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Ancient and modern

If Trump seems bad, remember Caligula

13 January 2018

9:00 AM

13 January 2018

9:00 AM

Whatever one makes of the accuracy of the journalist Michael Wolff’s depiction of President Trump, it cannot all be the product of an overheated imagination. What makes it so interesting is that his picture of total dysfunctionality is typical of Roman historians’ accounts of many emperors.

Suetonius (d. c. ad 125), for example, was a high-ranking imperial secretary to the emperor Hadrian.

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