Abstract
Gaius Caesar Germanicus was a Roman emperor who is often reviled as brutal and savage, or simply referred to as ‘the crazy one’. During his very brief but eventful reign, Rome experienced the terror of an individual with excessive power but little in the way of moral constraint. Gaius has long been viewed as one of the most intriguing and captivating of the emperors, and even modern scholarship tends to find it difficult to defend the variety of strange, terrifying, cruel, and often inexplicable stories and events that characterized Gaius’ reign. Although recent scholarship has tended to attempt such a defense, this thesis does not attempt to defend Gaius, but rather to explain what kind of person he was. Too often, modern scholars are content to label Gaius as a single thing such as ‘crazy,’ or ‘monarchically inclined’, and ignore other aspects of his personality. This work, however, establishes a new viewpoint on Gaius: that he cannot be characterized by only one particular trait, but that he must be understood as a man of many different traits.\r This thesis demonstrates that at different moments in his life, Gaius was many things: he had the intelligence and ability to be an effective administrator, and he handled several delicate issues with tact and skill. He was also demonstrably unbalanced; his mind was deeply affected by many tragic and tumultuous events that occurred throughout his life. Finally, he eventually developed into an autocrat who wreaked havoc on Rome for some time before he was finally assassinated. By analyzing the events of his life, from his early years until his death, this thesis presents a close analysis of the varying influences that accounted for Gaius’ mental instability, as well as the results of that instability, while still recognizing that Gaius should be characterized by more than just his mental issues.