The mad emperor

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , known to us by his childhood nickname "Caligula" (meaning "tiny boot"), was emperor of Rome from 37-41 A.D.

As emperor, Caligula began a large number of construction projects, improving infrastructure such as roads, harbors, aqueducts, city walls, and palaces.  He also used public money to build projects for himself, however, apparently unable to distinguish between the empire's welfare and his own..  His spending exhausted the treasury, built up by his predecessor, and the country was seized by a famine.

The young emperor engaged in violent disputes with the Senate.  He "fired" and replaced the sitting consul, and had several senators put to death for treason.  He uncovered more and more conspiracies against his rule, with resulting executions.

Caligula eventually injected religion into his role as emperor.  According to Wikipedia:

Caligula began appearing in public dressed as various gods and demigods such as Hercules, Mercury, Venus and Apollo.   Reportedly, he began referring to himself as a god when meeting with politicians and he was referred to as "Jupiter" on occasion in public documents.

He was the first emperor to claim divinity for himself while still alive.  He asked to be worshipped as Helios Neos, the "New Sun."

Today, we might suggest that he was something of a narcissist.

Contemporary writers described Caligula

as an insane emperor who was self-absorbed, angry, killed on a whim, and indulged in too much spending and sex.  He is accused of sleeping with other men's wives and bragging about it,  killing for mere amusement, deliberately wasting money on his bridge, causing starvation,  and wanting a statue of himself erected in the Temple of Jerusalem for his worship.

Caligula planned to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul.  He died before carrying out this plan, but he actually did appoint Incitatus as a priest.

The contemporary philosopher and writer Seneca

states that Caligula became arrogant, angry and insulting once becoming emperor and [Seneca] uses his personality flaws as examples his readers can learn from.

After nearly four years as emperor, he was assassinated by a number of senators who had seen enough.

At the time of his reign, Twitter had not yet been invented.  Fortunately, perhaps, for the people of Rome, Caligula was unable to tweet.