“The death of Drusilla was clearly a turning point for Caligula. There weren’t many people in Caligula’s life, certainly family members, who he could talk to and who he could rely on. He hadn’t been able to mourn his mother. His father had died when he was young. This was the closest person he had had. So when she died, he went completely over the top. He went into full mourning as if she were his wife.

Caligula proclaims Drusilla a goddess, like Venus and Juno. [He] literally gets a bill passed naming Drusilla a goddess. And then even goes so far as to proclaim that any woman taking an oath has to swear by the Divine Drusilla. […]No woman had ever been made a goddess, not even Augustus’s own wife at this point had been made a goddess. So this was a very, very important moment for Roman history. And this is something the Roman world had never seen before.”