The death of the mad emperor

Photo by Ed Uthman: Caligula's bust at the
Houston Museum of Natural Science

January 24, 41 AD: Roman Emperor Gaius Caligula is murdered by his Praetorian Guard.

Caligula is notorious in the pages of history for being a "nutcase”.

While elevating himself to a degree of a living god he ordered the creation of a statue in his honor at the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The Roman governor of Syria Publius Petronius which was commissioned to execute this task, understood its sensitivity and replied Caligula to reconsider. Caligula declined this request and only efforts of King Agrippas of the Bashan, who was a friend of Caligula, brought the emperor to annul his decree. 

Although pulling his instruction back, he ordered Petronius to commit suicide for being disobedient. Luckily for Petronius, the word about Gaius Caligula's murder in Rome reached before Caligula's order.