Welcome to Daily TWiP, your daily dose of all the holidays and history we couldn’t cram into The Week in Preview.

The problem with giving a ruler absolute power is that sometimes they take advantage of it. Fed up with their emperor’s abuse of power and taste for cruelty, members of the Praetorian Guard and assorted other conspirators assassinated Caligula today (Jan. 24th) in 41 AD. He was 28 years old and had reigned for less than four years.

Caligula began his tenure as Roman emperor with a solid public approval rating, as he was the son of Germanicus, a popular general. According to historical accounts, Caligula’s reign got off to a smooth start. He worked to heal the wounds left by his predecessor and adoptive grandfather Tiberius and ingratiated himself to his subjects, organizing gladiator battles and other entertainments, dispensing pardons and rewards, and bringing back democratic elections.

Two years later, in about 38 AD, the situation deteriorated. The treasury had been depleted by Caligula’s generosity and his lavish construction projects, some of which were for public benefit and some of which, like his enormous floating palace, were for his personal use.

Caligula’s solution was to ask the public to lend him money, increase taxes on lawsuits, prostitution, and marriage, auction off the lives of gladiators, and have people fined or executed under false pretenses in order to seize their assets. Not exactly the most rational approach.

Around 39 AD, his relationship with the Senate became strained. The cause of this is not certain, but it seems only natural when you have a young emperor eager to test his limitless power and a group of politicians accustomed to having the emperor out of the way while they governed.

The result of this tension was two-fold. Caligula re-opened the treason trials initiated by his predecessor, using them to replace senators or put them to death, and some of the senators, along with other political figures and members of the imperial court, began plotting Caligula’s demise.

Several other factors contributed to public dislike of Caligula and support for his assassination: a botched attempt to expand the Empire into Britannia, decrees to worship him as a living god, affairs with married women and alleged incestuous relationships with his sisters, and appointing his horse as a consul and a priest.

Historical records claim Caligula’s political decisions and personal lifestyle were the result of insanity, but modern researchers have posited other theories, suggesting Caligula simply chose not to exercise self-restraint the way his predecessors did and truly explored the limits of his absolute power. Others believe his insanity was the result of lead poisoning or an illness like epilepsy. Whichever theory you subscribe to, he doesn’t particularly sound like the kind of person you’d want in charge of an empire.

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– Teresa Santoski