Suetonius, Caligula (34):
He went about with no less malice and malignity than arrogance and savagery against the human race of nearly every age. He overthrew the statues of famous men collected by Augustus from the grounds of the Capitoline (on account of limited space) into the Campus Martius and so destroyed them that they could not be restored with their titles intact, and he forbade the construction of any statue or image of anyone alive unless by his decree and initiative. He even thought about getting rid of the poems of Homer, asking why that which had been permitted to Plato, who ejected him from the city which he was founding, should not be permitted to him as well. He was just a little short of removing the writings and images of Vergil and Livy from every library. He said that the first was a no-talent hack with too little learning, and the second was a negligent and prolix windbag in the historical department. On the subject of lawyers, he often boasted by god that he would bring it about that they could make no response except what he wished.
Nec minore livore ac malignitate quam superbia saevitiaque paene adversus omnis aevi hominum genus grassatus est. Statuas virorum inlustrium ab Augusto ex Capitolina area propter angustias in campum Martium conlatas ita subvertit atque disiecit ut restitui salvis titulis non potuerint, vetuitque posthac viventium cuiquam usquam statuam aut imaginem nisi consulto et auctore se poni. Cogitavit etiam de Homeri carminibus abolendis, cur enim sibi non licere dicens, quod Platoni licuisset, qui eum e civitate quam constituebat eiecerit? Sed et Vergili ac Titi Livi scripta et imagines paulum afuit quin ex omnibus bibliothecis amoveret, quorum alterum ut nullius ingenii minimaeque doctrinae, alterum ut verbosum in historia neglegentemque carpebat. De iuris quoque consultis, quasi scientiae eorum omnem usum aboliturus, saepe iactavit se mehercule effecturum ne quid respondere possint praeter eum.
