La Locuras Del Emperador -

But the real "locura"? Caligula supposedly announced that he was appointing Incitatus as a Roman Consul—the highest elected office in the Republic.

When there are no checks and balances, when every whim is a law, the human mind either soars into creative absurdity (Elagabalus) or crumbles into paranoid terror (Charles II). la locuras del emperador

Courtiers had to handle him with extreme care, terrified he would shatter if they bumped into him. He slept surrounded by pillows and refused to dance or move quickly lest his "glass legs" break. His locura wasn't evil; it was a heartbreaking prison of the mind, and he ruled an entire global empire from inside that glass cage. We are obsessed with "las locuras del emperador" because they are the ultimate cautionary tale about power. But the real "locura"

These stories also serve a political purpose. Almost every tale of a "mad emperor" was written by his assassins. After a bad emperor was killed, the Senate would declare a Damnatio memoriae —the erasure of his memory. They would then write histories painting him as a monster or a lunatic to justify the stabbing. Courtiers had to handle him with extreme care,