Claudius
I, Roman emperor A.D. 41-54. His full name was TIB. CLAUDIUS DRUSUS
NERO GERMANICUS. He was the younger son of Drusus, the brother of the
emperor Tiberius, and of Antonia, and was born on August 1st, B.C. 10,
at Lyons in Gaul. In youth he was weak and sickly, and was neglected and
despised by his relatives. When he grew up he devoted the greater part
of his time to literary pursuits, but was not allowed to take any part
of public affairs. He had reached the age of 50, when he was suddenly
raised by the soldiers to the imperial throne after the murder of
Caligula. Claudius was not cruel, but the weakness of his character made
him the slave of his wives and freedmen, and thus led him to consent to
acts of tyranny which he would never have committed of his own accord.
He was married four times. At the time of his accession he was married
to his 3rd wife, the notorious Valeria Messalina, who governed him for
some years, together with the freedmen Narcissus, Pallas, and others.
After the execution of Messalina, 48, a fate which she richly merited,
CLaudius was still more unfortunate in choosing for his wife his niece
Agrippina. She prevailed upon him to set aside his own son, Britannicus,
and to adopt her son, Nero, that she might secure the succession for
the latter. Claudius soon regretted his step, and was in consequently
poisoned by Agrippina, 54 A.D. - Several public works of great utility
were executed by Claudius. He built, for example, the famous Claudian
aqueduct (Aqua Claudia), the port of Ostia, and the emissary by which
the water of lake Fucinus was carried into the river Liris. In his reign
the southern part of Britain was made a roman province, and CLaudius
himself went to Britain in 43, where he remained, however, only a short
time, leaving the conduct of the war to his generals. - Claudius wrote
several historical works, all of which have perished. Of these one of
the most important was a history of Etruria, in composition of which he
made use of genuine Etruscan sources.
Minerva (Etruscan: Menrfa, or Menrva)
was the Roman goddess whom Hellenizing Romans from the second century
BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin
goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic,
and the inventor of music. She is often depicted with an owl, her sacred
creature and is, through this connection, a symbol of wisdom.
This
article focuses on Minerva in ancient Rome and in cultic practice. For
information on Latin literary mythological accounts of Minerva, which
were heavily influenced by Greek mythology, see Pallas Athena, where she
is one of three virgin goddesses along with Artemis and Hestia, known
by the Romans as Diana and Vesta.
Etruscan Menrva
The
name "Minerva" is imported from the Etruscans who called her Menrva.
Extrapolating from her Roman nature, it is assumed that in Etruscan
mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and
commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena. Like Athena,
Minerva was born from the head of her father, Jupiter (Greek Zeus).
By a process of folk etymology, the Romans could have confused the phones of her foreign name with those of the root men- in Latin words such as mens meaning "mind", perhaps because one of her aspects as goddess pertained to the intellectual. The word mens has the Proto-Indo-European mn- stem, linked with memory as in Greek Mnemosyne (μνημοσύνη) and mnestis (μνῆστις: memory, remembrance, recollection).
Worship in Rome
Menrva
was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman
Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of
Jupiter.
As Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors. As Minerva Achaea, she was worshipped at Luceria in Apulia where votive gifts and arms said to be those of Diomedes were preserved in her temple.
In Fasti III, Ovid called her the "goddess of a thousand works."
Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, though only in Rome did she
take on the warlike character shared by Athena. Her worship was also
taken out to the empire - in Britain, for example, she was conflated
with the local wisdom goddess Sulis.
The Romans celebrated her
festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in
the neuter plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March, the
nineteenth, an artisans' holiday . A lesser version, the Minusculae
Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the
flute-players, who were particularly useful to religion. In 207 BC, a
guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings
at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine hill. Among others, its members
included Livius Andronicus. The Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued
to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman
Republic.
Minerva was worshipped on the Capitoline Hill as one of
the Capitoline Triad along with Jupiter and Juno, at the Temple of
Minerva Medica, and at the "Delubrum Minervae" a temple founded around
50 BC by Pompey on the site now occupied by the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva facing the present-day Piazza della Minerva.
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (1 August 10 BC - 13 October AD 54) (Tiberius Claudius Drusus from birth to AD 4, then Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus
from then until his accession) was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member
of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 24 January AD 41 to his death
in AD 54. Born in Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France), to Drusus
and Antonia Minor, he was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside
Italia.
He was reportedly afflicted with some type
of disability, and his family had virtually excluded him from public
office until his consulship with his nephew Caligula in AD 37. This
infirmity may have saved him from the fate of many other Roman nobles
during the purges of Tiberius' and Caligula's reigns; potential enemies
did not see him as a serious threat to them. His very survival led to
his being declared emperor (reportedly because the Praetorian Guard
insisted) after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last
adult male of his family.
Despite his lack of
political experience, Claudius proved to be an able administrator and a
great builder of public works. His reign saw an expansion of the empire,
including the conquest of Britain. He took a personal interest in the
law, presided at public trials, and issued up to 20 edicts a day;
however, he was seen as vulnerable throughout his rule, particularly by
the nobility. Claudius was constantly forced to shore up his position.
This resulted in the deaths of many senators. Claudius also suffered
setbacks in his personal life, one of which may have led to his murder.
These events damaged his reputation among the ancient writers, though
more recent historians have revised this opinion.
Family and early life
Claudius
was born on 1 August 10 BC, in Lugdunum, Gaul, on the day of the
dedication of an altar to Augustus. His parents were Nero Claudius
Drusus and Antonia, and he had two older siblings named Germanicus and
Livilla. Antonia may have had two other children who died young, as
well.
His maternal grandparents were Mark Antony
and Octavia Minor, Caesar Augustus' sister, and as such he was the
great-great grandnephew of Gaius Julius Caesar. His paternal
grandparents were Livia, Augustus' third wife, and Tiberius Claudius
Nero. During his reign, Claudius revived the rumor that his father
Drusus was actually the illegitimate son of Augustus, to give the false
appearance that Augustus was Claudius' paternal grandfather.
In
9 BC, Drusus unexpectedly died on campaign in Germania, possibly from
illness. Claudius was then left to be raised by his mother, who never
remarried. When Claudius' disability became evident, the relationship
with his family turned sour. Antonia referred to him as a monster, and
used him as a standard for stupidity. She seems to have passed her son
off on his grandmother Livia for a number of years. Livia was little
kinder, and often sent him short, angry letters of reproof. He was put
under the care of a "former mule-driver" to keep him disciplined, under
the logic that his condition was due to laziness and a lack of
will-power. However, by the time he reached his teenage years his
symptoms apparently waned and his family took some notice of his
scholarly interests. In AD 7, Livy was hired to tutor him in history,
with the assistance of Sulpicius Flavus. He spent a lot of his time with
the latter and the philosopher Athenodorus. Augustus, according to a
letter, was surprised at the clarity of Claudius' oratory. Expectations
about his future began to increase.
Ironically, it
was his work as a budding historian that destroyed his early career.
According to Vincent Scramuzza and others, Claudius began work on a
history of the Civil Wars that was either too truthful or too critical
of Octavian. In either case, it was far too early for such an account,
and may have only served to remind Augustus that Claudius was Antony's
descendant. His mother and grandmother quickly put a stop to it, and
this may have proved to them that Claudius was not fit for public
office. He could not be trusted to toe the existing party line. When he
returned to the narrative later in life, Claudius skipped over the wars
of the second triumvirate altogether. But the damage was done, and his
family pushed him to the background. When the Arch of Pavia was erected
to honor the imperial clan in AD 8, Claudius' name (now Tiberius
Claudius Nero Germanicus after his elevation to paterfamilias of Claudii
Nerones on the adoption of his brother) was inscribed on the edge-past
the deceased princes, Gaius and Lucius, and Germanicus' children. There
is some speculation that the inscription was added by Claudius himself
decades later, and that he originally did not appear at all.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/A_Roman_Emperor_AD41_detail.jpg/250px-A_Roman_Emperor_AD41_detail.jpg)
Gratus proclaims Claudius emperor. Detail from A Roman Emperor 41AD, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Oil on canvas, c. 1871.
When Augustus died in AD 14, Claudius - then 23 - appealed to his uncle Tiberius to allow him to begin the cursus honorum.
Tiberius, the new emperor, responded by granting Claudius consular
ornaments. Claudius requested office once more and was snubbed. Since
the new emperor was not any more generous than the old, Claudius gave up
hope of public office and retired to a scholarly, private life.
Despite
the disdain of the imperial family, it seems that from very early on
the general public respected Claudius. At Augustus' death, the equites,
or knights, chose Claudius to head their delegation. When his house
burned down, the Senate demanded it be rebuilt at public expense. They
also requested that Claudius be allowed to debate in the senate.
Tiberius turned down both motions, but the sentiment remained. During
the period immediately after the death of Tiberius' son, Drusus,
Claudius was pushed by some quarters as a potential heir. This again
suggests the political nature of his exclusion from public life.
However, as this was also the period during which the power and terror
of the Praetorian Sejanus was at its peak, Claudius chose to downplay
this possibility.
After the death of Tiberius the
new emperor Caligula (the son of Claudius' brother Germanicus)
recognized Claudius to be of some use. He appointed Claudius his
co-consul in AD 37 in order to emphasize the memory of Caligula's
deceased father Germanicus. Despite this, Caligula relentlessly
tormented his uncle: playing practical jokes, charging him enormous sums
of money, humiliating him before the Senate, and the like. According to
Cassius Dio, as well a possible surviving portrait, Claudius became
very sickly and thin by the end of Caligula's reign, most likely due to
stress.
Reign
Accession as emperor
On
24 January, AD 41, Caligula was assassinated by a broad-based
conspiracy (including Praetorian commander Cassius Chaerea and several
Senators). There is no evidence that Claudius had a direct hand in the
assassination, although it has been argued that he knew about the plot -
particularly since he left the scene of the crime shortly before his
nephew was murdered. However, after the deaths of Caligula's wife and
daughter, it became apparent that Cassius intended to go beyond the
terms of the conspiracy and wipe out the imperial family. In the chaos
following the murder, Claudius witnessed the German guard cut down
several uninvolved noblemen, including many of his friends. He fled to
the palace to hide. According to tradition, a Praetorian named Gratus
found him hiding behind a curtain and suddenly declared him princeps. A
section of the guard may have planned in advance to seek out Claudius,
perhaps with his approval. They reassured him that they were not one of
the battalions looking for revenge. He was spirited away to the
Praetorian camp and put under their protection.
The
Senate quickly met and began debating a change of government, but this
eventually devolved into an argument over which of them would be the new
Princeps. When they heard of the Praetorians' claim, they demanded that
Claudius be delivered to them for approval, but he refused, sensing the
danger that would come with complying. Some historians, particularly
Josephus, claim that Claudius was directed in his actions by the Judean
King Herod Agrippa. However, an earlier version of events by the same
ancient author downplays Agrippa's role - so it is not known how large a
hand he had in things. Eventually the Senate was forced to give in and,
in return, Claudius pardoned nearly all the assassins.
Claudius
took several steps to legitimize his rule against potential usurpers,
most of them emphasizing his place within the Julio-Claudian family. He
adopted the name "Caesar" as a cognomen - the name still carried great
weight with the populace. In order to do so, he dropped the cognomen
"Nero" which he had adopted as paterfamilias of the Claudii Nerones when
his brother Germanicus was adopted out. While he had never been adopted
by Augustus or his successors, he was the grandson of Octavia, and so
felt he had the right. He also adopted the name "Augustus" as the two
previous emperors had done at their accessions. He kept the honorific
"Germanicus" in order to display the connection with his heroic brother.
He deified his paternal grandmother Livia in order to highlight her
position as wife of the divine Augustus. Claudius frequently used the
term "filius Drusi" (son of Drusus) in his titles, in order to remind
the people of his legendary father and lay claim to his reputation.
Because
he was proclaimed emperor on the initiative of the Praetorian Guard
instead of the Senate - the first emperor thus proclaimed - Claudius'
repute suffered at the hands of commentators (such as Seneca). Moreover,
he was the first Emperor who resorted to bribery as a means to secure
army loyalty. Tiberius and Augustus had both left gifts to the army and
guard in their wills, and upon Caligula's death the same would have been
expected, even if no will existed. Claudius remained grateful to the
guard, however, issuing coins with tributes to the praetorians in the
early part of his reign.
Expansion of the empire
Under
Claudius, the empire underwent its first major expansion since the
reign of Augustus. The provinces of Thrace, Noricum, Pamphylia, Lycia,
and Judea were annexed under various circumstances during his term. The
annexation of Mauretania, begun under Caligula, was completed after the
defeat of rebel forces, and the official division of the former client
kingdom into two imperial provinces. The most important new expansion
was the conquest of Britannia.
In AD 43, Claudius sent Aulus Plautius with four legions to Britain (Britannia)
after an appeal from an ousted tribal ally. Britain was an attractive
target for Rome because of its material wealth - particularly mines and
slaves. It was also a haven for Gallic rebels and the like, and so could
not be left alone much longer. Claudius himself traveled to the island
after the completion of initial offensives, bringing with him
reinforcements and elephants. The latter must have made an impression on
the Britons when they were used in the capture of Camulodunum. He left
after 16 days, but remained in the provinces for some time. The Senate
granted him a triumph for his efforts, as only members of the imperial
family were allowed such honors. Claudius later lifted this restriction
for some of his conquering generals. He was granted the honorific
"Britannicus" but only accepted it on behalf of his son, never using the
title himself. When the British general Caractacus was captured in AD
50, Claudius granted him clemency. Caractacus lived out his days on land
provided by the Roman state, an unusual end for an enemy commander.
Claudius
conducted a census in AD 48 that found 5,984,072 Roman citizens, an
increase of around a million since the census conducted at Augustus'
death. He had helped increase this number through the foundation of
Roman colonies that were granted blanket citizenship. These colonies
were often made out of existing communities, especially those with
elites who could rally the populace to the Roman cause. Several colonies
were placed in new provinces or on the border of the empire in order to
secure Roman holdings as quickly as possible.
Judicial and legislative affairs
Claudius
personally judged many of the legal cases tried during his reign.
Ancient historians have many complaints about this, stating that his
judgments were variable and sometimes did not follow the law. He was
also easily swayed. Nevertheless, Claudius paid detailed attention to
the operation of the judicial system. He extended the summer court
session, as well as the winter term, by shortening the traditional
breaks. Claudius also made a law requiring plaintiffs to remain in the
city while their cases were pending, as defendants had previously been
required to do. These measures had the effect of clearing out the
docket. The minimum age for jurors was also raised to 25 in order to
ensure a more experienced jury pool.
Claudius also
settled disputes in the provinces. He freed the island of Rhodes from
Roman rule for their good faith and exempted Troy from taxes. Early in
his reign, the Greeks and Jews of Alexandria sent him two embassies at
once after riots broke out between the two communities. This resulted in
the famous "Letter to the Alexandrians", which reaffirmed Jewish rights
in the city but also forbade them to move in more families en masse.
According to Josephus, he then reaffirmed the rights and freedoms of all
the Jews in the empire. An investigator of Claudius' discovered that
many old Roman citizens based in the modern city of Trento were not in
fact citizens. The emperor issued a declaration that they would be
considered to hold citizenship from then on, since to strip them of
their status would cause major problems. However, in individual cases,
Claudius punished false assumption of citizenship harshly, making it a
capital offense. Similarly, any freedmen found to be impersonating
equestrians were sold back into slavery.
Numerous
edicts were issued throughout Claudius' reign. These were on a number of
topics, everything from medical advice to moral judgments. Two famous
medical examples are one promoting Yew juice as a cure for snakebite,
and another promoting public flatulence for good health. One of the more
famous edicts concerned the status of sick slaves. Masters had been
abandoning ailing slaves at the temple of Aesculapius to die, and then
reclaiming them if they lived. Claudius ruled that slaves who recovered
after such treatment would be free. Furthermore, masters who chose to
kill slaves rather than take the risk were liable to be charged with
murder.
Public works
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Porta_Maggiore_030106.JPG/280px-Porta_Maggiore_030106.JPG)
The Porta Maggiore in Rome
Claudius
embarked on many public works throughout his reign, both in the capital
and in the provinces. He built two aqueducts, the Aqua Claudia, begun
by Caligula, and the Anio Novus. These entered the city in AD 52 and met
at the famous Porta Maggiore. He also restored a third, the Aqua Virgo.
He
paid special attention to transportation. Throughout Italy and the
provinces he built roads and canals. Among these was a large canal
leading from the Rhine to the sea, as well as a road from Italy to
Germany - both begun by his father, Drusus. Closer to Rome, he built a
navigable canal on the Tiber, leading to Portus, his new port just north
of Ostia. This port was constructed in a semicircle with two moles and a
lighthouse at its mouth. The construction also had the effect of
reducing flooding in Rome.
The port at Ostia was
part of Claudius' solution to the constant grain shortages that occurred
in winter, after the Roman shipping season. The other part of his
solution was to insure the ships of grain merchants who were willing to
risk traveling to Egypt in the off-season. He also granted their sailors
special privileges, including citizenship and exemption from the Lex
Papia-Poppaea, a law that regulated marriage. In addition, he repealed
the taxes that Caligula had instituted on food, and further reduced
taxes on communities suffering drought or famine.
The
last part of Claudius' plan was to increase the amount of arable land
in Italy. This was to be achieved by draining the Fucine lake, which
would have the added benefit of making the nearby river navigable
year-round. A tunnel was dug through the lake bed, but the plan was a
failure. The tunnel was crooked and not large enough to carry the water,
which caused it to back up when opened. The resultant flood washed out a
large gladiatorial exhibition held to commemorate the opening, causing
Claudius to run for his life along with the other spectators. The
draining of the lake was revisited many times in history, including by
emperors Trajan and Hadrian, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the
Middle Ages. It was finally achieved by the Prince Torlonia in the 19th
century, producing over 160,000 acres (650 km2) of new arable land. He expanded the Claudian tunnel to three times its original size.
Claudius and the Senate
Because
of the circumstances of his accession, Claudius took great pains to
please the Senate. During regular sessions, the emperor sat among the
Senate body, speaking in turn. When introducing a law, he sat on a bench
between the consuls in his position as Holder of the Power of Tribune
(The emperor could not officially serve as a Tribune of the Plebes as he
was a Patrician, but it was a power taken by previous rulers). He
refused to accept all his predecessors' titles (including Imperator) at
the beginning of his reign, preferring to earn them in due course. He
allowed the Senate to issue its own bronze coinage for the first time
since Augustus. He also put the imperial provinces of Macedonia and
Achaea back under Senate control.
Claudius set
about remodeling the Senate into a more efficient, representative body.
He chided the senators about their reluctance to debate bills introduced
by himself, as noted in the fragments of a surviving speech:
If
you accept these proposals, Conscript Fathers, say so at once and
simply, in accordance with your convictions. If you do not accept them,
find alternatives, but do so here and now; or if you wish to take time
for consideration, take it, provided you do not forget that you must be
ready to pronounce your opinion whenever you may be summoned to meet. It
ill befits the dignity of the Senate that the consul designate should
repeat the phrases of the consuls word for word as his opinion, and that
every one else should merely say 'I approve', and that then, after
leaving, the assembly should announce 'We debated'.
In AD 47 he assumed the office of Censor
with Lucius Vitellius, which had been allowed to lapse for some time.
He struck the names of many senators and equites who no longer met
qualifications, but showed respect by allowing them to resign in
advance. At the same time, he sought to admit eligible men from the
provinces. The Lyons Tablet preserves his speech on the admittance of
Gallic senators, in which he addresses the Senate with reverence but
also with criticism for their disdain of these men. He also increased
the number of Patricians by adding new families to the dwindling number
of noble lines. Here he followed the precedent of Lucius Junius Brutus
and Julius Caesar.
Nevertheless, many in the
Senate remained hostile to Claudius, and many plots were made on his
life. This hostility carried over into the historical accounts. As a
result, Claudius was forced to reduce the Senate's power for efficiency.
The administration of Ostia was turned over to an imperial Procurator
after construction of the port. Administration of many of the empire's
financial concerns was turned over to imperial appointees and freedmen.
This led to further resentment and suggestions that these same freedmen
were ruling the emperor.
Several coup attempts
were made during Claudius' reign, resulting in the deaths of many
senators. Appius Silanus was executed early in Claudius' reign under
questionable circumstances. Shortly after, a large rebellion was
undertaken by the Senator Vinicianus and Scribonianus, the governor of
Dalmatia and gained quite a few senatorial supporters. It ultimately
failed because of the reluctance of Scribonianus' troops, and the
suicide of the main conspirators. Many other senators tried different
conspiracies and were condemned. Claudius' son-in-law Pompeius Magnus
was executed for his part in a conspiracy with his father Crassus Frugi.
Another plot involved the consulars Lusiius Saturninus, Cornelius
Lupus, and Pompeius Pedo. In AD 46, Asinius Gallus, the grandson of
Asinius Pollio, and Statilius Corvinus were exiled for a plot hatched
with several of Claudius' own freedmen. Valerius Asiaticus was executed
without public trial for unknown reasons. The ancient sources say the
charge was adultery, and that Claudius was tricked into issuing the
punishment. However, Claudius singles out Asiaticus for special
damnation in his speech on the Gauls, which dates over a year later,
suggesting that the charge must have been much more serious. Asiaticus
had been a claimant to the throne in the chaos following Caligula's
death and a co-consul with the Statilius Corvinus mentioned above. Most
of these conspiracies took place before Claudius' term as Censor, and
may have induced him to review the Senatorial rolls. The conspiracy of
Gaius Silius in the year after his Censorship, AD 48, is detailed in the
section discussing Claudius' third wife, Messalina. Suetonius states
that a total of 35 senators and 300 knights were executed for offenses
during Claudius' reign. Needless to say, the necessary responses to
these conspiracies could not have helped Senate-emperor relations.
The Secretariat and centralization of powers
Claudius
was hardly the first emperor to use freedmen to help with the
day-to-day running of the empire. He was, however, forced to increase
their role as the powers of the Princeps became more centralized and the
burden larger. This was partly due to the ongoing hostility of the
senate, as mentioned above, but also due to his respect for the
senators. Claudius did not want free-born magistrates to have to serve
under him, as if they were not peers.
The
secretariat was divided into bureaus, with each being placed under the
leadership of one freedman. Narcissus was the secretary of
correspondence. Pallas became the secretary of the treasury. Callistus
became secretary of justice. There was a fourth bureau for miscellaneous
issues, which was put under Polybius until his execution for treason.
The freedmen could also officially speak for the emperor, as when
Narcissus addressed the troops in Claudius' stead before the conquest of
Britain. Since these were important positions, the senators were aghast
at their being placed in the hands of former slaves. If freedmen had
total control of money, letters, and law, it seemed it would not be hard
for them to manipulate the emperor. This is exactly the accusation put
forth by the ancient sources. However, these same sources admit that the
freedmen were loyal to Claudius. He was similarly appreciative of them
and gave them due credit for policies where he had used their advice.
However, if they showed treasonous inclinations, the emperor did punish
them with just force, as in the case of Polybius and Pallas' brother,
Felix. There is no evidence that the character of Claudius' policies and
edicts changed with the rise and fall of the various freedmen,
suggesting that he was firmly in control throughout.
Regardless
of the extent of their political power, the freedmen did manage to
amass wealth through their positions. Pliny the Elder notes that several
of them were richer than Crassus, the richest man of the Republican
era.
Religious reforms
Claudius,
as the author of a treatise on Augustus' religious reforms, felt
himself in a good position to institute some of his own. He had strong
opinions about the proper form for state religion. He refused the
request of Alexandrian Greeks to dedicate a temple to his divinity,
saying that only gods may choose new gods. He restored lost days to
festivals and got rid of many extraneous celebrations added by Caligula.
He reinstituted old observances and archaic language. Claudius was
concerned with the spread of eastern mysteries within the city and
searched for more Roman replacements. He emphasized the Eleusinian
mysteries which had been practiced by so many during the Republic. He
expelled foreign astrologers, and at the same time rehabilitated the old
Roman soothsayers (known as haruspices) as a replacement. He was
especially hard on Druidism, because of its incompatibility with the
Roman state religion and its proselytizing activities. It is also
reported that at one time he expelled the Jews from Rome, probably
because the appearance of Christianity had caused unrest within the
Jewish community. Claudius opposed proselytizing in any religion, even
in those regions where he allowed natives to worship freely. The results
of all these efforts were recognized even by Seneca, who has an ancient
Latin god defend Claudius in his satire.
Public games and entertainments
According
to Suetonius, Claudius was extraordinarily fond of games. He is said to
have risen with the crowd after gladiatorial matches and given
unrestrained praise to the fighters . Claudius also presided over many
new and original events. Soon after coming into power, Claudius
instituted games to be held in honor of his father on the latter's
birthday.. Annual games were also held in honor of his accession, and
took place at the Praetorian camp where Claudius had first been
proclaimed emperor.. Claudius performed the Secular games, marking the
800th anniversary of the founding of Rome. Augustus had performed the
same games less than a century prior. Augustus' excuse was that the
interval for the games was 110 years, not 100, but his date actually did
not qualify under either reasoning. Claudius also presented naval
battles to mark the attempted draining of the Fucine lake, as well as
many other public games and shows.
At Ostia, in
front of a crowd of spectators, Claudius fought a killer whale which was
trapped in the harbor. The event was witnessed by Pliny the Elder:
A
killer whale was actually seen in the harbor of Ostia, locked in combat
with the emperor Claudius. She had come when he was completing the
construction of the harbor, drawn there by the wreck of a ship bringing
leather hides from Gaul, and feeding there over a number of days, had
made a furrow in the shallows: the waves had raised up such a mound of
sand that she couldn't turn around at all, and while she was pursuing
her banquet as the waves moved it shorewards, her back stuck up out of
the water like the overturned keel of a boat. The emperor ordered that a
large array of nets be stretched across the mouths of the harbor, and
setting out in person with the Praetorian cohorts gave a show to the
Roman people, soldiers showering lances from attacking ships, one of
which I saw swamped by the beast's waterspout and sunk. - "Historia Naturalis" IX.14-15.
Claudius
also restored and adorned many of the venues around Rome. The old
wooden barriers of the Circus Maximus were replaced with ones made of
gold-ornamented marble. A new section of the Circus was designated for
seating the senators, who previously had sat among the general public.
Claudius rebuilt Pompey's Theater after it had been destroyed by fire,
throwing special fights at the rededication which he observed from a
special platform in the orchestra box.
Death, deification, and reputation
The
general consensus of ancient historians was that Claudius was murdered
by poison - possibly contained in mushrooms or on a feather - and died
in the early hours of 13 October, AD 54. Accounts vary greatly. Some
claim Claudius was in Rome while others claim he was in Sinuessa. Some
implicate either Halotus, his taster, Xenophon, his doctor, or the
infamous poisoner Locusta as the administrator of the fatal substance.
Some say he died after prolonged suffering following a single dose at
dinner, and some have him recovering only to be poisoned again. Nearly
all implicate his final wife, Agrippina, as the instigator. Agrippina
and Claudius had become more combative in the months leading up to his
death. This carried on to the point where Claudius openly lamented his
bad wives, and began to comment on Britannicus' approaching manhood with
an eye towards restoring his status within the imperial family.
Agrippina had motive in ensuring the succession of Nero before
Britannicus could gain power.
In modern times,
some authors have cast doubt on whether Claudius was murdered or merely
succumbed to illness or old age. Some modern scholars claim the
universality of the accusations in ancient texts lends credence to the
crime. History in those days could not be objectively collected or
written, so sometimes amounted to committing whispered gossip to
parchment, often years after the events, when the writer was no longer
in danger of arrest. Claudius' ashes were interred in the Mausoleum of
Augustus on 24 October, after a funeral in the manner of Augustus.
Claudius
was deified by Nero and the Senate almost immediately. Those who regard
this homage as cynical should note that, cynical or not, such a move
would hardly have benefited those involved, had Claudius been "hated",
as some commentators, both modern and historic, characterize him. Many
of Claudius' less solid supporters quickly became Nero's men. Claudius'
will had been changed shortly before his death to either recommend Nero
and Britannicus jointly or perhaps just Britannicus, who would have been
considered an adult man according to Roman law only in a few months.
Agrippina
had sent away Narcissus shortly before Claudius' death, and now
murdered the freedman. The last act of this secretary of letters was to
burn all of Claudius' correspondence-most likely so it could not be used
against him and others in an already hostile new regime. Thus Claudius'
private words about his own policies and motives were lost to history.
Just as Claudius has criticized his predecessors in official edicts (see
below), Nero often criticized the deceased emperor and many of
Claudius' laws and edicts were disregarded under the reasoning that he
was too stupid and senile to have meant them. This opinion of Claudius,
that he was indeed an old idiot, remained the official one for the
duration of Nero's reign. Eventually Nero stopped referring to his
deified adoptive father at all, and realigned with his birth family.
Claudius' temple was left unfinished after only some of the foundation
had been laid down. Eventually the site was overtaken by Nero's Golden
House.
The Flavians, who had risen to prominence
under Claudius, took a different tack. They were in a position where
they needed to shore up their legitimacy, but also justify the fall of
the Julio-Claudians. They reached back to Claudius in contrast with
Nero, to show that they were good associated with good. Commemorative
coins were issued of Claudius and his son Britannicus-who had been a
friend of the emperor Titus. When Nero's Golden House was burned, the
Temple of Claudius was finally completed on Caelian Hill. However, as
the Flavians became established, they needed to emphasize their own
credentials more, and their references to Claudius ceased. Instead, he
was put down with the other emperors of the fallen dynasty.
The
main ancient historians Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio all wrote
after the last of the Flavians had gone. All three were senators or equites.
They took the side of the Senate in most conflicts with the princeps,
invariably viewing him as being in the wrong. This resulted in biases,
both conscious and unconscious. Suetonius lost access to the official
archives shortly after beginning his work. He was forced to rely on
second-hand accounts when it came to Claudius (with the exception of
Augustus' letters which had been gathered earlier) and does not quote
the emperor. Suetonius painted Claudius as a ridiculous figure,
belittling many of his acts and attributing the objectively good works
to his retinue. Tacitus wrote a narrative for his fellow senators and
fitted each of the emperors into a simple mold of his choosing. He wrote
Claudius as a passive pawn and an idiot-going so far as to hide his use
of Claudius as a source and omit Claudius' character from his works.
Even his version of Claudius' Lyons tablet speech is edited to be devoid
of the emperor's personality. Dio was less biased, but seems to have
used Suetonius and Tacitus as sources. Thus the conception of Claudius
as the weak fool, controlled by those he supposedly ruled, was preserved
for the ages.
As time passed, Claudius was mostly
forgotten outside of the historians' accounts. His books were lost
first, as their antiquarian subjects became unfashionable. In the second
century, Pertinax, who shared his birthday, became emperor,
overshadowing commemoration of Claudius.
Marriages and personal life
Claudius'
love life was unusual for an upper-class Roman of his day. As Edward
Gibbon mentions, of the first fifteen emperors, "Claudius was the only
one whose taste in love was entirely correct"-the implication being that
he was the only one not to take men or boys as lovers. Gibbon based
this on Suetonius' factual statement that "He had a great passion for
women, but had no interest in men." Suetonius and the other ancient
authors used this against Claudius. They accused him of being dominated
by these same women and wives, of being uxorious, and of being a
womanizer.
Claudius married four times. His first
marriage, to Plautia Urgulanilla, occurred after two failed betrothals
(The first was to his distant cousin Aemilia Lepida, but was broken for
political reasons. The second was to Livia Medullina, which ended with
the bride's sudden death on their wedding day). Urgulanilla was a
relation of Livia's confidant Urgulania. During their marriage she gave
birth to a son, Claudius Drusus. Unfortunately, Drusus died of
asphyxiation in his early teens, shortly after becoming engaged to the
daughter of Sejanus. Claudius later divorced Urgulanilla for adultery
and on suspicion of murdering her sister-in-law Apronia. When
Urgulanilla gave birth after the divorce, Claudius repudiated the baby
girl, Claudia, as the father was one of his own freedmen. Soon after
(possibly in AD 28), Claudius married Aelia Paetina, a relation of
Sejanus. They had a daughter, Claudia Antonia. He later divorced her
after the marriage became a political liability (although Leon (1948)
suggests it may have been due to emotional and mental abuse by Aelia).
In
AD 38 or early 39, Claudius married Valeria Messalina, who was his
first cousin once removed and closely allied with Caligula's circle.
Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to a daughter Claudia Octavia. A son,
first named Tiberius Claudius Germanicus, and later known as
Britannicus, was born just after Claudius' accession. This marriage
ended in tragedy. The ancient historians allege that Messalina was a
nymphomaniac who was regularly unfaithful to Claudius - Tacitus states
she went so far as to compete with a prostitute to see who could have
the most sexual partners in a night - and manipulated his policies in
order to amass wealth. In AD 48, Messalina married her lover Gaius
Silius in a public ceremony while Claudius was at Ostia. Sources
disagree as to whether or not she divorced the emperor first, and
whether the intention was to usurp the throne. Scramuzza, in his
biography, suggests that Silius may have convinced Messalina that
Claudius was doomed, and the union was her only hope of retaining rank
and protecting her children. The historian Tacitus suggests that
Claudius's ongoing term as Censor may have prevented him from noticing
the affair before it reached such a critical point. Whatever the case,
the result was the execution of Silius, Messalina, and most of her
circle. Claudius made the Praetorians promise to kill him if he ever
married again.
Despite this declaration, Claudius
did marry once more. The ancient sources tell that his freedmen pushed
three candidates, Caligula's former wife Lollia Paulina, Claudius's
divorced second wife Aelia, and Claudius's niece Agrippina the younger.
According to Suetonius, Agrippina won out through her feminine wiles.
The truth is likely more political. The coup attempt by Silius probably
made Claudius realize the weakness of his position as a member of the
Claudian but not the Julian family. This weakness was compounded by the
fact that he did not have an obvious adult heir, Britannicus being just a
boy. Agrippina was one of the few remaining descendants of Augustus,
and her son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (later known as Nero) was one of
the last males of the imperial family. Future coup attempts could rally
around the pair, and Agrippina was already showing such ambition. It
has been suggested in recent times that the Senate may have pushed for
the marriage to end the feud between the Julian and Claudian branches.
This feud dated back to Agrippina's mother's actions against Tiberius
after the death of her husband Germanicus, actions which Tiberius had
gladly punished. In any case, Claudius accepted Agrippina, and later
adopted the newly mature Nero as his son.
Nero was
made joint heir with the underage Britannicus, married to Octavia and
heavily promoted. This was not as unusual as it seems to people
acquainted with modern hereditary monarchies. Barbara Levick notes that
Augustus had named his grandson Postumus Agrippa and his stepson
Tiberius joint heirs. Tiberius named his great-nephew Caligula joint
heir with his grandson Tiberius Gemellus. Adoption of adults or near
adults was an old tradition in Rome when a suitable natural adult heir
was unavailable. This was the case during Britannicus' minority. S.V.
Oost suggests that Claudius had previously looked to adopt one of his
sons-in-law to protect his own reign. Faustus Sulla, married to his
daughter Antonia, was only descended from Octavia and Antony on one side
- not close enough to the imperial family to prevent doubts (that
didn't stop others from making him the object of a coup attempt against
Nero a few years later). Besides which, he was the half brother of
Messalina, and at this time those wounds were still fresh. Nero was more
popular with the general public as the grandson of Germanicus and the
direct descendant of Augustus.
Claudius' affliction and personality
The
historian Suetonius describes the physical manifestations of Claudius'
affliction in relatively good detail. His knees were weak and gave way
under him and his head shook. He stammered and his speech was confused.
He slobbered and his nose ran when he was excited. The Stoic Seneca
states in his Apocolocyntosis that Claudius' voice belonged to no
land animal, and that his hands were weak as well; however, he showed
no physical deformity, as Suetonius notes that when calm and seated he
was a tall, well-built figure of dignitas. When angered or
stressed, his symptoms became worse. Historians agree that this
condition improved upon his accession to the throne. Claudius himself
claimed that he had exaggerated his ailments to save his own life.
The
modern diagnosis has changed several times in the past century. Prior
to World War II, infantile paralysis (or polio) was widely accepted as
the cause. This is the diagnosis used in Robert Graves' Claudius novels,
first published in the 1930s. Polio does not explain many of the
described symptoms, however, and a more recent theory implicates
cerebral palsy as the cause, as outlined by Ernestine Leon. Tourette
syndrome is also a likely candidate for Claudius' symptoms. As a person,
ancient historians described Claudius as generous and lowbrow, a man
who sometimes lunched with the plebeians. They also paint him as
bloodthirsty and cruel, overly fond of both gladiatorial combat and
executions, and very quick to anger (though Claudius himself
acknowledged the latter trait, and apologized publicly for his temper).
To them he was also overly trusting, and easily manipulated by his wives
and freedmen. But at the same time they portray him as paranoid and
apathetic, dull and easily confused. The extant works of Claudius
present a different view, painting a picture of an intelligent,
scholarly, well-read, and conscientious administrator with an eye to
detail and justice. Thus, Claudius becomes an enigma. Since the
discovery of his "Letter to the Alexandrians" in the last century, much
work has been done to rehabilitate Claudius and determine where the
truth lies.
Scholarly works and their impact
Claudius
wrote copiously throughout his life. Arnaldo Momigliano states that
during the reign of Tiberius - which covers the peak of Claudius'
literary career - it became impolitic to speak of republican Rome. The
trend among the young historians was to either write about the new
empire or obscure antiquarian subjects. Claudius was the rare scholar
who covered both. Besides the history of Augustus' reign that caused him
so much grief, his major works included an Etruscan history and eight
volumes on Carthaginian history, as well as an Etruscan Dictionary and a
book on dice playing. Despite the general avoidance of the imperatorial
era, he penned a defense of Cicero against the charges of Asinius
Gallus. Modern historians have used this to determine both the nature of
his politics and of the aborted chapters of his civil war history. He
proposed a reform of the Latin alphabet by the addition of three new
letters, two of which served the function of the modern letters W and Y.
He officially instituted the change during his censorship, but they did
not survive his reign. Claudius also tried to revive the old custom of
putting dots between different words (Classical Latin was written with
no spacing). Finally, he wrote an eight-volume autobiography that
Suetonius describes as lacking in taste. Since Claudius (like most of
the members of his dynasty) heavily criticized his predecessors and
relatives in surviving speeches, it is not hard to imagine the nature of
Suetonius' charge.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Claudian_letters.svg/180px-Claudian_letters.svg.png)
The Claudian letters
Unfortunately,
none of the actual works survive. They do live on as sources for the
surviving histories of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Suetonius quotes
Claudius' autobiography once, and must have used it as a source numerous
times. Tacitus uses Claudius' own arguments for the orthographical
innovations mentioned above, and may have used him for some of the more
antiquarian passages in his annals. Claudius is the source for numerous
passages of Pliny's Natural History.
The
influence of historical study on Claudius is obvious. In his speech on
Gallic senators, he uses a version of the founding of Rome identical to
that of Livy, his tutor in adolescence. The detail of his speech borders
on the pedantic, a common mark of all his extant works, and he goes
into long digressions on related matters. This indicates a deep
knowledge of a variety of historical subjects that he could not help but
share. Many of the public works instituted in his reign were based on
plans first suggested by Julius Caesar. Levick believes this emulation
of Caesar may have spread to all aspects of his policies. His censorship
seems to have been based on those of his ancestors, particularly Appius
Claudius Caecus, and he used the office to put into place many policies
based on those of Republican times. This is when many of his religious
reforms took effect and his building efforts greatly increased during
his tenure. In fact, his assumption of the office of Censor may have
been motivated by a desire to see his academic labors bear fruit. For
example, he believed (as most Romans) that his ancestor Appius Claudius
Caecus had used the censorship to introduce the letter "R" and so used
his own term to introduce his new letters.
In literature and film
Probably the most famous fictional representation of the Emperor Claudius were the books I, Claudius and Claudius the God
(released in 1934 and 1935) by Robert Graves, both written in the
first-person to give the reader the impression that they are Claudius'
autobiography. Graves employed a fictive artifice to suggest that they
were recently discovered, genuine translations of Claudius' writings.
Claudius' extant letters, speeches, and sayings were incorporated into
the text (mostly in the second book, Claudius the God) in order to add authenticity.
In 1937 director Josef von Sternberg made an unsuccessful attempt to film I, Claudius,
with Charles Laughton as Claudius. Unfortunately, the lead actress
Merle Oberon suffered a near-fatal accident and the movie was never
finished. The surviving reels were finally shown in the documentary The Epic That Never Was
in 1965, revealing some of Laughton's most accomplished acting. The
motion picture rights have been obtained by Scott Rudin, with a
theatrical release planned for 2010.
Graves's two
books were also the basis for a thirteen-part British television
adaptation produced by the BBC. The series starred Derek Jacobi as
Claudius and Patrick Stewart as Sejanus, and was broadcast in 1976 on
BBC2. It was a substantial critical success, and won several BAFTA
awards. The series was later broadcast in the United States on Masterpiece Theatre in 1977. The DVD release of the television series contains the "The Epic that Never Was" documentary.
Claudius has been portrayed in film on several other occasions, including in the 1979 motion picture Caligula,
the role being performed by Giancarlo Badessi in which the character
was depicted as an idiot, in complete contrast to Robert Graves'
portrait of Claudius as a cunning and deeply intelligent man. In the
parody Gore Vidal's Caligula, which advertises itself as a remake of the original film, Claudius is portrayed by Glenn Shadix.
On television, the actor Freddie Jones became famous for his role as Claudius in the 1968 British television series The Caesars while the 1985 made-for-television miniseries A.D.
features actor Richard Kiley as Claudius. There is also a reference to
Claudius' suppression of one of the coups against him in the movie Gladiator, though the incident is entirely fictional.
In literature, Claudius and his contemporaries appear in the historical novel The Roman
by Mika Waltari. Canadian-born science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt
reimagined Robert Graves' Claudius story in his two novels Empire of the Atom and The Wizard of Linn.