Visceral ripping, genital biting, rape of children - this is not a description of the B-class horror, but the achievements of the first emperors of the Roman Empire in a telegraphic summary. Feel free to read the deviants post
The founder of the empire was Augustus. However, we will not pay too much attention to it. It is true that he was accused of homosexual relations with Juliusz Caesar or the propensity to deflorate virgins however, such misdeeds pale in the achievements of his successors.
Sodom and Gomorrah… and the slaughterhouse
Tiberius ( Tiberius Claudius Nero ) - Emperor from 14 to 37 A.D.
This gruff, quiet, withdrawn, for a long time dependent on his mother, the emperor hated people. He surrounded himself with a small group of advisers, including the brutal praetorian prefect Sejan and the astrologer Trazyl, in whom he believed uncritically.
From 26, he ruled Rome from Capri. This island, if you believe the ancients, turned into a real brothel . From the farthest corners of the empire he downloaded works of art with an erotic theme.
Special imperial agents traveled through Italy, selecting the loveliest boys and girls to become the emperor's toys. Suetonius writes that some of the children on the island were specially trained so that when the emperor was taking a bath, swim up and pinch him in private places .
This is how the orgies of Tiberius were imagined in the nineteenth century. A painting by Siemiradzki.
But erotic debauchery was not the emperor's only hobby. He also loved all kinds of torture and punishment . Apparently, the day started by watching the executions. He even developed a rather elaborate method of killing himself. The unfortunate man was bound with a strap and a tube was pushed into his esophagus.
The wine she pressed, finding no way out, tightly filled the victim's guts. When the victim was full of drink, his stomach was pierced, which resulted in fountains of red streams gushing from his entrails to the delight of the degenerate ruler.
However, do not be afraid. Trapped in a whirlwind of debauchery, the emperor did not neglect his subjects. From time to time he sent a letter to the capital that led to weeks of purges. The cruelty of some imperial orders was beyond imagination. When the entire family of Sejanus was sentenced to death, including his underage daughter, there were numerous protests.
The law and religion of the Romans forbade the execution of the virgin's death sentence for fear of the wrath of the gods. And there is a way . The executioner was ordered to rape the girl first and then strangle the girl .
Thanks to Tiberius, many dead bodies lay for weeks on the streets of the Eternal City . People did not bury the dead for fear that they might be accused of favoring the conspirators.
I sleep with my sisters and let the legionaries collect the shells!
Caligula ( Gaius Iulius Caesar Germanicus ) - Emperor from 37 to 41 A.D.
Upon ascending the throne at the age of 25, he enjoyed a good reputation both by the senate and the wider masses of society. He was admittedly accused of incestuous relations with his sisters (and their spouses at once) however, the ancients were unsure of the truth of these rumors.
After a few months of reign, he developed a strange disease that was to change him completely. After recovering, he committed a series of crimes and bizarre behavior, now questioned as lies or interpreted in a way that purifies the ruler.
The Italian artist Corinaldo presented much more idyllically what was happening on Capri.
While the appointment of a horse first a senator and then a consul can be explained as an attempt to ridicule the good senators, how to explain running around the palace in women's clothes and claiming to be the goddess of Venus?
Likewise, the declaration of war on Neptune is explained by many researchers as a kind of punishment for soldiers who refused to go against Britain. Anyway, he ordered the legionnaires in battle formation to enter the sea and cut the waves. Then the cohorts were ordered to collect seashells and with such loot went to the triumphal entry into Rome.
While sexual relations with sisters or behavior typical of a madman can be considered gossip, the order to murder Gamellus (according to Tiberius' will) or numerous repressions against the senatorial class seem to be true.
The emperor had even gone so far as to create a brothel where clients were served by the wives and daughters of senators .
Roman Caligae, the nickname of Caligula was derived from the name of this type of military footwear (photo:MatthiasKabel; license GNU FDL 1.2)
The fight against the senate led to the murder of Caligula and the whole family. After his death, damnatio memoriae - was imposed on him condemnation of memory, which may explain the image that historians have given us. Anyway, he went down in popular history as one of the most degenerate rulers, which is not entirely true.
Deformed and distracted…
Claudius ( Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus ) - Emperor from 41 to 54 A.D.
After Caligula's death, it seemed that the Republic would be restored. However, history very often takes an unexpected turn.
The praetorians plundering the palace, behind the curtain, found a man trembling with fear. They immediately carried him to the camp of the city cohorts, where he was hailed as emperor. How did it happen that one and only member of Caligula's family escaped from the pogrom? Well, nobody cared about Claudius. Tossed aside and hailed as a family bastard, he lived in peace for fifty long years, devoting himself to food, drink, dice, and history.
Frightened Claudius in Lawrence Alma Tadem's painting "The Death of Caligula".
His mother called the monster started by nature but unfinished. Claudius' superficiality was to blame for everything. To put it mildly, it did not fit into the ancient canon of beauty .
He was drooling profusely. In addition, he was limping, which was caused by too short a leg. He shook his head, stuttered, and his face shrinking in a strange grimace over and over. The whole thing was completed with stature.
A broad-shouldered man with a baggage of culinary experiences, terribly thin and crooked legs. He couldn't like him. The icing on the cake of deformation was mental ailments - absent-mindedness, inattention, timidity. This man, in the absence of other representatives of the dynasty, was hailed as the emperor and ... ruled well. Or rather:he would have ruled well had it not been for the women.
His third wife, the beautiful Messalina, gave him horns at every turn, throwing orgies and outclassing the best Roman courtesans . The fourth, Agrippina, poisoned the emperor to pave the way for her son to reign.
You can read about the ancient art of love in the newest book by Adam Węgłowski, titled "Ages of Shamelessness. Sex and erotica in antiquity ”(CiekawostkiHistoryczne.pl 2018). Buy with a discount on empik.com.
Unlike his predecessors, Claudius did not murder in search of pleasure or conspiracy. He was murdered by women who were cleverly controlling her husband. He also murdered absentmindedly. It happened that he fell asleep during the trial and handed down a sentence completely unrelated to her. Often these were death sentences.
Genitals - a delicacy worthy of the emperor himself!
Nero ( Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus ) - Emperor from 54 to 68.
Son of Gnaeus Domicujsz Ahenobarbus, a drunkard, murderer and degenerate, and Agrippina, who on her way to power did not hesitate to marry his uncle first and then poison him. It's called having good genes. On top of that, let's add a pinch of stress-free upbringing, the flirtatious behavior of the mother (who was accused of seducing her son) and the impunity of the imperial authority, and voila - the material for a deviant is ready!
This shaving of this goatee is celebrated by students all over Poland during juwenalia. Thank you, Nero!
Although it started innocently, only with too much love for art, the machine of madness was winding up with the growing conviction of one's own impunity. The teachings of the famous Seneca did not help here.
The nature of Nero initially made itself felt in the form of forays into the city. Disguised as a beggar, the emperor wandered around taverns and brothels, initiating tavern quarrels. During such an expedition, he met the wife of Senator Julius Montana, who became a teacher of all perversions for him.
The emperor was amorous. His first love was the liberator of Acte. She became a bone of contention between Nero and Agrippina. And so the emperor had the intention of killing his own mother . Intention, let's add, realized.
The next mistress of Nero was Poppaea Sabina, on whose initiative the emperor ordered the murder of his wife - Octavia. But a fate was in store for Poppaea as well. She died pregnant, kicked in the stomach by drunk Nero.
Now, hold your breath - a list of the most famous deviations of Nero:numerous relations with boys and married women, rape of a Vestal, marriage with a castrated boy (as a husband) and with an uncastrated boy (as a wife), incestuous relations with his own mother (however, this is not fully confirmed) and Suetonius himself gives it as a rumor, though probable), biting, disguised as an animal, the genitals of people tied to poles and many, many more.
The history of degenerate emperors fired the minds of the Middle Ages. Here is an image of Nero with his mother's corpse. The illustration comes from the 15th-century edition of the work "Roman de la Rose".
All in line with the claim that every part of the body can be an instrument of pleasure, but most of the people hide behind this and cunningly protect it.
He did not hesitate to sentence his loved ones to death, even children and former advisers, and the number of victims cited by historians is too long to publish here. For one thing he can be absolved:he did not set fire to Rome.
He was undoubtedly the greatest idiot and jester among the emperors . It was only Elagabalus that had to overshadow his antics, but this is material for a different story.