Reputation
Drusilla was reportedly her brother's favorite. There are also rumors that she was also his lover. If true, that role likely gained her influence over Caligula. Though the activities between the brother and sister might have been seen as incest by their contemporaries, it is not known whether the two actually had any sexual relations. Drusilla herself earned a rather poor reputation because of the close bond she shared with Caligula and was even likened to a prostitute by later scholars, in an attempt to discredit Caligula.
Some historians suggest that Caligula was motivated by more than mere lust or love in pursuing relations with his sisters. He might instead have deliberately decided to pattern himself after the Hellenistic monarchs of the Ptolemaic Dynasty where marriages between jointly ruling brothers and sisters had become tradition rather than sex scandals. This has also been used to explain why his despotism was apparently more evident to his contemporaries than those of Augustus and Tiberius.
The source of many of the rumors surrounding Caligula and Drusilla may be derived from the formal Roman dining habits. It was customary in patrician households for the host and hostess of a dinner (or in other words, the husband and the wife in charge of the household) to hold the positions of honor at a banquet in their residence. In the case of a young bachelor being the head of the household (Caligula), the female position of honor was to be held by his sisters (Agrippina the Younger, Drusilla, and Julia Livilla), taking turns sitting in the place of honor. Caligula apparently broke with this tradition in that rather than having his sisters take turns at the place of honor, the place was reserved exclusively for Drusilla. In a manner of speaking, Caligula was publicly proclaiming that Drusilla was his wife, the female head of the household, even though he was married to Lollia Paulina.
Read more about this topic: Julia Drusilla
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