Caligulism

English

Etymology

From Caligula +‎ -ism. The coining of this term is often attributed to Horace Walpole, who used it to describe Frederick, Prince of Wales, in a letter written on November 29, 1745, but in fact, the use of the term predates Walpole.

Noun

Caligulism (countable and uncountable, plural Caligulisms)

1. Madness, especially when of an extravagant or sadistic nature.
   • 1673, Andrew Marvel[l], The Rehearsall Transpros’d: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC, page 169:

     The laſt token of your Caliguliſm ſhall be the Sacrifices vvhich he appointed of Pheaſants and Peacocks to his Deity: & accordingly your Friend the Author of the Friendly Debate hath ſacrificed a Pheasant, and I have ſacrificed a Peacock to your Divinity; and I hope it vvill be therefore henceforth and for ever to me propitious and favourable.

   • 1745, Horace Walpole, Letter to France:

     Alas! It would be endless to tell you all his Calligulisms.

   • 1991, Sergio Villani, Paul Valéry on War, Power, and Civlization, page 32:

     By contrast, Valéry's "Caligulism" is, above all, a narcissistic attitude which aims to achieve conquest of the Self: such an attitude intensifies Self-awareness by meditating objectively on images of power.

   • 2018, Balázs Trencsényi, Michal Kopeček, Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič, A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe, page 360:

     A paradigmatic declaration of the break with socialist realism was the 1952 speech, at the Congress of Yugoslav Writers in Ljubljana, by Miroslav Krleža. Affirming the revolutionary role of art, he fervently denounced the dogmatism dominating Yugoslav cultural policies in the late 1940s as “aesthetic Caligulism,” arguing that “writing does not equal describing nor prescribing.”