Roman tradition is unanimous: Claudius was poisoned by Agrippina on October 13, 54 CE, though the details differ. Nero succeeded him as emperor.
There were, of course, fundamentally bad deaths. Being assassinated like Caligula or committing suicide on the run like Nero were particularly Roman emperor deaths, as was being slowly and unknowingly poisoned by someone in your own immediate family—particularly by a wife, as in the case of the emperor Claudius.
Because Nero was only 16 when he succeeded Claudius, Agrippina at first attempted to play the role of regent. Her power gradually weakened, however, as Nero came to take charge of the government. As a result of her opposition to Nero's affair with Poppaea Sabina, the Emperor decided to murder his mother.
He also murdered his second wife, the noblewoman Poppaea Sabina, by kicking her in the belly while she was pregnant. Nero's profligacy went beyond slaughtering his nearest and dearest.
Augustus died of natural causes (unless you believe the rumors that his wife, Livia, poisoned him with toxin-smeared figs), at Nola, near Naples, in the month of August. Over the following days, his body was carried from Naples to Rome, a distance of almost a hundred and fifty miles.
According to these accounts, Valerian's skin was "stripped from his body, dyed a deep red and hung in a Persian temple" which visiting Roman envoys were subsequently "cajoled into entering." Meijer describes this as "the greatest indignity to which a Roman emperor has ever been subjected." Isaac says that some sources ...
Q: Why is Roman Emperor Caligula remembered as the cruelest Emperor? Shortly into Emperor Caligula's rule, he fell ill from what many suggest was syphilis. He never recovered mentally and became a ruthless, wanton killer of Roman citizens, including even his family.
Sporus was a young slave boy whom the Roman Emperor Nero had castrated and married during his tour of Greece in 66–67 AD, allegedly in order for him to play the role of Poppaea Sabina, his then-deceased wife.
But it was for pedophilia that Tiberius was most notorious. Tiberius trained infants he called his “little fish” to swim between his thighs when he took a bath and nibble on his genitalia. And that's not the only horrendous accusation to survive against him.
After Caligula's death, Claudius became the new Roman Emperor. Nero's mother married Claudius in AD 49, becoming his fourth wife. By February AD 49, his mother had persuaded Claudius to adopt her son Nero.
Nero is perhaps the best known of the worst emperors, having allowed his wife and mother to rule for him and then stepping out from their shadows and ultimately having them, and others, murdered. But his transgressions go far beyond just that; he was accused of sexual perversions and the murder of many Roman citizens.
After Caligula became emperor in 37 he ordered their divorce and married his sister to his friend, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. During an illness in 37, Caligula changed his will to name Drusilla his heir, making her the first woman to be named heir in a Roman imperial will.
Julia, (born 39 bc—died ad 14, Rhegium [present-day Reggio di Calabria, Italy]), the Roman emperor Augustus' only child, whose scandalous behaviour eventually caused him to exile her.
Flavius Julius Crispus (/ˈkrɪspəs/; c. 300 – 326) was the eldest son of the Roman emperor Constantine I, as well as his junior colleague (caesar) from March 317 until his execution by his father in 326.
A not-so-festive case of fratricide: on 19 December 221 CE, Caracalla killed his brother Geta in order to gain full command of the Roman Empire. The sons of Septimius Severus, the brothers had co-ruled with their father since 209.
Overseeing a reign famed in antiquity for its peace and piety, prudence and propriety, could Antoninus Pius have been the greatest Roman emperor?
Unsurprisingly, the title of the “first greatest Roman emperor” goes to Caesar Augustus. While in his youth, Octavian plunged Rome into one of the bloodiest civil wars and toppled the Roman Republic; as emperor Augustus, he created the strong foundation for one of the truly greatest of all empires in human history.
When Jesus was born, Caesar Augustus was the emperor of Rome. He was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, and he ruled as the emperor of Rome for 45 years. The word "Augustus" means "the exalted". Caesar was not a follower of Christianity, and believed himself to be a god.
1. Emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605) Akbar, arguably the most renowned Mughal emperor, is believed to have had approximately 300 wives, though the exact number remains uncertain.
Although romantic love between husbands and wives is attested to in letters, inscriptions, and epitaphs, a great deal of what is known of love in ancient Rome comes from the poets in praise of women or boys they were involved with sexually, usually an extramarital affair on the part of one or both.
Marriage in Roman times was often not at all romantic. Rather, it was an agreement between families. Men would usually marry in their mid-twenties, while women married while they were still in their early teens.
Justinian II became Roman emperor at a time when the Empire was beset by external enemies. His forces gained success against the Arabs and Bulgars but his religious and social policies fuelled internal opposition which resulted in him being deposed and mutilated (his nose was cut off) in 695.
A lost book from Pompeii is said to have portrayed numerous coital positions. Homosexual depictions were common. Various Roman physicians described STIs in their books, including symptoms of urethritis, genital lesions, and anogenital warts (called 'figs') on the 'partes obscenes. '