KAISERISM AND HEREDITY 



Despots Are Largely the Product of the Breeds of Kings — Ancestry and Re- 

 lationship of Caligula, the Roman Emperor — Comparison with the Kaiser 



Frederick Adams Woods 

 Lecturer on Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Theology 



ACIREAT sensation swept over 

 the German Empire in 1894. 

 The young Kaiser, fresh in his 

 untried power, had been, in a 

 thinly veiled innuendo, compared to that 

 horrible tyrant of the Roman Empire, 

 Caligula Caius Caesar. It was all the 

 result of a small brochure written Ijy a 

 quiet scholarly professor, of socialistic 

 prochvities, one Quidde by name. The 

 sensation lasted for some time, and was 

 intensified by the appearance during the 

 same year of a second publication, an 

 anonymous supplement by the same 

 author, "1st Caligula mit unscrer Zeit 

 vcrglcichbar?" 



The first pamphlet passed through 

 twenty-nine editions before September, 

 1894, at which time, it is now amusing 

 to see, the British Saturday Review 

 referred to it as "a scandalous and out- 

 rageous production." Professor Quidde 

 was a mild and well-meaning idealist 

 whose vision anticipated the coming 

 Caesarism in Germany, with all the 

 evils attendant upon irresponsible con- 

 trol in the hands of one man. Of course 

 there was much that was unjust in a 

 complete comparison of the Kaiser with 

 Caligula, especially in carnal charac- 

 teristics — dissipation, gluttony and in- 

 dolence. But there were many points 

 of similarity — enough in fact to bring 

 Quidde unpleasantly near a prison 

 .sentence. The Cierman government 

 had a delicate problem to handle, 

 i'hey did not care to fan the flames ; 

 vet how could they pass unnoticed such 

 an outrageous example of lese-iuajeste/ 

 It is said that at the trial the govern- 

 ment prosccuter asked Quidde whom he 

 liad in mind when he wrote that article 

 about Caligula. Quidde very cleverly 



348 



replied, "I had in mind Caligula, but 

 whom did yon have in mind when you 

 asked me the question?" The whole 

 affair was too intangible. The matter 

 was dropped and passed out of men's 

 minds. 



Now that subsequent events and the 

 great war have brought out the truth 

 of much of Quidde's grim foreboding, 

 it is interesting to reconsider the life 

 and characteristics of this arch tyraiU 

 of Rome, particularly in relation to the 

 inheritance of mental and moral quali- 

 ties as revealed by a study of the house 

 of Caesar, that extraordinary family 

 to which Caligula belonged. Caius 

 Caesar, to give Caligula his true 

 name, making all allowances, was un- 

 doubtedly one of the worst examples 

 of royal tyranny, unchecked brutality, 

 and egotistical madness that the world 

 has ever seen. It is true that a large 

 portion of Tacitus dealing with this 

 period is lost, that Suetonius was a 

 gossiper, and that aside from the dry 

 narrative of Dio, we have compara- 

 tively little in the way of contemporary 

 sources ; but enough remains to make it 

 fairly certain that the accounts about 

 Caligula are substantially correct. 



P)aring-Gould has written a pains- 

 taing and ai)parently impartial work 

 dealing with all the members of the 

 family of the Caesars, from Julius 

 Caesar to Nero. He does not in the 

 least show a disposition to belie his 

 characters, nor does he fail to bestow 

 praise where praise is due. He dis- 

 cusses the sources of oiu* knowledge of 

 these persons in the light of modern 

 criticism, yet his conviction is very cer- 

 tain that as far as Nero and Caligula 

 are concerned, there is every reason to 



