Скачать или смотреть The King Whose Body Rotted While Worms Devoured Him Alive

Herod the Great ruled Judea through fear, paranoia, and blood. He built wonders meant to immortalize his name—but murdered anyone who threatened his power, including his own wife and sons. Like many tyrants, he believed cruelty was strength. History would prove otherwise.
In his final days, Herod’s body turned against him in a way so horrific that ancient historians struggled to describe it without invoking divine punishment. His abdomen swelled grotesquely. His flesh blackened and split with gangrene. A suffocating stench poured from his body, so unbearable that even loyal servants abandoned him in terror.
Then came the horror that sealed his legend. Worms infested his genitals, feeding on his rotting flesh while he was still alive and conscious. Fever consumed him. Pain drove him mad. He screamed, attempted suicide, and begged for death—but it would not come quickly.
Ancient writers recorded every detail because this was not just a death—it was a warning.
Centuries later, medieval chroniclers would compare Herod’s end to divine justice itself. Even conquerors like William the Conqueror, who ruled through war and iron discipline, were invoked as contrasts—men who dominated history but did not rot alive as punishment. William became an icon of brutal power that still ended in control, while Herod became the symbol of a tyrant whose body itself turned executioner.
Herod did not die in glory.
He decomposed.
Alive.
Eaten by worms.
Abandoned.
Remembered not as a king—but as a cautionary tale written in flesh.
The tyrant who ruled through terror was ultimately destroyed by his own body.