An Unconventional Love: Modern
Interpretations of Caligula and
Drusilla’s Incestuous Relationship
Emma Southon
IAA
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus
31 August AD 12 – 24 January AD 41
[http://www.apollonius.net/Images/caligula.jpg].
‘He lived in habitual incest with all his sisters...
Of these he is believed to have violated
Drusilla when he was still a minor, and even to
have been caught lying with her by his
grandmother Antonia... The rest of his sisters
he did not love with so great affection, nor
honour so highly.’
• Suet Cal 24
‘When she died, he appointed a season of public
mourning, during which it was a capital offence
to laugh, bathe, or dine in company with one's
parents, wife, or children. He was so beside
himself with grief that suddenly fleeing the city
by night...he went to Syracuse and hurriedly
returned from there without cutting his hair or
shaving his beard. And he never afterwards took
oath about matters of the highest moment, even
before the assembly of the people or in the
presence of the soldiers, except by the godhead
of Drusilla. ’
• Suet, Cal 24.
• Childhood incest.
• ‘Reliquas sorores nec cupiditate tanta nec
dignatione dilexit’
• Mourning and honours.
Robert Graves I, Claudius (1934)
Albert Camus, Caligula (1944)
• Jack Pullman/Herbie Wise, 1976 I, Claudius
(BBC TV series).
• Bob Guccione/Tinto Brass/Gore Vidal 1979
Caligula. (pornographic film).
• Eric Svejcar, 2004 Caligula: A Glam Rock Epic
(musical).
• Douglas Jackson, 2008 Caligula (novel).
I, Claudius
BBC TV Series (1976)
Bob Guccione Caligula (1979)
• ‘The great love of his life is his sister, Drusilla,
and so it needs to be shown. And when she
died, I think he began to change.’
• Gore Vidal in Lui, 1980. The Making of Caligula.
Eric Svejcar Caligula: A Glam Rock Epic
(2004)
“I may not be perfect
I may not be smart
But I know what I have in
you.
You are my rescue
my port in a storm
The reason that I make it
through.
You’re the only whose still
here in the darkness
and the light
The only one who has
ever made me feel right
Now that I have you,
This much I know
When you’ve found love
You got to take it,
Protect it,
Don’t let it go.
Hold it as tight as you
can.”
Douglas Jackson, Caligula (2008)
‘”Had anyone ever suffered as he did? Had
anyone ever been more alone? Drusill was
gone. His only friend. His sister, The only one
he ever really trusted. How could she leave
him? “ He sniffed, blinking away a tear.’
– Jackson, 2008: 270
‘Euan and Brooke do such a terrific job of
playing a convincing (if thoroughly
unconventional) romantic pair that you often
forget it was incestuous. That was my
intention – what’s important is not that he’s in
love with his sister, but that he’s in love,
period.’
– Svejcar, 2005 [email] Personal email 26/10/05