The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-03-15
Crazy Rulers.
DR.. Beard complies the following re

t.. DR.. Beard complies the following re-
cord of insane rulers:
Much of the tyranny and despotism
of the world have been the result of
cerebral disease, and if justice had
been done, not few of the rulers of
history would have been confined in
asylums for the insane. There were
no asylums then, insanity was not un-
derstood. Caligula, the beastly
Roman emperor, was certainly a luna
tic. His accession to the throne was
greeted with joy by the Roman people,
and he afterward became SO popular,
by tho generous and conciliatory acts
of his reign, that, when he was attack
ed with sickness, sacrifices were offered
IN the temples for his recovery. His
brain undoubtedly became diseased
during his sickness [why not call it by
its right name, dissipation" for
from that time he became a changed
man. The remaining four years of his
reign were disgraced by some of the
most unnatural and capricious tyranny
recorded in history. tCaused by
drunkenness. He put to death q
large number of his senators. Every
ten days he delivered human victims
4. to be devoured by wild beasts, and
loosely termed this horrid act CLEAR
ing his account" He caused divine
honors to be paid to himself, in tenn
pie erected especially for that purpose,
and under the superintendent of
priests ofhis own appointment. Poor
fools, all. He invited his fayorite
horse, Incitatus, to dine at the royal
table, where he was fed on gilded oats
and drank wine from ieweled goblets,
and but for his premature death this
animal would have been raised to the
consulship. In a more enlightened
and liberal age Caligula would have
been deposed and sent to On insane
retreat. The Romans endured his
cruelty for four years, and then
put him to death by a well-planned
and successful conspiracy. The career
of Nero was somewhat like that of Cal
igula. In youth, he was notably tai
ented, kindly, and amiable, andforthe
first five years of his reign he ruled
with clemency and justice. He was at
that time so harrassed by the attempts
of his mother to wrest the scepter from
his hands, that his brain probably
became distorted, and he was meta
morphosed into tyrant. For which
his organization fitted him. He
poisoned his own brother at feast to
which he had invited him. His moth
er, Agrippina, he murdered In her own
bed. He relentlessly prosecuted the
Christians, ON the plea that they had
set fire to Rome. He caused to be
executed Lucian the poet, and Seneca
the Philosopher, and kicked his own
wife to death. Nor was his insanity
manifested by acts of cruelty alone.
He had silly rage for music, and In
his morbid ambition to be thought the
greatest singer in the world, he appear
cd on the stage In the character OF an
QDeratic performer.
Domitian, Heliogabalus, and pos
sibly also some of the tyrants of Rome,
must have been of unsound mind.
Domitian, like Caligula and Nero,
began to reign with generosity, but
under the pressures and WORKINGS of
government he developed into a mon
stcr. Heliagabalus made his horse
consul, appointed a senate of women,
forced the Romans to worship black
stone, and prepared golden swords
and daggers, and cords ofsilk and gold,
in order TO put an end to his own life
whenever he saw fit. All these were
freaks of mailman. Alexander the
Great behaved like a lunatic in the
latter days of his reign, and the sup
position is plausible, that if he had
survived few years longer he might
have become a most implacable and
capricious tyrant and imbecllel.
From being very alb temious he gave
himself up to debauchery. His lust
for power became a disease, and he
strove for gigantic impossibilltles.
Robespierre and some of the other
leaders in the French revolution We're
probably made more or less insane by
the exciting events in which they took
part. 1t is certain that Robespierre
was naturally kind-hearted and consid- |
crate, for he begun life endeavoring to
procure the abolition of capital pun
ishment.
Louis NJ, of France, was insane both
in his despotic cruelty and his ca
prices. He shut up his mobiles In
cages and hung them on the trees of
the forest He lived in constant fear
of death, kept in seclusion in his cas-
tie, was on intimate terms with his hang
man, amused himself by watching
battles between rats and cats, drank |
the blood of young children, and tried \
various and abominable compounds in |
order to lengthen his life.
Jeffreys, the notorious English Judge |
was a raving maniac; and that he was
allowed to preside at the circuits is a
severer comment on scientific igno-
rance than on the political cruelty of
of the age.
We are compelled to believe, also,
that Queen Christina, of Sweden, who
murdered her paramour, was in NOR
bid condition when she committed the
deed; and on the same theory u ac-
count for the hideous and feminine
cruelty of Catherine de Medici.
OF the insanity of Frederic William
of Prussia, 1 have already spoken; but
of his unnatural and whimsical treat
ment of his son and family was only
one of its symptoms. He was incon-
Uistently avaricious, scrutinizlng every
household expense with absurd atten-
tion, and lavishing fortunes on his
army of giants. He would run through
the streets Gaming the loungers and
workmen who fell in his way until
they roared for mercy.
Theodore, thelate king of Abysinia,
was clearly a mailman. All accounts
agree in representing him as being at
first Just, considerable, as well as en-
terprising ruler; but under the excite
ment and anxiety of domestic Attic
tions and the rebellions that took
place in his realm, he became changed
30 monster, like the Roman emperors
Nero, Caligula, and Domitian. The
latter acts of his reign give every evi-
dence of disordered brain.
Chain Cables.
At the beginning of this century