A catalog of horrific evil, from the 1st century AD to the present day evil is a fact of life. We can see it, not only in the reigns of Stalin & Hitler, but also in everyday crimes like murder, rape & assault--quite apart from the millions of lives brutalized by political or religious oppression, poverty, disease & starvation. One factor unites the 16 featured in this book & the evil acts they committed: they all had unlimited power over the people whose lives they controlled. Their reigns a terror cover a time-span of nearly 2000 years, from the rule of Caligula over the Roman Empire starting in 37AD, to the genocide of educated Cambodians under Pol Pot during the 1980's. Motivated by power, religion, political belief or by sadism & lust, sometimes by insanity, they've become bywords for terror.