Ancients Behaving Badly (2009–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Caligula - full transcript

NARRATOR: Caligula. He's the
poster boy for sociopaths everywhere.

The young Roman emperor had a

fearsome reputation as a

sadist, murderer and raving lunatic.

The emperor decided that he's

going to declare war on the sea

god Neptune.

It's mad!

There are stories of women

and children, innocents, being

thrown off the cliffs to their death.



But was he really as bad all that?

Using the ancient historical

record, the real Caligula will

be uncovered.

Investigators will put his turbulent life
under the microscope with a range of

scientific tests.

New archaeological evidence will show for
the first time, the location of his bloody

death.

And a leading forensic psychiatrist
will analyze his character.

All to reveal whether he was
mad or just plain bad, and how

he stacks up against other

ancients behaving badly.

The Emperor Caligula: he
becomes the supreme ruler of

Rome at the age of 24.



He's in power for less than

four years before being assassinated.

In that brief time, he commits

unthinkable atrocities, acts of

cruelty that will ensure him a

place in history... as a madman.

Caligula is very
psychiatrically disturbed.

His behavior includes murder,

killing without remorse, and

pushing every moral bound placed

in front of him.

But was he really insane?

To understand Caligula better,

psychiatrist David Mallott will

examine his behavior and then

position him on the unique

behaving badly psycho-graph to

reveal how he compares to other

tyrants from history, like

Genghis Khan and Julius Caesar,

and Hilter's Nazi henchmen,

Himmler and Goering.

Caligula's rap sheet is shocking.
He holds magnificent feasts and

has criminals beheaded between courses.

And while his nervous guests

knock back the wine, he rapes their wives.

High-ranking Romans are flogged

and executed.

It's a public spectacle and a warning.

He even slaughters members of

his own family.

The horror stories are so

extreme, they're hard to believe.

Is the historical record to be trusted?

Our information about the
reign of Caligula comes from two

sources: Philo, a contemporary,

and Suetonius.

And it's Suetonius that gives us

some of the most shocking, lurid

details and stories that took

place in the reign of terror of Caligula.

Now, he's writing over 70 years later.

And that's like someone today

writing about World War I,

but he's got way less evidence.

The hunt for evidence begins

in Caligula's childhood.

He is born in 12 A.D. and given

the grand name, Gaius Germanicus Augustus.

Gaius was was the son of

Germanicus, golden boy of the

imperial family.

He was essentially a military

hero talked about in the same

breath as Alexander the Great.

And, basically, Gaius is an army brat.

Young Gaius spends his early

years living in a place similar

to this, a Roman army fort.

He parades around the camp in a tiny
military costume, made for him by his mother.

And the soldiers love it.

They even give him a nickname:

Caligula, which means "little

boots," after the tiny military

sandals he used to wear.

When little Caligula snaps

his fingers, even

battle-hardened soldiers come running.

Imagine what that does to you.

Your father's a hero, you've

been spoiled all your life, and

you can basically do no wrong.

This then is the incubator.

Dr. Mallott's case study

exposes the impact that it has

on the young boy.

Caligula's childhood had a

tremendous formative effect on

his character.

It was a world turned upside down.

Instead of a child being

surrounded by adults, this was a

kid who was being bowed down to

by the people around him, being

told that he could do no wrong,

no moral compass being presented to him.

He wasn't a child; he was the general.

Clearly, it's not a good start.

And it goes from bad to worse.

The Roman Empire is ruled by

Tiberius, a cruel and depraved

old scoundrel.

He's an early version of

Stalin, right down to his

secret police, who keep files

on anyone who poses a threat,

real or imagined.

And the fattest file is on

Germanicus, Caligula's father.

You've got to remember, Germanicus is
a war hero, which really means a lot to the

Romans.

And he's also next in line to the throne.

Tiberius, on the other hand, is

just a twisted, unpopular old man.

And he's so paranoid that he's

deeply suspicious of Germanicus.

Caligula is just 7 years old when Germanicus
comes down with a mysterious illness and dies.

It's all very suspicious.

The histories say Tiberius

poisoned him, but there's no proof.

If it is murder, it would have

an enormous psychological

effect on Caligula.

Modern medical science can now

answer the question: Was it a homicide?

Toxicologist Dr. Timothy

Erickson has read the

historical account and found

two vital clues.

A robotic patient simulator

helps explain his analysis.

We know from Germanicus'
accounts that he had skin

findings that were blotchy.

These accounts are quite descriptive.

The other very important

account, historically, of

Germanicus' death is that he was

foaming at the mouth

immediately before his death.

Nowadays, we know this is
consistent with arsenic poisoning.

But arsenic poisoning can be

mistaken for a common and lethal disease.

What's classically described

with arsenic poisoning is a

rice-water-like diarrhea,

where you're losing so much

volume through the diarrhea,

that it appears like rice in water.

Most accounts would call

that cholera, so it's another

way to get people off the

suspicious trail of arsenic.

(Coughing)

Arsenic, masquerading as

cholera: it's a likely explanation.

He goes into heart failure.

(EKG beeping)

And then the body completely

shuts down, and he dies.

(EKG flat-lining) >> No one, including
Caligula, believes Germanicus died of

natural causes.

The death of Germanicus has

a tremendous effect on the young Caligula.

He sees his father, a great

military leader, die.

This likely led him to this

fatalistic, perhaps nihilistic,

view of the world.

"My father was great; he died young.

I'm likely to meet the same fate."

(Coughing)

For the next 12 years,

Caligula lives in isolation

with his grandmother.

(Dogs whimpering)

Nothing is written about this

period of his life.

But what happens next makes the murder
of his father look like a walk in the park.

Tiberius summons him to the Island of Capri,
a resort now but then a place to be feared.

I'm rushing to catch the

ferry to get to the Island of Capri.

I want to explore there what

impact being there had on the

life of Caligula.

And I really want to hurry up,

because there's a storm coming.

Capri lies 130 miles south of Rome in
the Mediterranean Sea, giving Tiberius some

protection from attack.

We've arrived in Capri, and
the mood is gloomy, overcast, dark.

(Thunder rumbling)

Like a Bond villain's lair,

Tiberius's palace stands on the

highest, most inaccessible peak

on the island.

Caligula has no idea why he's

been summoned.

But what happens here will

change him forever.

NARRATOR: Nineteen-year-old Caligula arrives
at the island hideaway of the feared and

depraved emperor Tiberius.

Caligula has no idea why
he's been summoned here.

This is the path Caligula would
have taken to Tiberius's hilltop palace.

He'd be very nervous. Why?
Because Tiberius rules most of

the known world and routinely

kills off anyone he sees as a threat.

He's already killed Caligula's

father and his two brothers.

ARYA: When I think of

Caligula making his way here, I

think of him having trepidation

and fear and uncertainly.

His family members had been

killed by Tiberius.

Is he next?

Only the ruins survive

today, but what Caligula sees

is a towering fortress.

It's a nightmarish place,
the site of unspeakable

atrocities.

Roman society is violent and graphic.

People are used to the arena;

people are used to condemned

criminals being killed.

Here, Tiberius is not subject to the public
scrutiny. Here, Tiberius can do whatever

he wants.

And the stories of this recluse,

this kind of Howard Hughes, are

fantastical.

And he's a depraved, dirty,

sick, twisted old man.

And Caligula finds himself on

Capri, trapped.

There's no way out.

Only the emperor will allow you

to come and to go.

Caligula now gets a master

class in depravity.

Caligula has to go along with
whatever takes palace in this villa.

Like a James Bond villain,

Tiberius enjoys creative killing.

I'm at what's known as Tiberius's Leap.

And it's over 1,000 feet above

the sea level.

And it's from here, we are told,

that Tiberius has condemned

criminals, people he doesn't

like, thrown off the cliffs to their death.

We are told, if they still survived, there
were people down below in boats with oars.

If someone popped up above

the surface alive, their heads

would be smashed with the oars.

Tiberius's Leap
isn't just for criminals.

There are stories of women
and children, innocents, being

thrown off just for the pleasure

of Tiberius.

(Wolf howling)

Caligula would have witnessed all of this.

Even for bloodthirsty Romans, murdering
women and children is going too far.

According to the historians,
there's more, much more.

Orgies, rape, pedophilia, torture,
the whole catalogue of bad behavior.

ARYA: The stories tell us

that Caligula abandons himself

and participates in all kinds of

sexual perversions and horrific acts.

Capri has an
overwhelming effect on Caligula.

He learns that life is worthless.

He learns that the purpose of

life is the pursuit of pure pleasure.

And he learns to marry pure

pleasure with violence.

Caligula sinks ever deeper into this twisted
mental state. >> He now begins to identify

with Tiberius.

"I want to be like Tiberius."

He wants to be Tiberius, the

man who killed his family and

now holds him captive.

It's an early version of

Stockholm Syndrome.

Caligula has bonded with the beast.

He now seeks what Tiberius has: total
power. >> Caligula learns what absolute

power is.

He sees from Capri the empire,

and he wants it.

And he soon gets it when

Tiberius suddenly dies.

The historian Suetonius calls it
murder and names the killer: Caligula.

There's no proof, but Caligula

certainly benefits from the old

rogue's demise.

Rule of the empire passes to

him and to Tiberius's grandson, Gemellus.

But Gemellus is only 18, too

young to share power.

A.D. 37. Caligula is 24 and has the

world by the tail.

Tiberius is dead; Caligula is now the
emperor. He makes his way to Rome on this

very road, on the Via Appia.

And the crowds turned out.

They were excited, they were

jubilant; they were ready to see

a new beginning and their new emperor.

The first thing he does is

distance himself from the feared Tiberius.

ARYA: Caligula makes his

way into the forum, where he

very publicly burns the secret

files that Tiberius kept on Roman citizens.

This is a grand moment.

It's as if the KGB files are

getting burnt in public.

This is a new beginning, and the

crowd is enthusiastic about this move.

Little do they know that

Caligula has kept backup files

of those same records.

NARRATOR: Caligula doesn't
stop there. He panders to the masses,

buying himself some love.

Roman society is basically

divided into two groups.

The ruling class, the educated

people, the extremely wealthy

people, that's one group of people.

The other is the plebs, the

commoners, the mob.

And you've got to keep them satisfied.

You've got to keep them happy.

And one way in which Caligula is

doing that, and becomes quite

notorious for doing so, is

giving away money.

How much money?

Up to 2.7 billion bronze coins.

And he's doing that in venues

like the Basilica Julia, going

to the top of the structure and

throwing them down to the

masses, who are eagerly

awaiting to scoop them up and

take them home.

For eight months, it's all

sweetness and light.

Then Caligula abruptly changes.

Almost overnight, the

benevolent dictator becomes a

raging monster, a Tiberius clone.

He turns on his people in

an orgy of violence.

ARYA: Caligula holds exquisite,
elaborate banquets as the emperor.

Ordinarily, this was an

absolutely fantastic social

highlight, but with Caligula

during the festivities, in front

of the guests, there are

flayings; there are killings.

And there's blood on the
tablecloth. The historian Suetonius says it

gets worse.

ARYA: He would sometimes

remove the wives of

distinguished guests, take them

away, rape them and then bring

them back to the banquet and

discuss their sexual performance.

This is outrageous.

He thinks he can get away with

it, and he's right.

Caligula is an equal-opportunity abuser.

Upper-crust Romans who cross

him are beaten, tortured and

put to death in public arenas.

Even the bloodthirsty Tiberius never
went this far. Can any of this be true?

One story says Caligula changes

the rules of the gladiatorial games.

Gladiators are divided into
different types, based on the

armor and weapons they use.

And people would support a

different type of gladiator a

bit like they support football teams today.

Now, Caligula's favorite

gladiator was a Thracian, who

was a quite lightly armored gladiator.

And he was usually pitted

against a murmillo who had more armor.

Rules are rules, and for 300

years, no Roman ruler has dared interfere.

It would be like changing the rules of
the NFL: everyone else will hate your guts.

But Caligula, the story

goes, wants longer, bloodier

contests with more suffering.

(Metal scraping)

So he orders that one gladiator

gets less protection.

Would this work?

Or would the more lightly armed

fighter be quickly killed?

To answer this question, two fight experts
are wearing authentic gladiatorial armor.

There's not much of it to start with.

Military medic Fred Galven is on
hand to assess the injuries. (Grunting)

Okay, what we're going to do

now is we are going to be

removing the arm guard from this gladiator.

What we're going to end up

having exposed now is going to

be his biceps, triceps, forearm

muscles, wrist.

(Grunting)

(Groaning)

Wow, that would have been a telling strike.

You can see where it would have

cut through the muscle groups of

the biceps and the triceps.

As bad as this injury is, it

certainly is not as critical as

an injury along the inside of

the forearm, which is where the

arteries and veins run through the arm.

Although bloody, this injury

would not have ended the fight.

Next, Fred takes away the

gladiator's shield.

This was a superficial slash across
the abdomen. No vital structures in his

abdominal area were struck,

for example, his liver in this

area or his spleen located up here.

Lungs, on either side of the

chest, and the heart located in

this central region, they were

not affected by this blow.

It was a superficial slash

across the abdominal muscles,

and he will continue to fight another day.

The Thracian could probably

kill his opponent anytime.

But if he doesn't put on the

drawn-out bloody spectacle

Caligula wants, the emperor

won't let him leave the arena alive.

When it comes to bad behavior,

Caligula is a natural.

The question is, what

transforms him into an out-and-out monster?

Historical sources blame it on

a mystery illness.

Now, modern medical science

will reveal the truth.

NARRATOR: Rome, A.D. 37.25-year-old
Caligula has suddenly become a violent and

ruthless dictator.

2,000-year-old historical

sources blame this change in

his behavior on a mysterious illness.

Today, more specific causes can be tested.

A sudden personality

change suggests brain damage.

Romans saw this as punishment from
the gods. Modern neurology points the

finger at Caligula's licentious lifestyle.

The two chief suspects: alcohol and sex.

The sexually transmitted

disease herpes, in particular,

can lead to the brain-damaging

disease herpes encephalitis.

Herpes encephalitis
likes to attack the frontal lobes.

The frontal lobe is thought to

be involved in your expression

of emotion and how well you can

inhibit impulses.

Damage to the frontal lobe

can cause a change in personality.

Very extreme emotional

behavior, so periods of extreme

elation, periods of extreme sadness.

Um, inappropriateness, sexual

inappropriateness, violent or

aggressive behavior toward other people.

Caligula's behavior is an

excellent fit for herpes encephalitis.

But there's one problem.

Even with modern medicine, 3/4

of patients with this disease die.

Two thousand years ago,

Caligula's chances of surviving

would have been even less.

So if it's not herpes, what about alcohol?

The suspect is something

uniquely Roman, because this is

not a simple case of alcohol poisoning.

The possible culprit is a

sweetener called defrutum that

the Romans added to their wine.

They were making a dry wine

which probably wasn't all that

good compared to modern technology.

And they used the defrutum to

sweeten it up so it became more palatable.

He's cooking up a batch of
defrutum using the exact method

the Romans used.

What makes defrutum suspect is

how it is made.

The ingredients are boiled in a

pot lined with lead.

VAN ROOYEN: They felt that

any brass or brazen pots, as

they called them, would spoil

the juice that they were making.

The Romans didn't know the

dangers of lead.

So the question is, how much

lead is in defrutum?

A chemical analysis will provide an answer.

This is amazing because no

one has actually, to my

knowledge, taken the extract,

done the process and then tested

it for lead.

Back then, they appreciated the

flavor of lead.

It was almost like chocolate

syrup on their food.

The sample is analyzed in a

mass spectrometer, and the lead

levels are compared against a modern wine.

Okay, so average wines today...

You take any wine off the shelf,

it's going to be less

than 200 parts per billion.

And that's what's permissible.

If it's less than 200, it's okay to sell.

MAN: Okay, well, let's look at defrutum.

Wow.

29,000 ppb.

That's huge.

It is packed with lead.

I mean, it really gives you a wallop.

I knew it would be elevated.

I didn't know how high the levels would be.

And quite honestly, they're much

higher than anticipated.

So there is more than enough lead in
defrutum to cause chronic lead poisoning.

ERICKSON: Once the patient

starts getting really

lead-intoxicated or lead

poisoning, then you start seeing

the altered personalities, the

delirium, the confusion.

Could it have accounted for the

personality changes, deficits,

the radical behavior of Caligula?

I think so.

(Chattering)

But Caligula isn't the only

Roman who drinks a lot of wine.

You'd assume many would get lead poisoning.

One historical account provides

an explanation.

Philo writes that after taking

power, Caligula's drinking

becomes excessive, even by

loose Roman standards.

The lead he's consumed adds a

new layer to his already

disturbed personality.

While Caligula's sick, crowds
take to the streets to show

their adoration for the ailing

young emperor.

They should have stayed home.

During Caligula's illness,

many people made vows for a

speedy recovery.

One such person, who made an

oath, was a certain plebeian,

Publius Afranius Potitus.

And he offered his life for the life of
Caligula. When Caligula recovers, he takes

the man literally.

He has him dressed up like a

sacrificial animal.

He has him with garlands and

wreaths, and throws him over the

city walls.

That done, Caligula turns on Gemellus, his
co-ruler. >> Caligula realizes more than

ever, Gemellus is only a

heartbeat away from the throne.

He is his co-ruler, although

Caligula was the favorite of Tiberius.

He has to be eliminated.

Caligula accuses Gemellus of treason.

The punishment for this is death.

Caligula doesn't bother with

the legal niceties.

Even Stalin used show trials to

cover his tracks.

All he offers Gemellus is the

chance to die with Roman honor.

Gemellus is now being forced

to commit suicide.

And Caligula sends his goons

over to make sure the job gets done.

♪

What's going on in this guy's
head? Dr. Mallott thinks he has a bad

case of narcissism.

MALLOTT: He views himself as

this grandiose, omnipotent figure.

The dangers of a narcissistic

personality is this inability to

treat others with any level of empathy.

He is in some ways, in a kind of

ancient slasher movie.

He's Freddy Krueger in a toga, so out of
control that he challenges the gods themselves.

In Roman times, that's a big no-no.

But Caligula's beyond caring.

In the heart of ancient Rome

stands one of its more revered

buildings: the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

Historian Suetonius writes that

Caligula turns this sacred

place into the front entrance

of his palace.

A modern equivalent of such

an action is if someone were to

build a huge residence right

next to the Vatican, bash a hole

into it, and then use the

Vatican as a vestibule, use the

Vatican as a dining room area,

you know, hang out lights and

disco balls and have big parties.

It's that absurd.

It's that crazy.

It's such an outrage, no

subsequent historians believe it.

But in 2003, Darius and his

team finally reveal the truth.

The dig they excavated here is

now filled in, but what they

found was astonishing.

Right in this area, we have

definitely some Caligulan

structures that are part of the palace.

Now, coming forward in this

direction, our excavation

revealed here, where the portico

is, massive foundations.

They continue in this direction,

they draw all the way, extending

to the back of the temple...

Of the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

So what we have is massive

foundations extending from where

we know the Julio-Claudians

are building palaces, we know

that Caligula is involved,

coming all the way to this

point, budding up against

the backside of the Temple of

Castor and Pollux, as the sources say.

This suggests that the story

everyone refused to believe for

2,000 years is true.

Not even the gods can stop Caligula.

Now he's about to embark on a

journey that the sources say

point to something worse:

that Caligula is stark raving mad.

NARRATOR: A.D. 39.27-year-old
Caligula rules Rome through fear.

But that's not enough for him.

He wants to ensure his place in

history by becoming a great general.

You need to understand
that Rome is a military state, and

there's one hard and fast rule:

great leaders win battles.

If you want respect in Rome,

you have to go out and kick

barbarian butt, and you have to

do it spectacularly.

Now, on top of that, Caligula's

under the shadow of his father,

Germanicus, who's a military hero.

And he's desperate to get out

from under that shadow.

Basically, he's desperate to

prove himself as a military leader.

So Caligula decides to lead a military
campaign more than 1,000 miles from Rome to the

north coast of Europe.

Suetonius writes that after

eight months, Caligula returns

to Rome telling an

extraordinary story: that he's

conquered Britain, something

even Julius Caesar couldn't manage.

Suetonius also says that

Caligula sets up a hoax.

To prove he's conquered

Britain, he parades captured

prisoners, including a British chieftain.

There's a strong suspicion that the captives
aren't really captives at all, that they're

slaves of Caligula's who've

been dressed up to look like

like barbarians.

And the British chieftain was

probably a turncoat who fled to

the emperor for protection.

But according to Suetonius,

that's not Caligula's most

outrageous act here.

Imagine you're one of the

legionaries, ready to embark on

the beach here for the invasion

of Britain, and all of a sudden

you get the instruction that

you're to march out there, and

you're to gather cockle shells;

because instead of invading

Britain, the emperor has decided

that he's going to declare war

on the sea god Neptune.

If this story's true, it's

the act of a lunatic.

But did it really happen?

Suetonius was writing 70 years

later under a new regime that

wanted to discredit Caligula's

military claims.

So what was really going on?

The answer lies 200 miles away on
the banks of the River Rhine in Holland.

There are a series of Roman forts here used
by the emperor Claudius to launch an invasion

of Britain three years after

Caligula was here.

Recent research by a Dutch archeological
team cast new light on the origins of the

forts.

The team dated the log timber in the forts
using tree rings. It's called dendrochronology.

It gives every piece of wood a

unique pattern, like a barcode.

We do know the sequence
of those barcodes, so to say, from

6,000 B.C. to the present day.

So when you've got the code for

this particular piece of wood,

you just compare it to the known

sequence, and then you get an

absolute match for A.D. 40,

and even the season, winter, A.D. 40.

The dating is so precise

that it confirms the forts were

built exactly at the time

Caligula was here.

They were not built by Claudius.

The team discovers something

else on the site, showing

Caligula was planning something

big: money and lots of it.

KEMMERS: During the
excavations of the fort, we

found about 700 coins, and over

half of them had been minted in

Caligula's reign.

What you see here is a coin

issued in the reign of Caligula

with a portrait of Caligula.

We've got about 80 or 100 of

these coins that were found in

Alphen, and that is really unusual.

It gives clear evidence that, at

this particular period in his

reign, a large amount of money

was needed in this area.

So Caligula did build a

chain of forts here, and he has

a lot of cash.

Dr. Kemmers' analysis is clear

about what's going on.

Why they built the fort here

in Caligula's reign is to

control the supply lines and to

have kind of storage bases where

they could store supplies

needed for the big invasion.

The River Rhine is a perfect

transport route from the Mediterranean...

Well, it starts in the Alps,

but you could use the Rhone from

the Mediterranean, move over to

the Rhine, bring your troops and

supplies over the Rhine to the

North Sea coast, and from there

launch an invasion to Britain.

It's not known why Caligula didn't
follow through on his invasion plan.

But three years later, Claudius

did conquer Britain using Caligula's forts.

So Caligula's strategy was well

thought out.

KEMMERS: I think the evidence

for actually Caligula preparing

an invasion of Britain forces us

to reevaluate him in a way.

He's always looked at as a

madman, and his entire

undertaking of going to Britain

is, well, dismissed as being

quite unreliable.

But definitely something big was

going on in his reign, so it

wasn't a disaster after all.

I think real things happened.

Important things happened, and

not just the acts of a mad boy.

Caligula's not
insane. He's not psychotic.

He was able to plan, lead and

execute a complicated military operation.

This was a detailed,

goal-directed endeavor.

And in psychosis, what you do

not see is goal-directedness.

So working out a plan to invade Britain,
including the construction of forts,

indicates the ruthless

tyrannical Caligula is actually sane.

But that's not going to save him.

During his short reign, he's

made a lot of enemies.

And new archeological finds,

never seen before on camera,

will shed light on the moment

his life came to a bloody end.

NARRATOR: Caligula is now 29. He's ruled Rome
for less than four years, and he's out of

control.

No one is safe from his bloody

violence, not even those whose

sworn duty it is to protect

him, his Praetorian Guards.

The ancient sources tell
us that Caligula is abusing his

Praetorian Guards.

He's making fun of one for an

effeminate voice; he's making

fun of another one by sleeping

with his wife.

This is utter madness.

These are the people that have your back.

These are the people that are

protecting your life and limb.

Caligula seems to have a death wish.

On a cold January day in 41
A.D., he attends the Palatine

Games in Rome.

(Applause, metal scraping)

Excited crowds fill the theater and spill out
onto the street. The atmosphere is charged.

(Cheering)

At lunchtime, Caligula leaves the games.

He enters an underground

passage called a cryptoportico

and heads towards his palace.

He won't get there alive.

This kind of cryptoportico,

or underground passageway, would

link you, like in a maze, from

one point of the palace to another.

And this is a great discovery

that's been made in recent years.

For almost 2,000 years, these

passageways have been lost.

Archeologists discovered them in 2006.

And this is the first time

cameras have been allowed inside.

The first passages discovered
were built sometime after Caligula.

But as they dug further, they

made a find that changed everything.

This is one of the more

recent excavation sites.

And right here was an important discovery.

It says on this lead pipe, this

water pipe, "Tiberius Claudius

Caesar Augustus."

Who is Claudius?

The successor of Caligula.

So we're getting closer and

closer to the realities of Caligula.

So this is a precious, precious

document that means that the

archeologists today are

reconsidering the entire dating

of this complex.

Two years after this

discovery, the archeologists

dug even deeper.

This cryptoporticus is

older than the cryptoporticus we've seen.

The corridor that Caligula

passes through on his way from

celebrating the games on the Palatine Hill.

We're told that he goes through

a cryptoporticus on the Palatine

Hill, in his palace, like this,

and he finds himself isolated,

away from his bodyguard, away

from his retinue, alone.

These are the passages

Caligula actually walks down on

the last day of his violent life.

In the shadows wait two bodyguards,
Cassius Chaerea, who Caligula mercilessly

mocked, and Sabinus, whose wife

Caligula raped.

And that is when the

conspirators strike.

Cassius Chaerea and Sabinus find

him here, and they strike the blow.

Caligula dies on the ground in a

pool of blood.

Caligula has been emperor

for 3 years, 8 months and 10 days.

He is just 29 years old.

In that brief time, he turned

the Romans' love for him into

hate and revulsion.

He lived for bloody violence.

He enjoyed watching the

massacre of women and children.

He made the bloody and cruel

gladiator games bloodier.

He raped and he murdered.

Where does such behavior of an

ancient behaving badly put him

on the psychopathic scale of tyrants?

Although Caligula might have

killed to gain power, most of

the killing was for his own entertainment.

This psychopathic behavior
puts Caligula at the opposite end of

the scale to calculating,

goal-driven killers like Julius

Caesar and Genghis Khan.

For them, killing was a

necessary part of their grander aims.

He would be very high
on a psychopathic scale.

His killing without remorse,

murder without guilt, inability

to see the rights of anybody

else around him: this man is a

stone-cold psychopath.

But there's another vital

aspect to Caligula's

personality that sets him apart

from the others: his extreme narcissism.

He would score very high on a

scale of narcissism, shown by

his inflated sense of

self-importance, his lack of

empathy of others, his need for adulation.

So who in history has a
similar personality profile?

MALLOTT: I would look to some of Hitler's
henchmen, such as Himmler or Goering for a

comparison, in that they combine

this narcissistic self-importance, this

tremendous, inflated

self-esteem, coupled with this

tremendous psychopathy and lack

of remorse whenever people die.

Take psychopathic tendencies,

mix them with a big dose of

narcissism, and you get one of

history's truly terrifying

personalities, made scarier

still by the fact that

Caligula's evil was cold and calculating.

Despite his short reign,
Caligula cast a long shadow.

Tiberius kept his depravity

behind closed doors; Caligula

paraded his in public.

Fear of Caligula lingered after his death.

Perhaps it was a fake, and

Caligula was watching in the

shadows to see who cheered, and

who'd be next on his death list.

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