This article addresses the question of "imperial madness" in ancient Rome, asking what was so particular about the actions of emperors, as Caligula, Nero, and Domitian, that it led to conflicts with the aristocracy. It is argued that only an analysis of the historical structures and systems of the Early Empire could explain certain patterns of imperial behaviour that usually are classified as madness by the historiography of the 19th and 20th centuries.
ancient Rome; imperial madness; politics