10 Legendary Figures Who Did TERRIBLE Things

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History often remembers legendary figures for their achievements, heroism, or influence—but many of them had a dark side. In this countdown, we expose 10 famous historical icons who committed shocking, cruel, or questionable acts that are often left out of the history books. From world leaders to revolutionary thinkers, these stories reveal that greatness and morality don’t always go hand in hand.  📌 A must-watch for history buffs, truth seekers, and anyone who wants the full story behind famous names.

Transcript

00:00There will be great sacrifice, there will be death, but who will be victorious?

00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're discussing legendary historical icons

00:11whose darker actions reveal the brutal truths behind their glorious legacies.

00:15Now is the time of our revenge.

00:17We will kill every Tatar man taller than the linchpin on the wheel of a car.

00:24Cleopatra's murder of siblings.

00:26Often romanticized as a seductive beauty,

00:28behind all the glamour, Cleopatra was a cold-blooded politician, a femme fatale.

00:33She seduced men of power and orchestrated the deaths of those who opposed her throne.

00:37The commander is unable to resist.

00:40Her most heinous crimes involved the murder of her siblings,

00:43including her brothers Ptolemy XIII and XIV, both of whom were co-rulers at one point.

00:49Their deaths allowed her to further secure her position as pharaoh.

00:52It's said that he was poisoned and that Cleopatra herself was behind it,

00:56because he was the only male relative who could dispute her power.

01:00The final casualty of the sibling struggle would be Arsinoe IV, the younger sister of Cleopatra.

01:05Arsinoe would be exiled to the Temple of Artemis and later executed on its grounds.

01:10And she got her sister Arsinoe to be slain by the means of Antony.

01:13For Cleopatra, betrayal was a means to survival, and she was an expert at that game.

01:18Emperor Commodus' gladiatorial murders

01:21Considered by some historians to be the most demented of the Roman emperors,

01:26Commodus was a man obsessed with power and spectacle.

01:29If that name sounds familiar, we are indeed speaking of the same character

01:32popularized by Joaquin Phoenix in the movie Gladiator.

01:35But compared to the movie, Commodus was far more unhinged in real life.

01:39Emperor Commodus has a surprise.

01:42He's the headline bout, fighting as a gladiator.

01:45He frequently participated in fights in the Colosseum,

01:49slaying wounded soldiers and disabled citizens dressed as gladiators.

01:52He would also order the executions of his foes, allies, and family members,

01:57all while demanding admiration.

01:58Commodus charges the bankrupt Roman treasury

02:01one million sesterces for his appearance.

02:04Almost ten million dollars in today's money.

02:08Declaring himself a god,

02:09Commodus ran Rome like a circus,

02:11and was a megalomaniac of the highest order.

02:14He fills the city with statues of himself,

02:16dressed as the god Hercules.

02:19Attila the Hun's European Devastation

02:21The Scourge of God was an apt moniker for a man

02:24who led one of the most ruthless European invasion campaigns in history.

02:28Attila the Hun stands as one of the most ruthless,

02:31if not the most ruthless, military leaders of all time.

02:36Wave after wave,

02:37Attila the Hun unleashed his armies upon the Eastern and Western Roman empires.

02:41In his passing, cities burned and entire civilizations were uprooted.

02:46A ruthless and bloodthirsty man of battle,

02:48Attila and the Huns treated the lives of others as meaningless,

02:52lending to a rule of terror, slaughter, and extortion.

02:55He makes Hannibal Lecter look like Mother Teresa.

02:58Famine and disease followed in the wake of his armies,

03:01so much so that he was believed by some to be a punishment from heaven.

03:05Attila may be history's first great terrorist.

03:08He succeeded in building enormous wealth.

03:10Tamerlane's Tower of Skulls

03:12Believing yourself to be descended from Genghis Khan goes two ways.

03:16You can be a brilliant military strategist and a bloodthirsty warlord.

03:20Tamerlane was precisely both.

03:22Founder of the Timurid Empire,

03:24he conquered much of Asia and moved on to Europe as well,

03:27bringing terror and brutality upon his enemies.

03:30From being buried alive,

03:31decapitated,

03:32and forcing thousands to die by jumping from extreme heights

03:35to death by suffocation, burning, and dismemberment,

03:38Tamerlane was responsible for the killing of over 15 to 20 million people.

03:42Reveling in his conquests,

03:44Tamerlane ordered massive towers to be made from his enemy's skulls

03:47so that he could look upon them with satisfaction.

03:49His empire was short-lived,

03:51but his legacy of terror was not.

03:53Queen Wu Zetian's Path to Power

03:55The only legitimate female ruler of China,

03:58Wu Zetian rose to power from being an emperor's concubine

04:01to being an emperor through deceit and cunning.

04:04To have a woman with such power

04:06really threatened the establishment.

04:09Her lust for power was evident in her ruthless, cruel, and sadistic personality,

04:14allegedly murdering her infant daughter to frame the then-Empress Wang.

04:18Under her reign,

04:19she would execute the ex-Empress,

04:20along with her rivals,

04:22purge her opposition,

04:23and even eliminate dissonant elements within her own family.

04:26She had hundreds of members of the ruling family executed.

04:33The violence and reign of terror, you could say, was extreme.

04:38Wu's ambition drove her to these ends,

04:41and while her reign shattered gender barriers,

04:43she claimed the lives of hundreds.

04:45But she was not without a conscience.

04:48She was very troubled by what she'd done.

04:54Alexander the Great's Massacre of the Thebans

04:56Alexander the Great is remembered for, well, being great.

05:00He rose to the throne of Macedon after his father, Philip II, was assassinated.

05:04By the time Alexander reaches the age of 18,

05:06he has proven himself a worthy successor to his father's throne.

05:09His daring exploits and stratagems are studied to this day.

05:13But one of his earliest acts as king

05:14was the destruction of the rebellious Greek city of Thebes.

05:17Alexander's forces killed an estimated 6,000 citizens.

05:21The survivors, mainly women and children, were sold into slavery.

05:25It was an example of overwhelming dominance,

05:27which demonstrated to the other Greek city-states

05:29that Alexander was willing to use extreme measures to assert his authority.

05:33But outside these walls, a terrible massacre takes place.

05:378,000 Tyrians are slaughtered, 30,000 more sold into slavery.

05:42It was a ruthless message from a young ruler who would go on to conquer a vast territory.

05:47Challenge me, and your city vanishes.

05:49He could do what he liked.

05:52He could call himself God if he wanted.

05:55Herod the Great's Massacre of the Innocents

05:57Much like others who have been adorned with the moniker of Great,

06:00Herod, the king of Judea, committed his fair share of atrocities.

06:04There is no doubt that Herod killed to protect his throne.

06:08He even executed his own sons.

06:10Best known for wanting to kill Jesus,

06:12Herod became infamous for ordering the Massacre of the Innocents.

06:15Overwhelmed by his paranoia of a prophesied chosen one who would take his throne,

06:20Herod ordered every boy of age 2 or younger in Bethlehem to be eliminated.

06:24And in Bethlehem and its surrounding district,

06:26he had killed all the male children who were two years and under.

06:30The line between insanity and genius is relatively thin.

06:34In Herod's case, his paranoia and lust for power led him to become a mad tyrant

06:39whose greatness was built upon the blood of innocents.

06:42He began killing on an unprecedented scale,

06:45settling scores and murdering political rivals.

06:49Nebuchadnezzar II

06:50The kingdom of Babylon was renowned for its stunning architecture,

06:53including the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

06:57It was also known for being ruled by the maddest of all mad kings in history,

07:02King Nebuchadnezzar II.

07:04Fear was his greatest tool,

07:06and during his biblically documented seven-year descent into insanity,

07:09Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem,

07:12destroyed the Temple of Solomon,

07:13and exiled thousands of Jews during the Babylonian captivity.

07:16Nebuchadnezzar conquered this ring of stone and raised the holy city to the ground.

07:21He razed cities and built upon their ruins to expand his empire,

07:25using the very people he conquered and enslaved with forced labor.

07:29Nebuchadnezzar engaged in military terror, effective and unforgiving.

07:33Though credited as a great builder, Nebuchadnezzar was a tyrant.

07:37Under his reign, civilization flourished, but often atop ruins.

07:42I have done what no king has done before me,

07:45are Nebuchadnezzar's immortal words of glory.

07:48Emperor Nero's Persecution of Christians

07:50History says Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

07:54The fifth emperor of Rome cared little about anything.

07:57Accountability was lost on Nero.

07:59There was always someone to blame other than himself.

08:02Legend says that as Rome burned,

08:04Nero sat on his balcony, singing the fall of Troy.

08:08After the Great Fire of Rome,

08:09when nearly three quarters of Rome was destroyed,

08:12the Christian populace was in his crosshairs.

08:14Nero scapegoated the Christians as the reason behind the fire.

08:17He needed a scapegoat.

08:20And his choice was to seal his reputation throughout history.

08:24He picked on a small religious sect who were already deeply unpopular.

08:28They were called Christians.

08:31He had them crucified, burned alive as human torches,

08:34fed to wild animals in arenas, and even torn apart by dogs.

08:39The depravity of Nero's actions led the Christians to see him as the Antichrist.

08:43The punishment was harsh even for such a despised group.

08:47In the end, the truth prevailed.

08:49Rome may have burned, but it was Nero who lit the match.

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09:09Genghis Khan's Genocidal Conquests

09:11From being an outcast in his tribe,

09:13the man known as Genghis Khan went on to unite the Mongol tribes

09:17and establish the largest empire in history.

09:19History records him as a brutal butcher.

09:23Conquering most of China and almost all land through the Caspian Sea,

09:27Genghis and his armies killed countless civilians

09:29and brought ruin to various cities.

09:31Brutality was the way of Khan soldiers.

09:33Women were often brutally assaulted in the presence of their families,

09:37and thousands were enslaved.

09:38Only children and potential concubines were spared, taken as slaves.

09:44By the time of his death,

09:45Genghis's genocidal conquests resulted in the deaths of over 40 million people.

09:50Using terror as his weapon,

09:51the Khan had two conditions for those who opposed him.

09:54Surrender and survive, or resist and perish.

09:57Execute those whom custom has condemned to death.

10:01Legends are eternal,

10:02but history reveals the darkness behind their glory.

10:05Which of these legendary figures surprised you with their dark side?

10:08Are there any others whose legendary deeds hide the monster within?

10:11Let us know in the comments.

10:12The city is an inferno.

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