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Claudius
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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 twenty edicts a day; ... he was seen as vulnerable throughout his rule, particularly by the nobility. Claudius was constantly forced to shore up his position—resulting in the deaths of many senators. Claudius also suffered tragic setbacks in his personal life, one of which may have led to his murder. These events damaged his reputation among the ancient writers.
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Claudius is among the most fascinating dramatis personae of Roman history. A weak and sickly youth, repressed by a stern tutor as a child, physically deformed and suffering from a severe stammer, he was an outsider in the royal family, considered an idiot and, as Kiefer puts it, "utterly unsuited for all the duties expected of him as a young prince." As an adult, he was never taken seriously as a future ruler of Rome. Ironically... Claudius was ostensibly the most intelligent of the lot. A shy man of considerable culture inclined toward a life of quiet scholarship, he knew Greek well, and wrote several works on history (now lost), including two on the Etruscans and the Carthaginians. In the Imperial Rome of his day, however, obsessed with the exercise of power through treachery and brute force, such preoccupations of the mind were considered little more than idle pastimes.
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Claudius had two children by his wife Messallina - Britannicus and Octavia. In 48 AD Messallina went through a marriage ceremony with the consul Silius as part of a plot against Claudius. Both were executed. Claudius then married his niece Agrippina the Younger who with her son Domitius, was the only surviving direct descendant of Augustus. Agrippina quickly appointed her own supporters to important positions and persuaded Claudius to adopt Domitius - who took the name Nero - as his son.
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Claudius had a successful military. In the time of his reign he took over Mauretania which is present day northern Morocco and made it Roman territory. The conquest of Britain had begun and the Roman armies fought successfully against the Germans. Judea and Thrace ... became Roman provinces during Claudius¹ rule.
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Appius Claudius Caecus is ... remarkable as the first writer mentioned in Roman literature. His speech against peace with Pyrrhus was the first that was transmitted to writing, and thereby laid the foundation of prose composition. He was the author of a collection of aphorisms in verse mentioned by Cicero (of which a few fragments remain), and of a legal work entitled De Usurpationibus. It is very likely also that he was concerned in the drawing up of the Legis Actiones published by Flavius. The famous dictum "Every man is the architect of his own fortune" is attributed to him. He also interested himself in grammatical questions, distinguished the two sounds R and S in writing, and did away with the letter Z. See Mommsen's appendix to his Roman History (vol.
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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.[66] 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.
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Claudius