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Dark history around Rome

Follow the stops in order. Each is a documented story set at or near this spot.

Open the walking route in Maps See it on the Dark Atlas

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  1. The Assassination Of Rome's Most Powerful Man

    Warned by his wife's nightmare and a soothsayer's omen, Caesar walks into the Senate anyway, straight toward twenty-three wounds.

  2. Buried Alive to Avoid Shedding Her Blood

    Roman law forbade killing a Vestal or burying her in the city, so they sealed the condemned underground alive instead.

  3. The Chieftain Who Surrendered To Save His People

    The Gallic leader who nearly beat Caesar rode out to surrender rather than let his starving people die, and spent six years dying slowly in a Roman prison.

  4. The King Left To Starve Beneath Rome

    A Numidian king who beat Rome with bribery for years was finally stripped naked and left to starve in a pit.

  5. The Black Day Rome Never Forgot

    A broken diplomatic mission brought a Gallic warband to the gates of Rome, and the city that never lost anything watched itself burn.

  6. The Emperor Cut Down in a Palace Corridor

    On January 24, AD 41, Caligula was killed by his own Praetorian officers beneath the Palatine palace. His wife and daughter died too, and the guard then made his uncle Claudius emperor.

  7. The Emperor Who Fought As A Gladiator For Fun

    Gladiator showed him as a scheming villain — the real emperor clubbed amputees to death and billed the treasury for it.

  8. The Poison Sold As A Woman's Cosmetic Oil

    Disguised as beauty oil, a tasteless poison gave abused wives in Rome a way to outlive their husbands.

  9. When Rome Staged Executions As Myth

    Romans didn't just execute prisoners — they dressed them as mythological heroes and staged their real deaths as theatre.

  10. The Brother Rome Was Ordered to Forget

    On December 26, 211, Caracalla had his co-emperor Geta cut down in their mother's arms, then ordered his name chiselled from stone. A scraped-out face in a Berlin panel still shows the gap.

Coordinates mark the place of each story, and some are approximate. Check opening times and access before you go.