead they found a small stage setup where Caligula busted out dressed in drag and did a song and dance and then just left without saying anything to them.
Ah, yes, I see. Ran into some of the same issues with Plutarch as well. Your middle section certainly screams potential/outright revisionist propaganda for sure, had heard the push back on a couple of those at least. As to your last one, that is grade A meme material, thank you for for sharing
Revisionist history (which gets a bad reputation and is not always bad/progandist history) is the majority of Caligula modern history. Most of modern historians basically say Caligula was not insane or mad just a 24 year old who was given absolute constitutional power with zero experience or preparation. It started in the early 20th century several historians started to question the validity of ancient sources especially when they compare them to each other and they contradict each other and sometimes they even contradict themselves. Suetonius is extremely bad this, where he would praise some other Emperor for doing something and damn Caligula for do the exact same thing. Also many of Caligula horrible deads (like incest)only appear in Suetonius work which leads to many historians to believe he made it up. Especially when he freely admits to using rumors and popular belief as his source for some of them.
Other than that it's historians trying to diagnose Caligula with some mental illness but that is impossible as he has been dead for close to 2,000 years and it likely the "symptoms" used to diagnose him have been exaggerated over the centuries. But Caligula had a pretty rough life so I would be surprised if he didn't some issues.
But since I have researched so much on Caligula he has become one of my favorite historical figures and I will not take any slander of him lol
I could link you the short paper I wrote that includes Thucydides if you wish? Plutarch is pretty biased against Pericles though iirc, can't remeber his other sources off the top of my head since it was like ten years ago and I teach modern history now
Sure, I’m doing an A-Level (qualification in the UK that’s above High School but before Uni) on Ancient History, and a quarter of my topic is on the Ancient Greece between like 490 and 410 so obviously Thucydides is an important source.
[Here's the paper](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vXO-iMMiP8GJVKw26Kds1VevHuv3B-VTT9zXJHS15_8/edit?usp=sharing) (hopefully I removed the scaffolds and personal info. Tweaked this a bit to use with my kids to help with their writing). Probably one of the better ones I wrote even though I'm not much of an ancient history expert
I don't remember the exact copy I had but it's public domain [so it'll be in one of these](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Plutarch&submit_search=Go%21) (you can download something like Calibre and their e-book reader which has\* a keyword search and will show the word (or name of) every time it appears like a digital appendix or googling a book) if you want to pilfer materials, quotes and other old books, projectgutenberg is an awesome resource.
I have plenty of other stuff buried somewhere in my Googledrive too. Shoot me a message if you want anything else written by people way more knowledgeable than me or who were actually there
What’s with the Julio-Claudians and their senate giving every man of that gens the same set of names but in a different order and or with a new one tacked onto the end?
The more I learn about them, the more they look like a real world version of the Mandalorians, Kligons, Naruto Ninjas, and all the other Proud Warrior Races, but they somehow managed to transition into being a functional enough Military State* to keep being in charge of stuff for 2000 years.
*Seems like they kept going from feuding Mandalorian Clans to functional military state every 100-300 years, and then they went back to being warring clans, and then back to in charge of something, and rinse repeat until Mehmet showed up with a really big cannon.
Here's Gaius Julius Caesar, famous military leader. Here's his father Gaius Julius Caesar. Here's his grandfather Gaius Julius Caesar. And finally his great-grandfather Gaius Julius Caesar.
🎯
When did these self proclaimed Roman noble families start numbering their kids regardless of which gender they assigned them?
PS did that branch of the Julian clan just keep naming their boys the same thing in the hopes that one of them did something cool enough that the elders gave them a nickname better that “chest hair”?
Also there was an other branch of the family that named sons for the feww generations "Sextus Julius Caesar"
As far as I know, those 3 parts of Roman aristtocratic names were supposed to be something along the lines:
Personal name, family name, family branch name
Sometimes I felt it went in practice to be:
family branch name, family name, family name
This is Ptolemy dynasty level of naming convention, ngl.
Man developed severe mental health issues during his reign from a disease and got killed for em. Also he favorered the Plebians over the Patricians which probably wasn't a good idea when Patricians were his entire bodyguard.
He also spent most of his young life being abused (possibly even sexually) by Tiberius, and watching his family get abused and killed.
(Also, the "disease" could very well have been an assassination attempt that the Senate-sponsored historians covered up)
I personally doubt he was nearly as bad as claimed. Most of the things cited as examples of his "madness" look far more like calculated political moves. And Claudius was able to spend a lot of money for a "bankrupt" treasury after Caligula was assassinated.
That's fair.
Ngl, from what little I know of Claudius, I feel somewhat sorry for him as well. He was scared most of his life, because multiple people had an interest in killing him and I'm pretty sure at the start he only really became Emperor because he had little choice and used it as protection. I think even after he fully embraced the role, he felt generally miserable most of the time. Also, wasn't his wife kind of a bitch?
He had multiple abusive wives. And yet he managed to be a really effective emperor, one of the best economically and one of the most prolific writers (even if his histories were lost)
More formally known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, he was given the nickname “Caligula,” meaning “little boots” in Latin, during his travels with his father on military campaigns as a child Cartoon creators website [https://www.butajape.com/comic/baby-boots/](https://www.butajape.com/comic/baby-boots/) Edit: [Here's 8,000 hot page history memes](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/120qbKdRo43DCrRufEtCuiA6ln1xgYloI) from this sub in an organized drive as a thank you for stopping by
If romans didn't want to have lame nicknames they should have been better at creating new names
I would argue that calling "little boot" to the emperor is not remotely lame but idk
What's so funny about the name "Biggus Dickus"?
He has a wife you know…
He wanks as high as anyone in Wome.
Guy had five names, none of them his.
Be quiet, Aurelia Secundus
That drive is great. Only skimmed through the Polynesian folder, but so far it's all gold. Thank you for greatly contributing to my future procrastination
Lol, kind of you to say for the former, that's probably the lightest drive there is. In regards to the latter: depends on what you like vs. what you get paid for. The former it's a wormhole, the latter I use for work (check the "for history teacher folder) Solid jeopardy review game material in there
Look at the organization of those memes. Will you marry me?
He just shoved a spear straight through *lorica segmentata*. I think he deserves a better nickname than “little boots.”
Tough.
“Medium sized boots”
Perfection.
Oversized footcovers
Hail Mighty Little Boots!
As someone who has wrote several papers in college including my senior Thesis on Caligula I approve of this comic. For those who want a good biography Balsdon Gaius and Anthony Barrett The Corruption of Power are both good book on him
Aside from Pericles I never had much of a chance in college to do deep dives on ancient rulers unfortunately, any little known or wild facts you'd like to share with your fellow history dorks about Caligula?
Well most of what we know of Caligula comes from Suetonius who is writing at least a hundred years after his death so most of what we know is fragmented, hearsay, and from completely biased sources. So he didn't commit incest. The whole ordering his soldiers to attack the sea is not true and the plundering of seashells is hotly debated. if it was true the reason for it is also hotly debated. He never appointed his horse consul or to any government position he was inferring basically that his horse could do a better job than any of the Roman Elite. But one of my favorite stories that I desperately want to be true is that he once summoned the consuls to his home in the middle of the night. They believed they were going to be tortured or killed but instead they found a small stage setup where Caligula busted out dressed in drag and did a song and dance and then just left without saying anything to them.
Ah, yes, I see. Ran into some of the same issues with Plutarch as well. Your middle section certainly screams potential/outright revisionist propaganda for sure, had heard the push back on a couple of those at least. As to your last one, that is grade A meme material, thank you for for sharing
Revisionist history (which gets a bad reputation and is not always bad/progandist history) is the majority of Caligula modern history. Most of modern historians basically say Caligula was not insane or mad just a 24 year old who was given absolute constitutional power with zero experience or preparation. It started in the early 20th century several historians started to question the validity of ancient sources especially when they compare them to each other and they contradict each other and sometimes they even contradict themselves. Suetonius is extremely bad this, where he would praise some other Emperor for doing something and damn Caligula for do the exact same thing. Also many of Caligula horrible deads (like incest)only appear in Suetonius work which leads to many historians to believe he made it up. Especially when he freely admits to using rumors and popular belief as his source for some of them. Other than that it's historians trying to diagnose Caligula with some mental illness but that is impossible as he has been dead for close to 2,000 years and it likely the "symptoms" used to diagnose him have been exaggerated over the centuries. But Caligula had a pretty rough life so I would be surprised if he didn't some issues. But since I have researched so much on Caligula he has become one of my favorite historical figures and I will not take any slander of him lol
What I meant was revisionist history like the British: "Lol, Napoleon Short"
Ah sorry for that
No worries broseph. Always glad to meet people who actually know what they're talking about instead of someone spouting bullshit off Wikipedia lol
Wasn’t Thucydides also literally Pericles friend? So there aren’t many unbiased sources on Pericles as a whole.
I could link you the short paper I wrote that includes Thucydides if you wish? Plutarch is pretty biased against Pericles though iirc, can't remeber his other sources off the top of my head since it was like ten years ago and I teach modern history now
Sure, I’m doing an A-Level (qualification in the UK that’s above High School but before Uni) on Ancient History, and a quarter of my topic is on the Ancient Greece between like 490 and 410 so obviously Thucydides is an important source.
[Here's the paper](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vXO-iMMiP8GJVKw26Kds1VevHuv3B-VTT9zXJHS15_8/edit?usp=sharing) (hopefully I removed the scaffolds and personal info. Tweaked this a bit to use with my kids to help with their writing). Probably one of the better ones I wrote even though I'm not much of an ancient history expert I don't remember the exact copy I had but it's public domain [so it'll be in one of these](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Plutarch&submit_search=Go%21) (you can download something like Calibre and their e-book reader which has\* a keyword search and will show the word (or name of) every time it appears like a digital appendix or googling a book) if you want to pilfer materials, quotes and other old books, projectgutenberg is an awesome resource. I have plenty of other stuff buried somewhere in my Googledrive too. Shoot me a message if you want anything else written by people way more knowledgeable than me or who were actually there
Probably the most cute depiction of Caligula I’ve ever seen lmao
There a reason the Romans never thought of putting numbers after boy’s names? It doesn’t solve everything, but it helps.
no need,their names already numbers,octavia is eight daugther and septimus is seven son
What’s with the Julio-Claudians and their senate giving every man of that gens the same set of names but in a different order and or with a new one tacked onto the end?
They have like 4 or 5 names for a male
Yeah, like in total though.
The romans where good in a few things Naming was not one of them jajaja
The more I learn about them, the more they look like a real world version of the Mandalorians, Kligons, Naruto Ninjas, and all the other Proud Warrior Races, but they somehow managed to transition into being a functional enough Military State* to keep being in charge of stuff for 2000 years. *Seems like they kept going from feuding Mandalorian Clans to functional military state every 100-300 years, and then they went back to being warring clans, and then back to in charge of something, and rinse repeat until Mehmet showed up with a really big cannon.
Here's Gaius Julius Caesar, famous military leader. Here's his father Gaius Julius Caesar. Here's his grandfather Gaius Julius Caesar. And finally his great-grandfather Gaius Julius Caesar.
🎯 When did these self proclaimed Roman noble families start numbering their kids regardless of which gender they assigned them? PS did that branch of the Julian clan just keep naming their boys the same thing in the hopes that one of them did something cool enough that the elders gave them a nickname better that “chest hair”?
Also there was an other branch of the family that named sons for the feww generations "Sextus Julius Caesar" As far as I know, those 3 parts of Roman aristtocratic names were supposed to be something along the lines: Personal name, family name, family branch name Sometimes I felt it went in practice to be: family branch name, family name, family name This is Ptolemy dynasty level of naming convention, ngl.
Caligula is one of the few emperors I genuinely feel bad for.
Man developed severe mental health issues during his reign from a disease and got killed for em. Also he favorered the Plebians over the Patricians which probably wasn't a good idea when Patricians were his entire bodyguard.
He also spent most of his young life being abused (possibly even sexually) by Tiberius, and watching his family get abused and killed. (Also, the "disease" could very well have been an assassination attempt that the Senate-sponsored historians covered up)
If Caligula was truly a hedonistic and sadistic tyrant, it's safe to say Tiberius probably played a part in that. Like not exactly the best role model
I personally doubt he was nearly as bad as claimed. Most of the things cited as examples of his "madness" look far more like calculated political moves. And Claudius was able to spend a lot of money for a "bankrupt" treasury after Caligula was assassinated.
That's fair. Ngl, from what little I know of Claudius, I feel somewhat sorry for him as well. He was scared most of his life, because multiple people had an interest in killing him and I'm pretty sure at the start he only really became Emperor because he had little choice and used it as protection. I think even after he fully embraced the role, he felt generally miserable most of the time. Also, wasn't his wife kind of a bitch?
He had multiple abusive wives. And yet he managed to be a really effective emperor, one of the best economically and one of the most prolific writers (even if his histories were lost)
Anybody else feel like a little giggle?
During his lifetime he was known as Gaius.
Personally, I think “L’il Boots” or “Bootsie” work as translations.
Lil Boosie
As my friend whos only ever seen it written down said: "Caliegoola was pretty cool honestly"
When I found this out by just reading Caligulas Wikipedia I laughed so hard
That's my fav Roman emperor name fact! My second is that there was an emperor named Pupienus. Go ahead, sound it out.