Born in Gaul, son of Drusus and Antonia the Younger (daughter of Marc Antony and Octavia), he was the first emperor born outside Italy. A child despised because of his physical deficiencies, he was unloved by the imperial family and became an adult with slurred speech and gait, kept away from all public activity. Only adult representative of the Julio-Claudian dynasty after the assassination of Caligula in 41 AD. BC, he was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorians, whom he showered in return with a considerable gratification (a donativum), thus inaugurating a dangerous dependence.

Lacking political experience but cultivated, Claude shows himself to be a capable administrator. He is interested in public affairs, working with the Senate on laws and presiding over trials. His administration of the Empire reinforced centralization by organizing offices run by its freedmen. He enlarged the Empire by annexing new territories, the future provinces of Lycia, Mauretania, Noricum and Thrace. In 43, he began the conquest of Brittany, which earned him and his son the nickname Britannicus.

Open to the promotion of provincials, he extended Roman citizenship to numerous cities in the provinces, notably in Gaul where he was born. Sensitive to the demands of Gallic notables, he obtained in 48 from the Senate that they could access the public magistracy of Rome and therefore the Senate itself. Censor, he renews the staff of this institution, eliminating those who no longer meet the conditions to sit there, which alienates part of the nobility in place.

His private life is not happy: Messaline, his third wife, gives him two children, Octavia and Britannicus, but his misconduct, or his political ambition, pushes Claudius to have her executed. In his fourth marriage, he married his niece Agrippina the Younger, who made him adopt Nero. Claudius died in 54, poisoned at the instigation of Agrippina according to the opinion of most historians. Nero succeeds him.

Claude's physical weaknesses and the influence attributed to his women and his freedmen made him despised by ancient authors, a point of view taken up by historians until the 19th century. Since then, the most recent opinions have qualified these negative judgments and reassessed the importance of this emperor to consider him as a notable continuation of the work of his predecessors.
Ancient literary sources and historiography
stone bust
Bust of Seneca, double hermes from the 3rd century, after an original from the 1st century, Antique Collection of Berlin (de).

Claudius was very harshly described by his contemporary Seneca, for personal reasons, then by later ancient historians who constructed a strongly devalued image of the emperor, presented as weak in body and mind and manipulated by those around him. This vision only changed from the 19th century to a clearly rewarding position. Two historiographical inflections then took place, one during the 1930s and one during the 1990s. The first strongly revalorizes the centralizing and bureaucratic aspect, a position largely nuanced during the 1990s which saw, during two conferences, numerous works providing a more detailed analysis of his life and his reign1,2.
The bias of ancient literary sources

Ancient sources present Claudius in a negative way, at best considered as an imbecile marked with physical defects and a toy of his wives and his freedmen A 1, at worst as an unworthy tyrant, as cruel as his predecessor Caligula3,4.

Seneca, familiar with the family of Germanicus, Claudius' brother, and with the imperial court, was exiled by Claudius to Corsica in 41, at the instigation of Messalina A 2, and did not return until 49, thanks to Agrippina . A contemporary of Claude but hostile to A 3, he expressed his resentment after Claude's funeral in a pamphlet, the Apocoloquintosis (from the Greek Ἀποκολοκύνθωσις "pumpkinification"), a caricatured catalog of the defects and physical deficiencies of the deceased. Further details on Claudius' physique, and also on his work and his policy towards doctors, appear in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, who belongs to the following generation5.
The negative vision of ancient historians
open old book
Lives of the twelve Caesars, open to the life of Claudius. Published in Lyon in 1569.

The second-century historians Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio are the most abundant sources available. They shaped Claude6’s negative vision. The Annals of Tacitus, his last work (probably composed under Trajan), follow chronological order year by year and extend from the death of Augustus to that of Nero, with a significant gap between the years 38 to 47 (the books VII

to the copies of the spouses Trajan and Plotina26.
Origins and youth

Claude is part of the third generation of Julio-Claudians. The last child of Drusus the Elder and Antonia the Younger, he was born in Lugdunum in 10 BC. AD His father died the following year and he was raised strictly by his mother and grandmother27. Ancient authors describe him as a little retarded and afflicted with physical defects28, which motivated his family's relative exclusion from public ceremonies. His physical problems were variously diagnosed by contemporary authors, while he showed real intellectual abilities during his studies27.
Origin
genealogical diagram
Ancestry of Claude, at his birth. In gray, parents deceased on this date
bas-relief figures
Altar of Peace, detail of the frieze probably showing Antonia the Younger, Drusus and their son Germanicus.

Claudius belongs through his grandfather Tiberius Claudius Nero to the illustrious patrician gens of Claudii. The latter married Livia29, and had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus the elder29, before the emperor Augustus forced Livia, pregnant with Drusus, to divorce and marry him. They had no children29, despite the rumor that Drusus was the illegitimate son of AugustusA 4. Later, Augustus strengthened his ties with the Claudii by marrying Drusus to his niece Antonia the Younger, daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia the Younger. Drusus and Antonia had Germanicus, Livilla and Claudius as children, and perhaps two other children who died very young30.

Claude is therefore from the third generation of the Julio-Claudian imperial family, according to complicated alliances between the two families.
Detailed article: #Ascendancy.
Childhood

While her husband Drusus led the Roman armies beyond the Rhine, Antonia gave birth to Claudius on August 1, 10 BC. BC, at Lugdunum (Lyon), where Augustus established his quarters31. He takes the name of Tiberius Claudius Nero32.

In 9 BC BC, his father Drusus died during his campaigns in Germania, his leg broken after a fall from his horse. During his public funeral, the Senate posthumously awarded him the nickname Germanicus (victor of the Germans), which could be passed on to his sons33. Claude, then one year old, was raised by his mother Antonia, who retired to the countryside and remained a widow. She calls this sickly child a runt and sees in him a standard of stupidity34. It seems that she ended up entrusting it to her grandmother LivieA 5. Livie is no less harsh, she often sends him short and dry letters of reproach A 6. He is poorly regarded by his family, especially since his brother Germanicus has all the qualities that he does not have A 7. He is entrusted to the supervision of a “pack animal manager”, responsible for punishing him severely at the slightest pretext A 8.35.
Health problems, pathologies considered

Family rejection is caused by the weakness of young Claude. From the beginning of his biography, Suetonius indicates that Claudius suffered various illnesses that persisted throughout his childhood and youth. Seneca depicts the goddess Fever who lives with him for a number of years: 9. Dion Cassius evokes a Claudius raised in illness from childhood, affected by a tremor of the head and handsA 5. The first two authors provide most of the known physical details. For Suetonius, Claudius has weak knees, causing him to stagger, his head perpetually tottering. He has an unpleasant laugh. When he is carried away by anger, he stutters, his mouth foams and his nostrils run, his face appears hideously distorted A 10. In Apocoloquintosis, Seneca, who worked with him, confirms or specifies several symptoms: Claudius “moves his head constantly; he drags his right foot… responds with garbled sounds and an indistinct voice »A 11. Seneca also alludes to possible deafness A 12 and evokes a flabby hand A 9. Suetonius and Dio Cassius also say he is apathetic, slow-witted and easily confused. A 13, A 5.

However, Claude does not seem to suffer from any infirmity in his moments of calm at 10. Régis Martin summarizes by noting a serene character at rest, which can alternate with a series of tics during movements and under the influence of emotion36. We then notice weakness in the legs which can lead to limping, uncontrolled head nodding, speech problems, sometimes with discharge from the nose and mouth, and a tendency to deafness. On the other hand, the accusations of feeble-mindedness cannot be taken into account in the face of Claude's intellectual qualities attested by his culture37.

Various diagnoses of these physical deficiencies observed from childhood are proposed. The hypothesis of a premature birth, considered in 1916 by the American Thomas de Coursey-Ruth, deduced from the qualifications of Claude's mother (simply a rough runt), is not accepted38. Before the Second World War, poliomyelitis (then called "infant paralysis) all their male descendants at that date: to the right of Augustus four names, Tiberius, Germanicus and their respective sons Drusus the Younger and Nero CESAR ; to the left of Livia four other names , the deceased princes Caius and Lucius CESAR , with Drusus Caesar, second son of Germanicus, and finally Claudius. Several specialists have put forward the hypothesis of the later addition of the name of Claudius because its presence contradicts the marginalization insinuated by Suetonius, but Frédéric Hurlet refutes this possibility because it would induce impossible irregularities in the arrangement of the dedications57.
The succession of Augustus

Augustus died in 14 AD. AD His will distributes his fortune to Tiberius and Livia in the first rank, then to Drusus the Younger, Germanicus and his three sons in the second rank, and relegates Claudius as heir of third rank, with various relatives and friends53, with a particular legacy of 800,000 sestercesA 18,N 1. Although this will only has private value, it corresponds to the plan of political succession prepared by Augustus, in the absence of any official rule for the transmission of power58.

Whatever the disdain of the imperial family emphasized by Suetonius, it seems certain that Claudius garnered a certain public esteem in these circumstances. The knights choose Claudius to lead their delegation and discuss the terms of their participation in the funeral procession of Augustus, while the senators add him to the college of priests created for the cult of Augustus, the Sodales Augustales A 19, in the company of Tiberius, Germanicus and Drusus the YoungerA 20.