The Day Rome Killed Its Own Emperor
On this day · 24 January 41
Caligula's own bodyguards cornered him in a palace passage and stabbed him to death, ending barely four years of rule.
On 24 January 41 CE, the Roman emperor Caligula was assassinated by disaffected members of his own Praetorian Guard. Passing through a side alley near his palace on the Palatine Hill, he was cornered by the tribune Cassius Chaerea and a fellow officer, Cornelius Sabinus. Chaerea, repeatedly mocked by Caligula over his high-pitched voice, brought his sword down first; a flurry of blows followed.
The killing was not a lone act of revenge but a broad conspiracy of guardsmen, senators, and courtiers fed up with an emperor remembered for cruelty and extravagance. Caligula had ruled for less than four years, having taken power in 37 CE.
The men sworn to protect the emperor became the ones who destroyed him.
The murder did not restore the Republic that some plotters imagined. Instead the Praetorians proclaimed Caligula’s uncle Claudius as the next emperor. The episode laid bare a hard truth of the early empire: imperial succession could turn on the daggers of the very soldiers meant to guard the throne.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
