The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-12-13
THE LUNATICs OF HISTORY.

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which many now do, of attributing all
crime to insanity, and thus acquitting
modern criminals on that absurd plea,
we yet believe 9 long possession OF des-
potic power viii in the end induce mad
ness and it is, therefore, a natural re-
suit that the great monarohs aud rulers
who have acted like monsters, have be-
come insane through the wicked fattery
and cowardice of their subjects. mo
nation is oppressed by q tyrant, that has
not deserved it. When we perceive the
evil effects which indulging children has
upon them, we must allow its influence
upon the human heart and so much
the greater the effect on men, when
bowed down to by millions. - -. -. :.
. Much of the tyranny and despotism
of the world has been the result of cere-
bral disease, and, if Justice had been
done, not few of the rulers Of history
would have been confined in asylums
for the insane. -------
Y Caligula, the 'beastly' +" Roman En-
peror, was certainly lunatic. His ac-
cession to the throne was greeted with
JOY by the Roman people, and he after
ward become so popular by the gener-
Gus and conciliatory acts of his reign
that, when he was attacked with sick
ness, sacrifices wereE offered in the tenn
pies for his recovery. His brain s1ln:
doubtedly became diseased during his
sickness, for. from that time he became
changed man. The remaining four
years of his reign were disgraced by
some of the most unnatural and capri
cious tyranny recorded in history. He
put to death a large number of his
senators. Every ten days he delivered
human victims to be devoured by wild
beasts, and loosely termed this horrid
act. clearing his account. " He caused
divine honors to be paid to himself, in
temple erected, expressly for that ppr.
pose, and under the superintendent of
priests of his own appointment. He i'm
vited his favorite horse, Incitatus, to
dine at the royal table, where he was
fed on gilded oats, and drank from Jew
eled goblets; and but for his premature
death, this animal would have been
raised to the consulship.s, La q more en-
lightened and liberal age, ,Caligilla
would have been sent to an insane re-
treat. The Romans endured his cruel
ty for four years, and then put him to
death by well-planned and successful
conspiracy. 1850 ssG .l.- -ssJ mlst
The career of Nero was something
like that of Caligula. In youth he was
notably clever, kindly and amib1e, and
for the first year of his reign he ruled
with clemency and justice. He was at
this time so harassed by the attempts of
his mother to wrest the scepter from his
hands, that his brain probably became
disordered, and he was metamorphosed
into tyrant. He poisoned his own
brother Mt a feast to which he had in
vited him. His mother, Agrippina, he
murdered in her own bed, He, relent-
lessly prosecuted the Christians on the
plea that they set fire to Rome. He
caused to be executed Lucan, the poet,
and Seneca, the philosopher, and kicked
his own wife to death. Nor was his in
sanity manifested by acts of cruelty
alone. He had silly rage for music,
and in his morbid ambition to be thought
the greatest singer of the world, he APP
peared on the stage in the character of
an operate performer. SO
Domitian, Heliogabalus, and possibly
some of the Consuls of Rome, must have
been of unsound mind. Domitian, like
Caligula and Nero, began to reign with
generosity; and under the spressures
and worrying of Government he de-
veloped into monster Heliogabalus
made his horse consul, appointed SEN
ate of women, forced the Romans to
worship black stone, and prepared
golden swords and daggers, and cords of
silk and gold, in order to put an end to
his own life when he saw ft ALI these
were the freaks of mailman
Alexander the Great behaved like a
lunatic in the latter days of his reign,
and the supposition is plausible that, if
he had survived few years longer, he
mfr ht have become a most implacable
and capricious tyrant. From being
very abstemious, he gave himself up to
debauchery. His lust for power became
a disease, and he strove for gigantic i'm
possibilities.
Robespierre and some other, leaders
in the French Revolution were probably
made more or less insane by the excl
ting events in which they took part. It
is certain that Robespierre was natural
ly kind-hearted and considerable, for he
began life by endeavoring to procure
the abolition of capital punishment
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