Caligula's Tyranny Ends: Emperor Assassinated
Praetorian Guard tribune Cassius Chaerea and several senators cornered Emperor Caligula in a narrow passageway beneath the Palatine Hill on January 24, 41 AD, stabbing him over thirty times. They also murdered his wife Caesonia and smashed his infant daughter's head against a wall to eliminate potential successors. The conspirators intended to restore the Roman Republic, but the Praetorian Guard had other plans. While the senators debated in the Forum, guardsmen found Claudius hiding behind a curtain in the palace and proclaimed him emperor. Claudius was Caligula's uncle, a stuttering scholar whom everyone had dismissed as mentally deficient. He turned out to be a capable administrator who conquered Britain, expanded Roman citizenship, and governed for thirteen years. The failed republican restoration proved definitively that the Praetorian Guard, not the Senate, controlled succession.
January 24, 41
1985 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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