 Along with most of the rest of the country, I've been following the horrific and heart-wrenching story of Jane Doe, the Cornell student who was assaulted and brutally gang raped 2 years ago by seven members of the Chi Phi men's fraternity at their frat house on the Cornell campus. But while poring over the grueling news articles, the emotionally charged op-eds and the angry social media posts, I came across one Facebook entry that hit me like an epiphany :  How true is this! I thought. Oh, maybe not the part about how the man would be hydrated, fed, etc. by the caring women; but that first sentence, that being surrounded by a group of women, even if the women themselves were too drunk, stoned or annoyed to do anything to help him, would, for an intoxicated man, likely be the safest of all the places he could possibly end up. Because no group of girls would look at a helplessly impaired young man and see an irresistible opportunity for rape. A fraternity boy who goes alone to a sorority house and has sex with a girl he likes doesn't have to fear that the girl might drug him then snapchat an invitation to every other girl in the house to come down and help themselves to his body, to assault him, to, rape him, to leave him injured, traumatized and devastated, all for fun. Not that all young men, or even most young men, would participate as those seven Cornell frat brothers did in the drugging and gang rape of an already intoxicated woman. Nor is it that women don't have their own pathology, their own shadow selves wherein lies the worst of human impulses, their own capacity equal to men's to commit terrible acts. Still, for the most part the danger arising from sexual aggression doesn't exist only for women; for, while a girl, intoxicated and alone, may be in danger of sexual assault, the danger for a young man is that he may find himself in with a group of intoxicated young men who come across a girl who is also intoxicated and alone. And, as those seven Cornell fraternity men have learned to their misfortune, that danger is far from insignificant.  References: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jane-doe-cornell-university-rape-allegations-text-messages-transcripts/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jane-doe-photo-cornell-rape-snapchat-group/?intcid=CNR-02-0623 https://abcnews.com/US/damage-control-phone-calls-records-suggest-cornell-frat/story?id=136987960 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/nyregion/cornell-men-university-discipline.html
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 Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who ruled the Roman Empire from 37 AD to 41 AD,  ...was better known by his nickname, Caligula. Caligula grew up pampered with wealth and status. When he was young his father procured for him a miniature military uniform so that he could pretend to be a soldier.  Caligula grew from a spoiled child into the psychotic Roman Emperor who kept his subjects alternately entertained by his hijinks and terrified by his tantrums.     Caligula's cruelty was as boundless as his disregard for the rule of law.  He was sexually promiscuous,   ...and slept with any woman he pleased, whether she was married or single. He took pleasure in publicly humiliating women, especially prominent women of the upper classes. He would make fun of their looks and make rude comments about their bodies. Caligula had multiple wives, whom he disrespected, mistreated, and discarded on a whim, except for his last wife, Milonia Caesonia,  ...who had a scandalous reputation before he married her, and to whom he was deeply devoted. Caligula loved luxury, loved to spend money, and had an obsession with gold. He dug into the Roman treasury to outfit his palace with golden walls and decorations.  And in spite of his heartless indifference to others, Caligula loved to be loved. He was known to hand out money from the treasury to the Roman populace to buy himself popularity,  ...and he would host grand spectacles to entertain his subjects.     Caligula renovated buildings sacred to Romans to glorify himself.    He considered himself a god, and would sometimes appear in public dressed as one.  He drew up plans for a magnificent temple to himself which, as if turned out, was never built.  The members of the Roman Senate despised Caligula, but they also feared to cross him or do anything that would risk them falling out of his favor, and so did nothing to stop him from increasing his personal power as ruler of the Roman Empire. During his four years as Emperor Caligula aggravated most of the populace, severely misused the Roman justice system for his personal benefit and gratification, launched an absurd and expensive war, drained the national treasury on his frivolities, and, by his ineptitude as a leader, ran the Roman Empire into the ground. And while Caligula's supporters thrived on his entertaining, outrageous and shocking behavior,  ...the rest of Rome, its citizens' sensibilities over-exposed to the glut of scandal and drama he churned out on a daily basis, came to accept Caligula's misconduct and misgovernance as the norm. The end of his rule brought much relief and rejoicing among the Roman people and the Senate. Caligula's reign was almost 2,000 years ago. Thank God today we in live in a democracy in which our leaders are of our own choosing.  References:
"I, Claudius," by Robert Graves, chapters 29-34 https://www.unrv.com/early-empire/caligula/caligula-architecture.php https://discover.hubpages.com/education/10-Weird-Things-you-Didnt-Know-Caligula-Did |
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