Picture the scene: it’s January 24, 41 AD and Rome is in chaos. The tyrant emperor Caligula has just been stabbed to death outside the Palatine Games. In the city, his wife has been murdered and his baby daughter had her head dashed open against a wall. In this tense, bloody atmosphere, no-one knows what will happen next. Will the Republic be restored, or will a new emperor be found to take the throne? At the height of this uncertainty, a soldier in the Praetorian Guard sweeps aside a palace curtain and finds Caligula’s useless uncle cowering in fright.