This Day in History 1/24: Caligula is assassinated

It must be we here are obsessed with individuals drunk with power: Bloomberg, Rhee, and now the Roman emperor Caligula.

Today, on January 24, 41 CE,  Caligula was assassinated by his palace guard, and his feeble uncle Claudius would be placed on the throne.  Through  the first two years of his rule, he was an able ruler.  Yet Caligula would prove to be an inhuman, degenerate monster.  He ordered the executions of hundreds, in especially cruel and torturous ways.  He engaged in debaucherous acts with men, women, and even members of his own family.  In fits of insanity, he declared his horse was a Roman senator and that he himself was a god.

Finally, the Roman Senate and the Praetorian Guard, the imperial bodyguard, had enough.  They slaughtered Caligula and hastily put Claudius on the throne as a puppet.  Little did they knwo that Claudius would prove a far more able and intelligent ruler than his predecessor.

Attached is the two parts of the Discovery Civilization series The Most Evil Men in History dealing with Caligula.

(and no…I will not attach video from the 1979 film of the same name…you perverts.)