Caligula
Caligula Author: Albert Camus
Date Written: 1938–44
First Performance: 1945, Paris
Published: 1944
First English Translation: 1948
Genre: Trag. in 4 acts; French prose
Setting: Imperial Roman palace, ad 38–41
Cast: 10m, 2f, extras
Caligula, desperate with grief over the death of his sister and lover Drusilla, is totally persuaded of the meaninglessness of existence and sets out to use his power as ruler of Rome to demonstrate that ‘Men die; and they are not happy.’ He first orders that all patricians will their fortunes to the state and are to be put to death as money is needed. Three years later, Caligula has become a feared and arbitrary tyrant. He orders famine for the masses and has many patricians murdered, some of them his friends. Cherea organizes...
[The entire page is 351 words long]
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