Claudius died on 13 October AD 54. Roman opinion was convinced that Agrippina had poisoned him.
Roman tradition is unanimous: Claudius was poisoned by Agrippina on October 13, 54 CE, though the details differ. Nero succeeded him as emperor.
According to ancient texts, Nero killed his own mother
According to their accounts, his mother Agrippina was a ruthless and ambitious woman who schemed and murdered to get her son on the throne.
Claudius became aware of her plotting, but died in 54; it was rumoured that Agrippina poisoned him. Agrippina exerted a commanding influence in the early years of Nero's reign, but in 59 she was killed. Both ancient and modern sources describe Agrippina's personality as ruthless, ambitious, violent and domineering.
In AD 41, conspirators from the senatorial class and from the Guard killed Emperor Caligula, his wife, and their daughter.
Caligula's assassination: the most brutal of Roman emperor deaths.
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. No one was safe.
Aemilius Lepidus (called “Ganymede” in I, Claudius), who was at the time the lover of one of Caligula's other sisters, Agrippina the Younger (called “Agrippinilla” in I, Claudius). Caligula had the two men executed and banished his two sisters, Agrippina and Julia Livilla (called “Lesbia” in I, Claudius).
Locusta or Lucusta (died 69), was a notorious maker of poisons in the 1st-century Roman Empire, active in the final two reigns of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She supposedly took part in the assassinations of Claudius and Britannicus.
However, in the first century AD, even they were appalled by the murders and practices of a woman known as Locusta the Poisoner. Involved in the deaths of countless people, Locusta—possibly the first documented female serial killer in history—played a crucial role in the history of the Imperial Family.
According to one of our most salacious stories about him, Emperor Nero was close to his mother Agrippina, perhaps too close — the young emperor and his mother engaged in incest. Unsurprisingly, the depraved relationship scandalized Rome, causing uproar among the elites and gossiping among the populace.
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.
It was Suetonius who first published claims that Caligula committed incest with his three sisters. (The Roman historian added that these trysts even occurred during banquets, as guests and Caligula's wife gathered around.)
Perhaps deliberately following the tradition of his predecessor Claudius, Emperor Vespasian kept his wit about him as he lay dying, from diarrhea, as Julius Cicatrix explains in Imperial Exits.
But even those royals might have been aghast at the actions of Russian czar Peter the Great, who in 1718 had his eldest son tortured to death for allegedly conspiring against him.
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.
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1993) Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)
Aileen Wuornos photos: Serial killer executed for deaths of 6 men, inspired 'Monster' film. Aileen Wuornos, born Feb. 29, 1956, was sentenced from Volusia County on Jan.
Tiberius. Tiberius holds pride of place as the most perverted among the Pantheon of Rome's early emperors. As a young man, he was relatively restrained, as he had to be amidst the prying eyes of the capital as a potential heir apparent.
Indeed, Caligula killed anyone who displeased him, regardless of how close they were to him. He executed his cousin and adopted son, Tiberius Gemellus. Caligula's grandmother was infuriated at the deed, and, of course, died shortly after expressing that fact.
Suetonius states that Caligula loved Caesonia sincerely, passionately and faithfully even before the two were married and until the day Caligula died, even though Suetonius is otherwise heavily critical of Caligula's romantic and sexual activity.
Marcus Aurelius died in 180 CE, leaving his narcissistic and self-indulgent son as the sole Emperor of Rome.
According to the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth preached and was executed during the reign of Tiberius, by the authority of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea province. Luke 3:1, states that John the Baptist entered on his public ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius' reign.
A great general and a masterful tactician, Hannibal Barca is widely considered one of finest military leaders in history. He was the only man that Rome feared. Nowadays, the military prowess and supremacy of ancient Rome is not questioned by the public.