In ancient Rome, it was said that emperor Caligula was insane because he named his horse a consul

[DFW]

And yet, in today’s America, we are supposed to think that it’s OK for Trump to keep Hegseth on as Secretary of Defense?

I think we’d be better off with the horse.

[Jerry2144]

1. He named the horse's ass

Secretary of Defense

[Ocelot II]

2. He's *part* of a horse, though.

[SocialDemocrat61]

3. Caligula means little boots

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. We would certainly be better off with the horse!

They are intelligent animals, after all.

Way more intelligent than Hegseth!

[dalton99a]

5. And karma caught up with Caligula

Damnatio memoriae is a term we use to describe a Roman phenomenon in which the government condemned the memory of a person who was seen as a tyrant, traitor, or other sort of enemy to the state. The images of such condemned figures would be destroyed, their names erased from inscriptions, and if the doomed person were an emperor or other government official, even his laws could be rescinded. Coins bearing the image of an emperor who had his memory damned would be recalled or cancelled. In some cases, the residence of the condemned could be razed or otherwise destroyed.

[LudwigPastorius]

21. Looks more like Zuckerberg than Trump.

[leftstreet]

6. Incitatus

Easy enough to modernize for Hegseth:

Incel-tatus

[erronis]

12. Whinny.

[WarGamer]

7. FWIW, he never actually did it...

the only source for this fairy tale is Suetonius, the "TMZ" of the 2nd century

"...it is even said that he intended to make him [Incitatus] consul." (...consulatum quoque destinasse)



Gaius Caesar Germanicus, aka Caligula... has been tarred and feathered for 2000 years, most of the accusations are probably false. His reputation was ruined by decree, the Damnatio Memoriae... where the Senate, after his death ordered his name and likeness to be stripped from public view. And his reputation sullied.

Modern writing about GCG points to more of a "troll" than an insane person. Violent and cruel, sure... as most of them were, but insane is mostly fiction.

Example:

He actually may have said once "You Senators are sooo useless, feckless fools that my horse, Incitatus could serve as Consul"

And that morphs into "Caligula was so crazy he made his horse a consul"

[DFW]

11. That makes perfect sense

It wouldn't be the first time that a carefully spread rumor supplanted reality, as everyone that has studied a post-Eisenhower Republican administration is well aware.

[erronis]

13. That's why musk bought twitter - to control the slander (and inject his own.)

[ColoringFool]

18. SIMILARLY, "He was so crazy he named his horse a Consul" Became Whitewashed...

Into "Caligula made a flippant remark that biased historians recorded as fact."

See how that works?

Kind of like our contemporaneous media "sane-washing" of Trump that we rightly note and criticize.

[WarGamer]

22. I read Winterlings book on Caligula...

He argues that Gaius was shaped by a terrible childhood, gained tremendous psychological self control while Tiberius was systematically killing his Mother and siblings... and evidence suggests that during his time in Capri he became close to his sister, Drusilla (later accused of molesting her) and after her illness and death, he snapped... he proclaimed she was to be regarded as a Goddess and those who didn't properly mourn her would be killed.

The main battle was the Senate vs Gaius Caligula... the Senate hated him. The public loved him. He was the final leader on the Julio-Claudian line after Julius Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius

Interesting note... historians say the tale about Gaius riding his horse across the Bay of Baiae atop a wooden platform aligned on top of hundreds of boats floating in the bay... was probably true.

[usonian]

8. One of my favorites. Emperor Caligula and his horse Incitatus, the horse he rode in on.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220007444

The tale of Caligula’s horse, Incitatus, being appointed as a senator is one of the most outlandish anecdotes about the emperor’s supposed madness. Incitatus was not just any horse; by all accounts, Caligula lavished him with luxuries typically reserved for Rome’s elite. The horse lived in a marble stable, with an ivory manger, and was the recipient of jewelry and other decadent trappings of wealth. The story goes that Caligula was so enamored with Incitatus that he intended to make a farce of the senatorial proceedings by raising his horse to the high office of a consul.

https://historychronicles.org/caligula-a-mad-tyrant/






===========
Updated to include Orange Caligula ordering his soldiers to whip the sea.
Whip it good.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221167895

Caligula - the Mad Emperor who Declared War on the Sea

According to Suetonius and Dio, he summoned his legions to the shore, arranged them in battle formation, and ordered them to prepare for an assault on the sea.

Trumpets sounded, arms were raised, and the soldiers awaited further instructions as if facing a real enemy.

Then, with no warning, Caligula dismissed the battle and declared victory. Ancient authors later interpreted this as a symbolic triumph over the god Neptune. Next, he instructed the troops to collect seashells along the beach and store them as trophies of the campaign.

According to these accounts, the shells were boxed and carried back to Rome as “spoils” of the conquest.

source: https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/ancient-history/caligula-attacks-the-sea/

[leftstreet]

10. LOL

Musk

[erronis]

14. Damn - those are great!

[usonian]

19. I grabbed the first two from image search.

The third got a little massaging on the computer with GIMP.
Thanks.

[ananda]

9. I think all Trump appointees are equivalent to Caligula's horse..

only worse because they can do more than neigh.

[OGBuzz]

15. He sure loves to grandstand. Obviously that weekend couch at Fox wasn't.....

a big enough stage for him. Now I am more convinced than ever that it was Hegseth who talked Trump into attacking Iran because he wanted to be in this exact place, taking credit for saving the entire U.S. military.

[lastlib]

16. Well, with Kegbreath......

we have HALF the horse...........

[Initech]

17. They said "horse", not "horse's ass".

Pete Hegseth is definitely the latter!

[LudwigPastorius]

20. Trump's cabinet is nothing but horse.

I would even say that there are horse everywhere in his entire administration.