Jan 25 2009
Claudius- a mixture of success and failure
Claudius, the third Roman emperor, was born in 10BC and directly related to Augustus. In an age and culture, when the Romans cherished physical fitness, Claudius was handicapped from the start. Not only did he limp, drool and stutter, he also was frequently ill. His embarassed imperial family kept the ‘idiot’ out of the limelight. His defects however, were a blessing in disguise. Political events lead to the assessination of family members, but Claudius survived because he was considered irrlevant. As he was not given any public office, he used his ample spare time for learning and studies, particularly history and art. He is often referred to as ‘the philospoher on the throne’.
When his predecessor and nephew Caligula was murdered by his own Praetorian guard, a very reluctant Claudius was proclaimed emperor by the troops. Whereas Caligula’s assessination was the first open and public killing of an emperor, Claudius’ ascent to power was the first occasion which brought to light that power and strength of the Senate as well as of the emperor rested solely on the strength of military support and had nothing to do anymore with democratic election principles.
Whilst during Claudius’ long reign, he fully annexed Britain as a province and brough stability to the other provinces and the Roman empire, his personal decisions were catastrophic and also revealed an underlying cruel streak which belied his bengin philosopher image.
He didn’t hestiate to have his frist wife Messalina executed on charges of adultery and, weakly, fell under the spell of his second wife Agrippina. Although he had a very capable and popular natural son, Britannicus, he favoured Agrippina’s son Nero over him. This was no doubt due to Agrippina’s machinations and powerful influence over the emperor. He ultimately paid for his misjudgment with his life.
When Agrippina noticed that the emperor started to have regrets about adopting Nero and was about to revoke his decision to proclaim him as his successor, she reverted to poison to disposed of Claudius. Mushrooms put a painful end to Claudius’ life in 54AD.
