# Roman emperor using a chain of assassins to conceal his own burial site **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-emperor-using-a-chain-of-assassins-to-conceal-his-own-burial-site/587973 "2011-07-06T01:42:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rhysf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f14d63/32.png) [@rhysf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhysf)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-emperor-using-a-chain-of-assassins-to-conceal-his-own-burial-site/587973/1 "2011-07-06T01:42:38Z")
I’m trying to track down a story I read awhile ago and now can’t remember enough of the details to Google it but it goes something like this: A powerful man (possibly a Roman emperor) nearing death became concerned about enemies and souvenir hunters digging up his corpse. To keep his burial site secret, he paid a man to turn up at a remote place on a particular night where he was to kill and bury the man he found there then return home. He then hired a second man to kill the first, the a third to kill the second, etc. The emperor (or whoever he was) then turned up at the original time and place ready to die, secure in the knowledge that his chain of assassins would make it impossible to trace back to the original site. The story doesn’t make much sense and I’m sure it’s apocryphal. Does anyone know any other details? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-emperor-using-a-chain-of-assassins-to-conceal-his-own-burial-site/587973/2 "2011-07-06T02:10:28Z")
Not a Roman emperor, but I’ve heard that Ghengis Khan had the people who buried him slaughtered, so they couldn’t tell anybody where Ghengis was buried. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-emperor-using-a-chain-of-assassins-to-conceal-his-own-burial-site/587973/3 "2011-07-06T02:17:22Z")
I’d heard it was Attila the Hun, myself. ---
**Author:** ![rhysf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f14d63/32.png) [@rhysf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhysf)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-emperor-using-a-chain-of-assassins-to-conceal-his-own-burial-site/587973/4 "2011-07-06T02:32:56Z")
Thanks Diceman and bump. Looking at wikipedia, it could apply to either of them, although either the account I read was heavily embellished or my memory isn’t so good. ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-emperor-using-a-chain-of-assassins-to-conceal-his-own-burial-site/587973/5 "2011-07-06T02:38:48Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Not a Roman emperor, but I’ve heard that Ghengis Khan had the people who buried him slaughtered, so they couldn’t tell anybody where Ghengis was buried. and national geography said the gravediggers weren’t killed. he was simply buried on an open stretch of land and his cavalry rode over the area back and forth, obliterating the burial site. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-emperor-using-a-chain-of-assassins-to-conceal-his-own-burial-site/587973/6 "2011-07-06T05:17:07Z")
Hardly likely to have been a Roman Emperor. They, like Egyptian Pharaohs, went to great lengths to make their tombs noticeable. Caesar’s tomb is still there in Rome, near the Coliseum.