It cannot be denied that the transition from atrocious prosecutions to divine honors was somewhat sudden, but this is merely a further proof that Caligula was endowed with a violent, impulsive, and irreflective temperament.  In any case, there was neither scandal nor protest at that time.  Caligula during the first months of his rule was popular, not for his measures in favor of the women of his family, but for reasons of far greater importance.  He had inaugurated a regime which promised to be more indulgent, more prodigal, less harsh than that of Tiberius.  Extravagance had made rapid strides, especially in the ranks of the aristocracy, during the twenty-two years of Tiberius’s rule:  and although the latter, especially toward the end of his life, had ceased struggling against this tendency, nevertheless his well-known aversion to sumptuous living, and the example of simplicity which he set before the eyes of all, had always been a cause of preoccupation to the aristocracy—­to men as well as women.  There was no certainty that the emperor might not again, some day, try to enforce the sumptuary laws.  When Caligula therefore began his career, indicating very clearly his sympathies with the modernizing party by his eagerness to do away with the old Roman simplicity, the young aristocracy of both sexes did not conceal their satisfaction.  After a long period of old-fashioned traditional policy, enforced by the two preceding emperors, they welcomed with joy the young reformer who set out to introduce in the imperial government the spirit of the new generations.  No one was sorry that all the purveyors of voluptuousness,—­mimes, singers, actors, dancers of both sexes, cooks, and puppets,—­should with noisy joy break into the imperial palace, which had been official, severe, and cold under Tiberius, and bring back pleasure, luxury, and festivals.  All hoped that under the rule of this indulgent, youthful emperor, life, especially at Rome, would become more pleasant and gay; and no one therefore felt disposed to protest against the official honors which, contrary to custom, had been bestowed upon the women of the imperial family.

In truth, if he, still harking back to Egyptian ideas and customs, had been content with surrounding his family, especially its women, with a respect which would have protected them against the infamous accusations and iniquitous persecutions to which many had fallen victims, he might have had credit for an action which was good, just, and useful to the state.  That strange condition of affairs which had been growing up under Tiberius was both absurd and dangerous to the country:  the emperor was honored with extraordinary powers and made the object of a semi-religious veneration; but his family, and especially its women, were, as a sort of retribution, set outside the laws and fiercely assailed in a thousand insidious ways.  But the lunatic Caligula was not the man to keep even a wise proposal within reasonable limits.  Power, popularity, and praise quickly aroused all that was warped and excessive in his nature, and very soon, as he showed at the end of the year 37, he entertained an idea which must have seemed to the Romans a horrible impiety.  His wife died soon after he became emperor.  Another marriage seemed obligatory, and he decided that he would marry his sister Drusilla.