10. Gaius Caligula
This first ruler was so awful that he was assassinated by the very people tasked with protecting him, the Praetorian Guard. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was Emperor of Rome from AD 37 to AD 41. His relatively short reign was peppered with abuses of power both absurd and evil. Caligula gained his name which means little soldiers boot from the soldiers stationed under his father Germanicus. He was initially welcomed as Emperor by the citizens of Rome, and by most accounts his early months in power were stable and prosperous. Caligula suffered an illness in 37 AD that changed his personality. He began to kill or exile anyone that he viewed to be a threat. He also began to think of himself as a god and demanded to be addressed as such. It is rumored that Caligula once ordered his bodyguards to force an entire section of an arena down onto the fighting space to be devoured by live animals simply because he was bored. Caligula was also very fond of sleeping with the wives of his friends, enemies, and members of his bodyguard. Years of abuse culminated in the assassination of Caligula in 41 AD at the hands of the skills warriors tasked with keeping him alive.
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