SLD

I'm not sure about that particular incident, but IIRC, he had one of his wives (or ex-wives) and his own son executed. You can't get much crueller than that. Shit, you have to be a bloody cold human to do that.

SLD

spin

You're projecting modern ideas into a past to which it is not appropriate. Herod had family members done away with (and our bad opinion of him is strictly conditioned by xianity: he was a relatively good ruler). One reason why Caligula was supposed to have been mad was because Tiberius had a number of his relatives killed, all in the family. The Ottoman sultans routinely killed brothers on becoming sultan to ensure no challenges to their rule. And these are just a few of the great range of historical examples of such acts in loving families.

Just think, bloody executions were a spectator event until a few centuries ago, and still is in Texas.


spin