Rome’s eccentric leaders

Oddball was the orator and politician Hortensius (114–50 BCE) of the late Roman republic. He loved the plane trees on his estate so much he watered them with wine. Receiving news that one of them was dying, Hortensius hastily adjourned a legal case to rush to be by its side. Marcus Licinius Crassus, a contemporary of Hortensius, kept pet eels in an expensive fishpond. He adorned his favourite eel with jewellery. When the eel died, Crassus held a funeral and mourned it for three days.

Crassus later died in Mesopotamia (southern Turkey) in a disastrous battle against the Parthians in 53 BCE. The Parthians lured Crassus into a hot and waterless plain where they destroyed his army. 20,000 men died along with him and his son.

Few matched the notorious and insane emperor Caligula. (37–41 CE) He threatened to appoint his horse as consul. The horse, named Incitatus, was lavished with splendidly appointed stables and its own slaves. Caligula often dressed in the garb of four different divinities, including Venus. Sometimes he wore a beard of gold and held a thunderbolt in his hand to emulate Jupiter. Nero is perhaps the most infamous Roman of all. The nephew of Caligula, Nero’s reign (54–68 CE) was known for extreme brutality, excess and indulgence. Nero’s penchant for singing and playing the cithara on stage was mocked during and after his reign. He even established a festival called the Neronia.

Over a century later, emperor Commodus took wildly eccentric behaviour to impossible levels. Commodus appeared in the Colosseum often as a gladiator, winning all his bouts easily as his opponents always submitted. Commodus dressed as Hercules, his favourite mythological hero. Commodus’ reputation for cruelty and erratic behaviour was widespread. Not as bloody as the rest, Elagabalus was 14 on becoming emperor in 218 CE. His many sexual perversions and bizzarre behaviour scandalised Rome.