Caligula, tyran dérisoire dans le Caligula d’Alexandre Dumas.

This paper studies the character of Caligula in Alexandre Dumas’ Caligula (1837) in comparison with the image left by the Roman emperor in ancient literary sources. Dumas highlights a tyrannical regime based on denial and flattery, shows the emperor as a tyrannical lover and mocks aspirations to the divinity of the one who takes himself for Jupiter, but is afraid of thunder, who wants to be the master of the destiny of all, but doesn’t master his own, falling under Messalina’s machinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]