History TheCaligula / Literature

* Aegon IV 'the Unworthy' manifested the Targaryen madness as complete, unchecked hedonism plus a total lack of impulse control that made him perhaps the most ChaoticStupid monarch in Westeros's history. Among many, many other misadventures, he created a SuccessionCrisis of unprecedented scope thanks to his sexual incontinence siring hundreds of sons, and his HairTriggerTemper causing him to deliberately stoke conflict between his potential heirs as one after the other fell out of favour for absurd, petty reasons. After he finally died aged forty-nine from sheer apocalyptic overindulgence, the realm promptly descended into chaos.

** Crayak, before he became [[EldritchAbomination something that could not be properly described in English,]] just wanted to ''[[OmnicidalManiac destroy all other life he came across]], [[ForTheEvulz just for fun]].'' [[CosmicHorror Now…]]

** King Aerys II "The Mad" Targaryen was the worst king that Westeros ever had, and a powerful 300-year old dynasty was overthrown because of his insane actions. Bonus points for [[BodyguardBetrayal being killed by one of his bodyguards]].

** Indeed, [[RoyallyScrewedUp the whole Targaryen dynasty]] had this trope going on multiple times along the way, to the point that Jaehaerys II said that when Targaryens were born the gods flipped a coin between madness and greatness, although this is an exaggeration. Most of them were either [[TheGoodKing good and competent rulers]] like Jaehaerys the Conciliator and Daeron the Good or simply unremarkable, with Mad King Aerys and Maegor the Cruel being the only Caligulas to actually sit the throne, though there were other Caligulas who didn't become king but tended to get away with their excesses because of their family. The fourth King Aegon, known as the Unworthy, was a lecherous FatBastard but not crazypants (his real failing was deliberately stoking a SuccessionCrisis that consumed the realm after his death), while King Baelor the Blessed was not all there but his crazy took the form of extreme piety, peacefulness and charity (such that he died of fasting to death), so most people remember him as one of the gooduns.

** There was King Gurnt the Stupid of Lancre, whose attempt at training an aerial attack force of armored ravens [[JustForPun never got off the ground]].

* ''Literature/TheFootprintOfMussolini'':
** [[spoiler: Heinrich Himmler takes over Germany after Hitler's death, and proceeds to enact Stalin-style purges of the military and civilian populations, while also authorizing nerve gas attacks on Allied forces every chance he gets, even when it kills his own soldiers too.]]
** Jiang Qing takes over RedChina after Mao is arrested by the Soviets and handed over to his enemies. As it becomes clear that her country is little more than an impoverished Soviet puppet state, she retreats into an obsession with film, making a series of terrible movies starring herself and forcing her people to watch them.
** Grand Mufti Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, ruler of the Islamic State of Arabia, is a massive luddite who bans all "non-Islamic" technology, causing entire villages to be wiped out by disease outbreaks they couldn't treat.

* Visser Three from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fits this trope like a glove. In the main series he's an AxCrazy EvilOverlord who executes subordinates at the drop of a hat, meets every threat that comes his way with overwhelming force, and due to being the only Andalite-Controller and having a bastion of EldritchAbomination morphs is a PhysicalGod by the definitions of this series. The prequel ''Chronicles'' books show his backstory as a quite sane and capable ManipulativeBastard who climbed from obscurity by studying the Andalites when no one else would. This study led to his obsession with becoming the first Yeerk to infest an Andalite, a goal he eventually reaches. Once he hits that high mark, there's nowhere else to go but down. The Animorphs often conspire to keep him in charge of the invasion, as his leadership makes the Yeerks less effective. For instance, Visser Three is convinced that the resistance are "Andalite bandits". Some of his underlings have begun to suspect they may actually be humans who can morph, but since people who offer unsolicited opinions to Visser Three tend to end up ''sans'' head, they keep this suspicion to themselves. If Visser Three weren't such a Caligula, he might have caught them.

* The Crackling Prince in Creator/WalterJonWilliams' ''{{Literature/Aristoi}}'' seems to qualify, although he never appears and is referred to only in discussing the past. He planned on "artistically" reconfiguring planetary landscapes with gravity generators -- with the people still living on them and expected to be grateful. Understandably "a commission had been formed in Perseopolis to examine his behavior", but he was somehow persuaded to retire before the other Aristoi actually did anything.

** Urgit, his successor in the ''Mallorean'', survived to that point by stealing a key to the treasury and hiring assassins; he's actually sane, if a DeadpanSnarker, but that's because [[spoiler:he's not Taur Urgas's son at all -- his mother had an affair with Silk's father, and he was the result. Thankfully for Cthol Murgos, the Urga bloodline has died out]].
** Urgit does seem a bit unstable at first, though more flippant than bloodthirsty, but that is because he is very well aware of the 'all reliably go insane before late middle age' rule. If you know you'll descend into insanity soon enough, why bother? As soon as he learns ''why'' his mother is so insistent the Urga curse won't affect him, he quickly drops the flippancy and becomes an effective ruler.

** King Joffrey Baratheon's reckless, childish cruelty and love of ordering executions result in a continent-wide civil war. Ironically, if Joffrey's father actually was who he says he was, then Joffrey would be distantly related to Aerys,[[note]]via his supposed father's paternal grandmother being a Targaryen, and ''far'' more indirectly by House Baratheon being an illegitimate cadet branch of House Targaryen, going back to Aegon I's bastard brother Orys[[/note]] but Joffrey was actually fathered by [[BrotherSisterIncest his mother's twin brother]] and his grandparents were KissingCousins, so this streak of insanity, [[NotMeThisTime for once]], has nothing to do with being related to the Targaryens. Thankfully, his siblings Tommen and Myrcella have shown no signs of following his path despite identical lineage.

** Duke Felmet, also of Lancre, might have been stable before he gained the throne through regicide, but afterwards, he would regularly try to [[OutDamnedSpot remove the blood from his hands]] via sandpaper or cheese grater and be surprised that this only generated more.

* The ''Literature/{{Falco}}'' novels of Creator/LindseyDavis are set in ancient Rome during the Flavian dynasty, and approach this idea in two different ways. In the first series, private investigator Marcus Didius Falco, a Republican Roman at heart, reluctantly takes on work for the hard-headed, pragmatic, and very sane, Emperor Vespasian. Falco, a man old enough to remember what went before [[note]]The certifiably pyschopathic Emperor Nero[[/note]], reluctantly admits that if you ''have'' to have an Emperor, better he be a sane man who doesn't shirk the responsibility of running the Empire well. He also reluctantly concedes that he ''can'' say to this Emperor's face that he'd far rather live in a Republic. The second series featuring Falco's daughter Flavia Albia is set in the reign of the mad, or at least hyper-paranoid, Emperor Domitian. In which people keep their heads down and try not to attract their god-Emperor's attention.

* Creator/KAApplegate loves this trope, and all of her series feature it to varying degrees:
** Visser Three from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fits this trope like a glove. In the main series he's an AxCrazy EvilOverlord who executes subordinates at the drop of a hat, meets every threat that comes his way with overwhelming force, and due to being the only Andalite-Controller and having a bastion of EldritchAbomination morphs is a PhysicalGod by the definitions of this series. The prequel ''Chronicles'' books show his backstory as a quite sane and capable ManipulativeBastard who climbed from obscurity by studying the Andalites when no one else would. This study led to his obsession with becoming the first Yeerk to infest an Andalite, a goal he eventually reaches. Once he hits that high mark, there's nowhere else to go but down. The Animorphs often conspire to keep him in charge of the invasion, as his leadership makes the Yeerks less effective. For instance, Visser Three is convinced that the resistance are "Andalite bandits". Some of his underlings have begun to suspect they may actually be humans who can morph, but since people who offer unsolicited opinions to Visser Three tend to end up ''sans'' head, they keep this suspicion to themselves. If Visser Three weren't such a Caligula, he might have caught them.
*** Crayak, before he became [[EldritchAbomination something that could not be properly described in English,]] just wanted to ''[[OmnicidalManiac destroy all other life he came across]], [[ForTheEvulz just for fun]].'' [[CosmicHorror Now…]]
** Most of the gods portrayed in the series ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' fit this description perfectly. Almost every god that the main characters encounter, regardless of what mythology they originate from, has an utterly apathetic regard for life in general [[JerkassGods (being gods and all)]] and shows a certain degree of sadism, though some of them ('''especially''' Neptune) are simply bat-shit insane.
** In ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'', [[CreepyChild Tamara's baby]]. It was ''damaged'' by whatever they were exposed to on the journey over, and grew up quickly into a monster, who led humans and then some of the aliens.
* Creator/AEVanVogt's ''Empire of the Atom'' and ''The Wizard of Linn'' has the most prominent characters as analogues of Roman history, starting with Clane/Claudius. "Calaj" is the obvious Caligula stand-in, the grandson of Lydia/Livia and related to Clane and Tews/Tiberius.
* King Ademar of Gorhaut in Creator/GuyGavrielKay's ''Literature/ASongForArbonne'' has rabid dogs tearing each other to pieces before the throne and maids give him blowjobs right in front of a ''very'' discomfited court, among many other strange hobbies.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** King Aerys II "The Mad" Targaryen was the worst king that Westeros ever had, and a powerful 300-year old dynasty was overthrown because of his insane actions. Bonus points for [[BodyguardBetrayal being killed by one of his bodyguards]].
** King Joffrey Baratheon's reckless, childish cruelty and love of ordering executions result in a continent-wide civil war. Ironically, if Joffrey's father actually was who he says he was, then Joffrey would be distantly related to Aerys,[[note]]via his supposed father's paternal grandmother being a Targaryen, and ''far'' more indirectly by House Baratheon being an illegitimate cadet branch of House Targaryen, going back to Aegon I's bastard brother Orys[[/note]] but Joffrey was actually fathered by [[BrotherSisterIncest his mother's twin brother]] and his grandparents were KissingCousins, so this streak of insanity, [[NotMeThisTime for once]], has nothing to do with being related to the Targaryens. Thankfully, his siblings Tommen and Myrcella have shown no signs of following his path despite identical lineage.
** Indeed, [[RoyallyScrewedUp the whole Targaryen dynasty]] had this trope going on multiple times along the way, to the point that Jaehaerys II said that when Targaryens were born the gods flipped a coin between madness and greatness, although this is an exaggeration. Most of them were either [[TheGoodKing good and competent rulers]] like Jaehaerys the Conciliator and Daeron the Good or simply unremarkable, with Mad King Aerys and Maegor the Cruel being the only Caligulas to actually sit the throne, though there were other Caligulas who didn't become king but tended to get away with their excesses because of their family. The fourth King Aegon, known as the Unworthy, was a lecherous FatBastard but not crazypants (his real failing was deliberately stoking a SuccessionCrisis that consumed the realm after his death), while King Baelor the Blessed was not all there but his crazy took the form of extreme piety, peacefulness and charity (such that he died of fasting to death), so most people remember him as one of the gooduns.
** Of Aerys's three children (that survived infancy), his son Rhaegar was a ByronicHero of questionable sanity given his fixation on prophecy and his abduction of Lyanna Stark igniting the civil war, and his daughter Daenerys is clearly sane (with even Aerys's former Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Barristan, certifying that she's nothing like her father), while his other son Viserys was the next Caligula-to-be. The dynastic tradition of BrotherSisterIncest might have had something to do with this, to the point that Daenerys's great-grandfather, the fifth Aegon (who married a non-Targaryen) intended to end this practice and was quite displeased when his children Jaehaerys II and Shaera copied his MarryForLove decision but married ''each other'' and then forced their own children, the aforementioned Aerys and Rhaella, into this themselves against their will because it was foretold TheChosenOne would be born of Aerys and Rhaella's line (which seems to be true, since the most obvious candidates for TheChosenOne in the series are their daughter Daenerys, Jon Snow[[spoiler:, who is likely to be their son Rhaegar's son with Lyanna Stark]], [[TheChosenMany or both]]).
** There is [[TheParanoiac Cersei]] as [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Regent]], as well. Not ''quite'' as bad as her son Joffrey when it comes to the pointlessly petty bonkers though (not like that's particularly hard). Although... she is currently being far more effective at ruling spectacularly badly, mainly thanks to being a drunk, spoiled and narcissistic ''adult'' on the throne.
** He's not the king, but Robert Arryn, a six-year-old who still literally suckles his mother's teat and likes to watch "''bad men fly''" (people he doesn't like being thrown from the top of his mountain keep), is the hereditary heir to the title of Lord of the Vale and Warden of the East, essentially putting the keeping of one-fourth of the kingdom in his care. And now he's got [[TheChessmaster Littlefinger]] as his chief counselor...although it seems that Littlefinger has made him ''less'' of a brat, teaching him to respect his inferiors at least a ''little'' bit.

* In ''Literature/CastleHangnail'', the ghost Edward recalls that the king back in his day was Mad King Harold, who believed he was a cuttlefish, proclaimed himself the Emperor of All Oceans, and tried to declare war on the clouds for not paying tribute.

* Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
** The Barrayaran Empire had a Mad Emperor Yuri about a generation before the Vorkosigan series starts.
** Prince Serg would certainly have qualified, had he not... [[DeadlyEuphemism conveniently died]]... before succeeding to the throne.
** There is a widely-mentioned historical case where a Count Vortala [[CaligulasHorse did appoint his horse, Midnight, as his heir]], but there is no indication that Vortala was either crazy or evil. He just did it as a TakeThat to his previous heir, with whom he was having an argument. "If a horse's ass can be a Count, why not the whole horse?"

* At least as portrayed in the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series, UsefulNotes/CharlesI of England seems to qualify. The Stuart monarchs, in general, were firm believers in the {{divine right of kings}}; they were also generally pretty feckless as rulers. 1632 Charles has heard what will happen to him and is lashing out at his future enemies. True to form, he's messing it up (he's driven his historical best supporter into working with Cromwell, who's still alive, if on the run). Odds are the English Civil War will come early in this world. This makes him a particularly incompetent Caligula.
* ''Literature/{{The 120 Days of Sodom}}'' by the Creator/MarquisDeSade centers around [[AristocratsAreEvil four French aristocrats]] who use their vast wealth and power to have sixteen young teenagers kidnapped. They lock themselves in a secluded castle with those teenagers, their own daughters, four old prostitutes, eight massively endowed men, and the four ugliest old women they can find. Over the next four months, they have the "ultimate in orgies" -- they rape, torture, dismember, and murder all but a few of those guests. The [[Film/SaloOrThe120DaysOfSodom film adaptation of this story]], which replaces the aristocrats with [[UsefulNotes/FascistItaly Italian Fascists]], is widely regarded to be [[NauseaFuel one of the most]] [[{{Squick}} sickening films ever made]].
* This is a concern raised about Maeve in ''Literature/ColdDays''. If her mother Mab is killed, then Maeve will inherit the mantle of Queen of Winter. Harry begins to realize just how bad this would be when he starts learning more about Mab's job: [[spoiler: The Winter Court's army outnumbers that of the Summer Court by a huge margin, and could probably take over all of Faerie if their Queen willed it. However, the vast majority of Winter's troops are stationed at the Outer Gates, where they are constantly holding off a siege by the [[EldritchAbomination Outsiders]]. If the Outsider army ever got in, they'd destroy reality, and Mab isn't crazy enough to sacrifice reality in favor of her own personal goals. Maeve, however, probably is]].
* Mad King Alan II in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheEyesOfTheDragon'' is a good example of this, although his madness tended more towards harmless debauchery. It was only through the malevolent influence of the story's BigBad that he inflicted genuine suffering on the populace.
* Randall Flagg from ''Literature/TheStand'' barely remembers most of his own life, is prone to childish fits of anger, and doesn't even seem to understand his own motivations; he just seems driven by some instinct or outside force to cause as much mayhem and destruction as he possibly can. And he may or may not be [[{{Satan}} the devil]].
* In Barry Hughart's ''[[Literature/BridgeOfBirds The Story of the Stone]]'', the infamous Laughing Prince committed all sorts of horrors on the peasants in his valley, some of them [[ImmortalitySeeker in pursuit of immortality]], [[AxCrazy some just because he was crazy.]] He was named for his cheerful, laughing demeanor and charming little dance step. Li Kao diagnoses him as brain-damaged from repeated consumption of a mercury-laced "elixir of life."
* In ''Franchise/DragonAge: Literature/TheStolenThrone'', the Orlesian usurper Meghren, who is given control of Ferelden by TheEmperor, really ''hates'' being stuck in this "backwater" part of the Orlesian Empire. As such, he forces the Ferelden nobles to go out of their way to please him... and then randomly executes a few just for kicks. He doesn't care about ruling the land and only wants to get back into the Emperor's good graces so that he will be allowed to return to the Orlesian capital.
* ''Literature/{{Julian}}'': Gallus was always a bit of a sociopath, but he goes downhill fast once made Caesar. Libanius comments that much of what he did copied Caligula and Nero's reigns as if he deliberately studied Roman history to find new atrocities to commit.
* Terror the mastiff mix from ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'' cruelly beats up the dogs in his own pack for even the slightest hint of doubt about him and the "Fear Dog". It's soon revealed that the pack will fight for Terror because [[MyMasterRightOrWrong they're scared of him]]. But once [[spoiler:Lick kills him]], a new leader rises in his place: [[spoiler:Twitch]].
* The ''Literature/AgeOfFire'' series has [=SiDrakkon=], a lazy and hedonistic dragon who never gets off his tailvent unless it's to fight. When he eventually becomes Tyr, his refusal to actually do anything related to leadership brings the Lavadome to the brink of civil war, and the last time we see him [[spoiler: before [=SiMevolant=] assassinates him]], he's in his bath, ranting about how everything that isn't silver is corrupt and impure.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' has President Snow, who shares numerous historical parallels with the despised Roman emperor Nero. And also President Coin, who is so bad that [[spoiler:Katniss chooses to assassinate her when she is supposed to kill President Snow]].
* Don Lopez de Meruel, the Dictator of Santa Barbara in ''Literature/{{Odtaa}}''. He's overthrown by a rebellion shortly after he proclaims himself God and announces that henceforth no other religion shall be permitted in Santa Barbara.
* In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', [[GodEmperor Supreme Overlord]] [[EvilOverlord Shimrra]] of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] is loony even by the standards of his bloodthirsty subjects, prone to [[BadBoss killing failed (or just annoying) subordinates in creative ways]], [[LaughingMad laughing uproariously while overseeing executions]] and even [[RageAgainstTheHeavens declaring war on the gods themselves]] (when there's still a ''very real and present war with the New Republic going on'', for context), among other strange and cruel actions. Got a head start [[EnfantTerrible at the age of seven, when he practiced for future Caligula-hood by murdering his own twin brother]]. [[spoiler: At least some of the weirdness is the result of his being under the control of TheManBehindTheMan, who is brilliant but also insane; some of it is his real personality, and some of it is the result of the two of them fighting for control as said puppetmaster's attention starts wandering late in the war]]. But in any case, [[DefectorFromDecadence Harrar]] sums it up thusly: "Shimrra hates the sound of reasoned words."

* Tatiana Moskalev in ''Literature/ThePower'' is a female example. A former TrophyWife to the dictator of Moldova, she overthrows her husband after the MassSuperEmpoweringEvent that gives all women [[ShockAndAwe electrical powers]], and as she grows DrunkWithPower, she turns Moldova (rechristened the Republic of Bessapara) into a LadyLand in which men are subjected to increasingly brutal persecution, all while she lives like a [[TheMafiya Mafiya]] gangster in her former husband's palace with a harem of [[BodyguardBabes Bodyguard Hunks]] and assorted male personal servants who she publicly humiliates just because she can.
* ''Literature/ThePower'': What Tatiana Moskalev becomes as her reign over Bessapara grows ever more extreme. Her mental stability disentegrates as she starts loses.

** Indeed, [[RoyallyScrewedUp the whole Targaryen dynasty]] had this trope going on multiple times along the way, to the point that Jaehaerys II said that when Targaryens were born the gods flipped a coin between madness and greatness, although this is an exaggeration. Most of them were either [[TheGoodKing good and competent rulers]] like Jaehaerys the Conciliator and Daeron the Good or simply unremarkable, with Mad King Aerys and Maegor the Cruel being the only Caligulas to actually sit the throne, though there were other Caligulas who didn't become king but tended to get away with their excesses because of their family. The fourth King Aegon, known as the Unworthy, was a lecherous FatBastard but not crazypants, while King Baelor the Blessed was not all there but his crazy took the form of extreme piety, peacefulness and charity (such that he died of fasting to death), so most people remember him as one of the gooduns.