Caligulan

English

From Caligula +‎ -an, named after Roman Emperor Caligula (12 CE–41 CE).

Caligulan (comparative more Caligulan, superlative most Caligulan)

Of or pertaining to Caligula (AD 12–41), Roman Emperor.
(transferred sense) Brutally cruel and tyrannical.
- 2016, George F. Will, “The ‘big price’ Paul Ryan has paid for supporting Donald Trump”, in The Washington Post:
  The Caligulan malice with which Donald Trump administered Paul Ryan’s degradation is an object lesson in the price of abject capitulation to power.
- 2019 September 20, Derek Thompson, “WeWork and the Great Unicorn Delusion”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:
  In many ways, the company’s four-week tailspin has been a one-of-a-kind spectacle. Documents filed in anticipation of its public offering revealed a pattern of behavior from its founder and chief executive, Adam Neumann, that fits somewhere on the spectrum between highly eccentric and vaguely Caligulan.

pertaining to Caligula