Caligula's sexual desire for the moon (suet. calig. 22.4)

The different modern interpretations of Suetonius' claim that Caligula used constantly to invite Luna to have sexual intercourse with him (Calig. 22.4) are surveyed in brief. It is then argued that this allegation is best treated as the mistaken expansion of some statement such as Dio 59.26.5 where the key verb (ouyytyveo8ai) was misunderstood to mean "to have sexual intercourse with" rather than simply "to hold a conversation with" and this statement was itself a generalization based on a sarcastic comment made by Caligula while meeting one night with Vitellius as described at Dio 59.27.6.