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17. When Teasing Backfires
Caligula’s craziness included the time when he declared war on the sea god Neptune. He marched his legions to the sea, and had them collect seashells to show the deity who was boss. Caligula eventually declared himself a god, removed the heads from various deities’ statues, and replaced them with his own. However, it was not the weirdness that doomed Caligula, but his grievous error in offending his own bodyguards.
His security detail’s commander, Chaerea, had a high-pitched voice, and Caligula got a kick out of mocking him as effeminate. He thought it hilarious to come up with derogatory daily passwords that had to do with homosexuality, and whenever Chaerea was due to kiss the imperial ring, Caligula made sure it was on his middle finger, and waggled it obscenely. Chaerea finally had enough, and in 41 AD, he hatched an assassination plot with other Praetorian Guards, and hacked Caligula to death.