Caligula's luxury boats disappeared long ago, but Italian
authorities are searching a lake southeast of Rome for any remains of
his "orgy ships."
Italian researchers are about to reveal whether a
volcanic lake in central Italy hides one of the legendary “orgy ships”
of Roman Emperor Caligula.
If successful, the archaeological feat would produce
one of the most extraordinary discoveries of recent times.
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (AD 12 to AD
41), best known by his nickname Caligula (Little Boots), was the third
emperor of the Roman Empire.
Although there have been attempts to rehabilitate
him, many historians believe he was the most lunatic, sadistic, and
tyrannical emperor in Rome’s history. During his brief but wild reign
from AD 37 to AD 41, he is said to have committed incest with each of
his three sisters, not to mention making his favorite horse Incitatus a
consul and proclaiming himself a living god.
One of his capricious whims was to have monumental
ships built so that he could indulge his sexual proclivities on the
scenic Lake Nemi, some 20 miles outside Rome.
The ships were most likely scuttled in a “damnatio
memoriae” (an action aimed at erasing someone from history) 2,000 years
ago, after the 28-year-old emperor was murdered in his palace on Rome's
Palatine Hill by members of the Praetorian Guard who were enraged by his
cruelty and excess.
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