1. CLAUDIus
Claudius was born in Lugdunum in Gaul on 1
August 10AC under the name of Tiberius
Claudius Drusus, the third son of Nero
Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, after
Germanicus and Livilla.
2. youth
Claudio was a young member of the leading family of Rome and, as
such, one would expect that he had participated in public life as
expected of someone of his rank, but he did not. During his whole
youth, he was kept out of sight of the people because he was born with
with physical defects (which in the Roman society were despised). The
The members of his family believed that his being constantly ill, his
drooling and his stuttering were a symptom of mental weakness. In
addition, since the family believed that his condition depended also on
a lack of will, it was held under the tutelage of a teacher beyond the age
age of majority; Claudius himself complained that he had been
assigned a barbarian as a tutor, whose job was to teach him a hard
discipline. Only Augustus said to be surprised by the oratory skills of
his nephew, but did not give him any public office. Similarly, when
Claudius asked permission to begin the cursus honorum, the new
emperor, Tiberius gave him the ornamenta consularia, the symbols of
consular rank, but denied a more active role.
3. Rise to power
Under Caligula, his grandson, Claudio obtained the
consulate for two months. He became Princeps in 37,
while continuing to be frowned upon. He underwent a
process in which he was accused of forgery; he had to
pay 8,000,000 gold for admission to a college of priests,
losing all his possessions. After the murder of Caligula 41
the Praetorians were faced with the problem of finding a
surviving member of the Julio-Claudian family to put on
the throne. Many of them had been murdered, while
Claudio was able to escape from every conspiracy,
because no one had considered him as a dangerous
opponent. Claudio, having bribed the Praetorian Guard,
was awarded the Principality by force of arms.
4. Management of power
Claudio is described by Latin sources as a reserved
meditative man and, a scholar of Etruscan and Carthaginian
history, with a weak and impressionable personality.
Actually, he was capable and balanced as an emperor:
• he reorganized and made more efficient the state
administration, giving great power to freedmen;
• he healed the public finances, which had been depleted by
Caligula;
• he created major public works to improve the living
conditions of his subjects: he built aqueducts, roads and
canals in the peninsula and in the provinces;
• he achieved important successes in foreign policy and
added new provinces to the empire.
5. Centrilized administration
Claudio created a centralized bureaucratic system, with the task of coordinating the
activities of the government. He intended to directly control, through trusted
people, the bureaucratic apparatus which received and organized practices
throughout the empire, the governors relations.
It was divided into sectors (taxation, finance, legislation, etc), managed by imperial
officials recruited from freedmen (freed slaves by himself) loyal to him. Already in
the Republican era it was a tradition of important families to entrust the
administration of their assets to slaves or freedmen most capable and faithful.
The presence of new officials sparked a deep discontent among knights and
senators, who saw themselves marginalized from the state administration.
One of the most important acts of Claudio’s government was granting citizenship
to the inhabitants of Gaul and the ability to access the Senate to families of higher
status, .
6. Relationship with the senate
Claudius, following the work of Augustus, attempted to establish
a working relationship with the Senate, making use of the Senatus
consultus and preserving the social status of the Senators.
Claudio was the first emperor to accept members of the Senate
from the provinces, because he wanted the support of the best
minds of the empire.
Therefore he revised the senatorial list, introducing men who had
also gained merit in the province. His major contrast with the
Senate it was due to the positioning of power of the freedmen-
bureaucrats.
7. Religious policy
Claudius did not seem hostile to Christianity and other religions.
In 47 d.C., he celebrated the secular games of the eighth
centenary of the foundation of Rome.
In 49 he enlarged the pomerium, the ancient sacred enclosure of
Rome, to include the Aventine and the Campus Martius.
He was tolerant of cults which were not considered dangerous to
public order. He suppressed Druidism in the empire, took on a
liberal attitude towards the Jews and restored their religious
freedom, but expelled the entire Jewish community from Rome.
He was tolerant towards Christians.
8. Public works
Claudius accomplished socially useful
works which were characterized by
the desire to innovate the Empire.
The emperor finished the aqueduct
begun by Caligula. He also restored
the Aqua Virgo, and improved the
lines of communication in Italy and
in the provinces, and also increased
their number, with the construction
of the Via Claudia Valeria and
Claudia Augusta. He reclaimed the
Fucino plane with the excavation of
an emissary which flowed into the
Liri river, thus favoring the
agricultural exploitation in the
region.
10. MAURITANIA
The revolt of Mauretania, which followed the
assassination of King Ptolemy by order of Emperor
Gaius Caligula, was drowned in blood after four hard
years of struggle (41-44). Mauretania was divided into
two provinces, the Mauretania and the Caesariensis
Tingitana, which were entrusted to an imperial
procurator.
11. BRITAin
In 43 he began the conquest of Britain, nearly a century after
Julius Caesar. Beyond the political, economic and military
motivations of the expedition, there was an important
psychological reason: to prove to everyone to be the worthy son
of the conqueror of Germany, Druze.
12. TRACIA E NORICUM
Claudius decided to annex Thrace, which was in a state of
anarchy (after the assassination of its sovereign), in 46. He won
the free territories up to the Danube and the regions of part of
Rhaetia and Noricum. So she decided to strengthen European
borders along the Rhine and had to admit some Gallic citizens
among the Roman magistrates.
13. lYcia
Lycia, where the riots occurred, became a
province in 43. In the East, Claudio rewarded
his friend Herod Agrippa I for the help lent in
the past: he had him sit on the throne of Judea,
that was a Roman province since 6. This
operation was part of the installation of a
bureaucracy of officials loyal to the Princeps.
On the death of Agrippa in 44, Judea again
became a Roman province, administered by
procurators.
14. Succession to the power
Messalina, wife of Claudius, gave him a daughter, Claudia Octavia, and a son
to whom his father gave the nickname of Britannicus. She, who was a woman
of great cruelty, had conspired, along with his lover, the consul Gaius Silius, to
kill Claudius and take his place. But the plot was discovered, and she was
killed in 48. The new wife -- niece of Claudius, daughter of Germanicus, and
great-grandchild of Augustus -- Agrippina had a son whose name was Lucius
Domitius Ahenobarbus, the future Emperor Nero. The wedding was celebrated
in the 48, and Agrippina became the new Augusta, enjoying unprecedented
privileges. At the same time, she started a series of intrigues to discredit the
son of Claudius, Britannicus, in favor of her son Domitius Ahenobarbus.
Ambitious and unscrupulous, Agrippina was guilty of a series of crimes,
making use of poison or false indictments. Her son Nero was adopted by
Claudius at the age of thirteen (in 50), as the guardian of the youngest
Britannicus (five years younger); in 51, he got the toga virilis, the title of
Princeps Iuventutis, the imperium proconsular outside Roma; in 53, he married
Claudia Octavia, daughter of Claudius.
15. death
Emperor Claudius died in 54 after eating a plate of poisonous
mushrooms, given to him by Agrippina and Locusta.
Agrippina planned this conspiracy to seize power; the principality
was designated to Nero.
