Orgies, Gold, and Roasted Parrots: Inside Caligula's Feasts
Prepare to meet a ruler who turned banquets into political theater. Caligula's tables overflowed with the rarest dishes from across the empire—from fried Nile crocodiles and peacocks from Samos to cranes from Delos, with cucumbers from India and peaches from China. This was luxury without limits—and a warning about the cost of unchecked power.
In This Article:
A Table of Excess: The Dishes That Defined Caligula’s Banquets
At his feasts, the dishes crossed every boundary of taste and cost. Fried Nile crocodiles, Samian peacocks, Delos cranes, and Rhodes' sturgeon sat beside African snails, Carthaginian fruits, and other delicacies from across the empire. Even cucumbers from India and peaches from China were pompous luxuries. Boars were roasted and stuffed with living doves, while parrots and nightingales were part of the menu—symbols of abundance and control.
Spectacles of Power: Private Indulgences and Public Shame
Caligula did not stop at gastronomy. Behind a transparent curtain, he summoned the wife of a senator, praising her beauty in front of her husband and other guests. He then demanded that they witness his acts of depravity. He also organized grand love processions with hundreds of youths, women, invited guests, and even wild animals, conducted under the watch of guards to keep the pace.
Floating Palaces on Lake Nemesis
To host his revels, Caligula built monumental ships—on a lake near Rome—up to 70 meters long and 20 meters wide. These vessels gleamed with marble, gems, and statues of gods, and inside housed baths, toilets, vineyards, and fruit trees. The ships carried a terrifying reputation and were said to be sunk after the emperor's murder; archaeologists recovered remnants nearly 2,000 years later, in the 1930s.
Wealth, Taxation, and the Fall of a God-King
According to the Roman historian Suetonius, Caligula drew funds from the treasury left by his predecessor, Tiberius, who had accumulated nearly 3 billion sesterces. Caligula burned through that fortune in extravagance and imposed heavy taxes to fund the spree. He opened a luxurious lupanar where he forced elite wives and sisters to work, keeping all profits for himself. In 41 CE, a conspiracy of the empire’s elites toppled him; he was slain by his own Praetorian Guard in the corridor of a theater. The moral is clear: power is hard to gain, but even harder to hold, especially when a ruler cannot restrain himself.
