Nero became Emperor. Claudius told the Praetorian Guard to knock him on the head if he ever married again, but within a few months he took as his fourth wife another unscrupulous and seductive beauty much younger than himself, his niece Agrippina, a sister of Caligula. One theory is that he suffered from cerebral palsy. The imperial family looked down on him because of his ill health, unattractive appearance, clumsiness, and coarseness. The inscription on his triumphal arch in Rome said that he ‘brought barbarian peoples beyond Ocean for the first time under Rome’s sway.’. After Gaius’s murder on January 24, 41, the Praetorian Guards, the imperial household troops, made Claudius emperor on January 25. Claudius took several steps to legitimize his rule against potential usurpers, most of them emphasizing his place within the Julio-Claudian family. He protected the haruspices (diviners) and probably Romanized the cult of the Phrygian deity Attis. The senate held out against Claudius for two days, but then accepted him. He emphasized his friendship with the army and paid cash for his proclamation as emperor. As well as Britain, Claudius added Mauretania (North Africa), Thrace (the Balkans) and Lycia (part of Turkey) to the Roman Empire. Nero succeeded him as emperor.

Claudius invaded Britain in 43. In 49 he annexed Iturea (northeastern Palestine) to the province of Syria. Claudius then married his niece Agrippina the Younger who with her son Domitius, was the only surviving direct descendant of Augustus. Ill health, unattractive appearance, clumsiness of manner, and coarseness of taste did not recommend him for a public life. Another account, reported by Suetonius, had a dish of poisoned mushrooms given by Agrippina herself and said the second attempt involved poisoned gruel or a poisoned enema.

Claudius I was the emperor who added Britain to the Roman Empire. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Updates? Claudius, in full Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, original name (until 41 ce) Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, (born August 1, 10 bce, Lugdunum [Lyon], Gaul—died October 13, 54 ce), Roman emperor (41–54 ce), who extended Roman rule in North Africa and made Britain a province. In 48 AD Messallina went through a marriage ceremony with the consul Silius as part of a plot against Claudius. Claudius’s appointment to consul under the reign of his elder brother’s son Gaius (Caligula) occurred in 37. The Senate also decreed the deification of Claudius, which was needed to bolster Nero’s position as ‘Son of the Deified’. Claudius is seen at the beginning of the play to be a capable monarch as he deals diplomatically with such issues as the military threat from Norway and Hamlet's depression. It is not until the appearance of King Hamlet's Ghost in the courtyard that the reader questions his motives. But concern with the anti-Roman influence of the Druid priesthood, which he tried to suppress in Gaul, and a general inclination toward expanding the frontiers were other reasons. Claudius had two children by his wife Messallina - Britannicus and Octavia. By his first three wives he had five children, of whom Drusus and Claudia died before he became emperor. Though he enlarged the kingdom of Herod Agrippa I, he later made Judaea a province on Agrippa’s death in 44. Omissions? After the historian Livy encouraged his study of history, Claudius composed several books of Etruscan and Carthaginian history. According to Tacitus, Agrippina got Halotus to feed Claudius a poisoned mushroom and when that did not work, Claudius’s doctor put a poisoned feather down his throat, ostensibly to make him vomit. It was said that she asked the officer to finish her by thrusting his sword into her womb, the womb that had borne Nero. He adopted the name "Caesar" as a cognomen, as the name still carried great weight with the populace. Read more. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Constantly ill and irritatingly clumsy, he had a bad stammer and a permanently runny nose, his head twitched and he dribbled. Claudius Nero Germanicus, Ancient History Encyclopedia - Biography of Claudius, Claudius - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Claudius died on 13 October 54 AD after being poisoned, probably on the orders of Agrippina who feared Claudius would appoint Britannicus his heir over her son Nero. Son of the Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia, Claudius was related to the emperors Tiberius and Augustus. Britannicus died in 55. Roman tradition is unanimous: Claudius was poisoned by Agrippina on October 13, 54 CE, though the details differ. On 12 October AD 54, the 64-year old emperor presided over a banquet on the Capitol, with his taster, the eunuch Halotus, in attendance. Both were executed. Claudius was sufficiently a figure of fun to survive the murderous reign of his nephew Caligula. In his religious policy Claudius respected tradition; he revived old religious ceremonies, celebrated the festival of the Secular Games in 47 (three days and nights of games and sacrifice commemorating the 800th birthday of Rome), made himself a censor in 47, and extended in 49 the pomerium of Rome (i.e., the boundary of the area in which only Roman gods could be worshipped and magistrates ruled with civil, not military, powers).

Tiberius, the second emperor of Rome, was his uncle. It describes the late Emperor presenting himself at the gates of Olympus, where the gods contemptuously reject him and pack him off to Hades. As a young man Claudius was made a member of various religious colleges, but he became consul only under the reign of his older brother’s son Gaius (Caligula) in 37. He was careful not to involve the empire in major wars with the Germans and the Parthians. The coup failed, Messalina killed herself and Silius was executed. Claudius wrote a pamphlet defending the republican politician and orator Cicero, who was executed by the triumvirs; and, having discovered that it was difficult to speak freely on the civil wars toward the end of the Roman Republic, he began a history of Rome with the principate of Augustus. He composed 20 books of Etruscan and 8 books of Carthaginian history, all in Greek; an autobiography; and a historical treatise on the Roman alphabet with suggestions for orthographical reform—which as emperor he later tried not very successfully to implement. Claudius’s general policy increased the emperor’s control over the treasury and the provincial administration and apparently gave his own governors in senatorial provinces jurisdiction over fiscal matters. Claudius died on 13 October AD 54. Even later, several attempts on Claudius’s life involved senators and knights. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Although he lacked a military reputation, the essential attribute of an emperor, in 43 AD Claudius undertook the conquest of Britain. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Roman opinion was convinced that Agrippina had poisoned him. By family tradition and antiquarian inclinations, Claudius was in sympathy with the senatorial aristocracy; but soldiers and courtiers were his real supporters, while freedmen and foreigners had been his friends in the days of neglect. Professor of Ancient History, University College, University of London, 1951–75. The imperial family seems to have considered him something of an embarrassment, and he was long left to his own private studies and amusements. His family kept him out of sight as far as they could because he was so uncouth and unattractive. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus, a popular and successful Roman general, and the younger Antonia, he was the nephew of the emperor Tiberius and a grandson of Livia Drusilla, the wife of the emperor Augustus. Initially, the attitude of the Senate was at best ambiguous. Elsewhere he confirmed existing Jewish rights and privileges, and in Alexandria he tried to protect the Jews without provoking Egyptian nationalism. It was the historian Livy who recognized and encouraged his inclination for historical studies.  © In 48 Claudius’s young and promiscuous third wife, Valeria Messalina, attempted a coup against him with her latest lover, Gaius Silius. After marrying his niece Agrippina, Claudius adopted her son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (later the emperor Nero) to satisfy Agrippina’s lust for power, much to the disadvantage of his own son Britannicus. As Pharaoh of Egypt, Claudius adopted the royal titulary Tiberios Klaudios, Autokrator Heqaheqau Meryase… The Etruscan history may have had original material: his first wife, Plautia Urgulanilla, had Etruscan blood, and her family was probably able to put Claudius in touch with authentic Etruscan traditions. From the very beginning he emphasized his friendship with the army and paid cash for his proclamation as emperor. The ambitious and power-hungry Agrippina was determined that Nero should be Claudius’s successor, rather than the Emperor’s own son by Messalina, the nine-year-old Britannicus. Author of.

Author has 1.6K answers and 7.6M answer views. A statue of Claudius, c.41 AD https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claudius-Roman-emperor, Public Broadcasting Service - Biography of Claudius, British Broadcasting Corporation - Biography of Claudius, UNRV History - Messalina, Agrippina and the Death of Claudius, Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors - Biography of Ti. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Nero was accordingly adopted by Claudius as his son and promised the hand of the Emperor’s daughter Octavia, whose current betrothed was publicly accused of incest with his attractive sister, and committed suicide. Nero allegedly had him poisoned and in 59 he sent a trusted officer to kill Agrippina. BBC © 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Agrippina apparently delayed announcing the death for a while, to wait for an astrologically favourable moment and until word had been sent to the Praetorian Guard. When the moment came, Nero was escorted to the Praetorian barracks where he was hailed as Imperator.

Claudius, or Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus (10 BCE to 54 CE), was Caligula’s uncle (brother to Germanicus) and had always been thought of as being dimwitted (even his own mother agreed with this assessment) which is the reason why some believe he remained alive as long as he did. She was 33 to Claudius’s 58 and she had a 12-year-old son by a former marriage, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, better known as Nero. In a surviving letter addressed to the city of Alexandria, he asked Jews and non-Jews “to stop this destructive and obstinate mutual enmity.” Although personally disinclined to accept divine honours, he did not seriously oppose the current trend and had a temple erected to himself in Camulodunum.

During the play's progression he takes a turn for the worse by first resorting to spying, and, when that fails, murder. Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who had overseen Nero’s education, wrote a mocking account of ‘The Pumpkinification of the Divine Claudius’. Found hiding behind curtains in the palace, shaking with fright, when Caligula was murdered in AD 41, he was made emperor by the Praetorian Guard.