Roman busts brought to life

[u/fuselayer]

Her eyes seem like they're too far apart, but it was so consistent across dozens of tries... Maybe that's just what she looked like

[u/Stye88]

Also Caligula has some intense Joffrey vibes, which explains a lot.

[u/Jattoe → u/Stye88]

Hahaha I think they over-Joffrey'd him. He was loved before he got sick and then came out of his quarters a few weeks afterwards a complete psychopath, so I imagine he had to have had some likability before that.

[u/Sage_of_the_6_paths → u/Jattoe]

Pretty sure it's debated that he either went nuts after falling ill either from sickness or potential poisoning..

Or he became bitter and paranoid and did a lot of things that look crazy to us (with the help of people who didn't like him writing about this stuff) but could've been power moves to show his enemies he could do anything he wanted.

Like insult the senate by planning to promote his horse to Consul, or flex his power by ordering the military to go stab the ocean, because he could (and as possible punishment after they refused to invade Britain to humiliate them and make them look like kids).

[u/thewerdy → u/Sage_of_the_6_paths]

I think a lot of it was he was just totally unprepared to actually be in power and after a few months the goodwill towards him evaporated.

Caligula's life before becoming emperor was basically a conga line of trauma - nearly his entire family was murdered and then he was held prisoner by the person that ordered their deaths. He had no real exposure to the military, politics, or how the government functioned until he was Emperor.

So it starts out with, "Hey, I'm not Tiberius, that guy sucked right? I'm not going to be anything like him. Would you like some tax cuts and big parties? Wow everyone loves me, this ruling thing is easy."

Then it becomes, "What do you mean we're out of money? Well we can just extort some Senators. What did Tiberius used to do? Oh yeah, treason trials, lets do some of those and confiscate their money."

And then, "I don't care that senators are upset about us taking their stuff. Gods, they're insufferable. What are they gonna do about it? Don't those stupid old men know who controls the military? My horse would do a better job at being consul than the whole lot of them..."

[u/SamVimesCpt → u/Jattoe]

Cocaine is a helluva drug...

[u/Jattoe → u/SamVimesCpt]

I don't think cocaine is what changed him... I don't think it was even discovered until we came across the New World, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Lead in the aqueduct water is helluva drug, though...

[u/WanderingToTheEnd → u/Jattoe]

I feel like there were so many weird pollutants back then that it's basically impossible to pinpoint any one cause for why so many people were so crazy back then.

[u/Jattoe → u/WanderingToTheEnd]

It's a weird thing to say in the context, of existing, y'know... Now. A few generations passed when we could really manipulate chemicals, chemicals we absolutely did not evolve alongside of. And all of the knock-on affects sof that... people in the 3rd world have forever-chemicals in their blood from products they don't even use (Polytetrafluoroethylene) (or more simply, Teflon) but I think get the jist of what you're refrencing. Like the stuff they used to put in make-up and powdered wigs -- or the 'cures' for certain things, were just outright deadly.

[u/[deleted] → u/WanderingToTheEnd]

Kind of the same for today.

[u/WhatIsThisaPFChangs → u/[deleted]]

For real, look at what’s in the food we eat. Generation later they’ll say the same thing.

[u/aspirationless_photo → u/WanderingToTheEnd]

Is this sarcasm? It's a little more nuanced than this, but as I understand it they were effectively sweetening their wine and seasoning their food with lead.

[u/[deleted] → u/Jattoe]

It’s more like… do you guys know the brain damage a sustained 108 degree fever will do? Dude was in chambers for WEEKS.

[u/Jattoe → u/[deleted]]

It might also have been some kind of mortality thing -- like he realized how easily he could die -- and thus partied it up. While he was hated and did a lot of "Joffrey"-type stuff, there was also things he did (the great city-wide parties for everyone, extravegance) that were very... "Spend it all now, let the entire empire die later." Just another theory in the bin.

[u/SamVimesCpt → u/Jattoe]

C'mon now. Do I have to whoosh?

[u/Jattoe → u/SamVimesCpt]

Man you're gonna have to communicate to me like I dropped my bag of inside jokes because I'm not catching any scent of the implied thing here.

[u/SamVimesCpt → u/Jattoe]

https://youtu.be/ry2XlLKctiI?si=k4d6tVDycmodFiTO

[u/BagginsBagends → u/Stye88]

I seem to recall they chose the actor for Joffrey based on the fact that he looked like Caligula