The roman Emperor had become a position of such prestige and power, that it turned the heads of weak-minded rulers. Caligula,the first of these, had a marble stable and an ivory manger built for his horse. Then he proposed to makehis horse consul. He declared himself a god, asked for all the statues of gods in the empire to be brought, and decapitated.His own likeness was placed on the necks.
Caligula's insanity was so apparent that his won gaurd plotted against him, and after a rule of only three and a half years had him murdered. Caligula's uncle Claudius was hailed as the next emperor.
Claudius did many good deeds for Rome. he conquered Britan and named it after his son, Brittanicus. He married a scheming woman, however, who convinced him to name her own son nero heir in place of Brittanicus.Claudius complied, and upon his death the seventeen-year-old Nero was given comman of the empire.
English: Portrait of Nero. Marble, Roman artwork, ...
Bronze head of a Roman emperor (Claudius or Nero)....
Franco NeroNero,anxious to keep himself in power, had Brittanicus poisoned. After many attempts he killed his own mother as well, and then his wife. He entertained himself lavishly and inappropriateley. he persecuded the christians and had many hundereds murdered before his own eyes. He is said to have fiddled as a great fire broke out in Rome.
Eventually the people of Rome had had enough of nero. The senate declared him an enemy of the state, and he was exiled. nero fled to a country home where he killed himself, saying with his last breath: "What an artist the world is losing."
Emperor Caligula, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.
Detail from the painting A Roman Emperor 41AD by L...
English: Bust of Nero at the Capitoline Museum, Ro...