Coin of Herod of Chalcis, showing Herod of Chalcis with brother Herod Agrippa of Judaea crowning Claudius. British Museum Kit, Borys (12 September 2008). "Director Jim Sheridan eyes I, Claudius". Reuters . Retrieved 20 January 2011. Claudius had some kind of disability, in speech and walking, and his family kept him from public office until he was 38. Claudius' infirmity may have saved him from the purges of Tiberius' and Caligula's reigns; enemies did not see him as a serious threat. He was declared emperor at the insistence of the Praetorian Guard after Caligula's assassination. He was then the last adult male of his family. During the period immediately after the death of Tiberius's son, Drusus, Claudius was pushed by some quarters as a potential heir to the throne. 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 commander of the Praetorian Guard, Sejanus, was at its peak, Claudius chose to downplay this possibility. After the death of Tiberius, the new emperor Caligula (the son of Claudius's brother Germanicus) recognized Claudius to be of some use. He appointed Claudius his co-consul in 37 to emphasize the memory of Caligula's deceased father Germanicus.

Claudius Series by Robert Graves - Goodreads

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. [48] 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. [16] Annual games were also held in honour of his accession, and took place at the Praetorian camp where Claudius had first been proclaimed Emperor. [49] Nearly all implicate his final and powerful 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. [87] Nero was married to Claudius's daughter Octavia, made joint heir with the underage Britannicus, and promoted; Augustus had similarly named his grandson Postumus Agrippa and his stepson Tiberius as joint heirs, [63] and Tiberius had named Caligula as his 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, as was the case during Britannicus's minority. Claudius may have previously looked to adopt one of his sons-in-law to protect his own reign. [64] a b Charlotte Higgins (24 February 2010). "TV Club: I, Claudius". The Guardian . Retrieved 18 October 2017. Claudius married four times. His first marriage, to Plautia Urgulanilla, occurred after two failed betrothals. 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 Junilla, 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.

Mary McNamara (6 May 2012). "Critic's Notebook: 'I, Claudius' left its bloody, sinister mark on TV drama". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 3 June 2018. Ancient historians agree that Claudius was murdered by poison – possibly contained in mushrooms or on a feather – and died in the early hours of 13 October 54. [86] I, Claudius is a historical novel by English writer Robert Graves, published in 1934. Written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius, it tells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the early years of the Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41. Though the narrative is largely fictionalized, most of the events depicted are drawn from historical accounts of the same time period by the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus. At Ostia, in front of a crowd of spectators, Claudius fought an orca which was trapped in the harbour. The event was witnessed by Pliny the Elder: The title of the book is both symbolic and ironic. Ironic because the reader is familiar with Claudius’ humanity, his faults and failings, even as he is well on the path to being worshiped as a god as his imperial predecessors have been. Ironic too because Claudius himself is somewhat agnostic and performs at least some of his religious duties more out of obligation rather than any true faith in the powers behind such devotions. It is symbolic because this is an era where the space between the human and the divine is being rapidly populated with the semi-divine or of humans being promoted to divinity, from the Emperor Augustus to Jesus.

Claudius - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Claudius - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claudius the God and his Wife Messalina by Robert Graves is the sequel to I, Claudius. It is an autobiography accounting the actions and misfortunes of the Roman emperor, Claudius. Graves portrays Claudius as a sympathetic character rather than the bumbling idiot that he is seen as throughout history. Claudius the God and his Wife Messalina provides an insight into ancient Roman politics through a sympathetic character who makes many mistakes but never maliciously. Writing in the first-person (from an unspecified time period, presumably late in his own reign as emperor), Claudius establishes himself as the author of this history of his family and insists on writing the truth, which includes harsh criticisms of the deified Augustus and especially of Livia. The narrative begins prior to his own birth, as he describes many of the events leading to the foundation of the Roman Principate and the increasingly firm emplacement of Augustus as emperor despite Augustus' own publicly expressed intention to eventually restore the former Republic. During his prosperous reign, Augustus is plagued by personal losses as his favored heirs, Marcellus, Marcus Agrippa, Gaius Caesar, and Lucius Caesar, die. Claudius reveals that these untimely deaths are all the machinations of Augustus' third wife Livia (who is also Claudius' paternal grandmother), a calculating murderess who seeks to make her son Tiberius (Claudius' uncle) succeed Augustus as the next emperor. The Senate granted him a Roman triumph for his efforts: in the Roman Empire only members of the imperial family were allowed such honors. Claudius later lifted this restriction for some of his generals. When the British general Caractacus was captured in 50, Claudius granted him his life. Caractacus lived out his days on land provided by the Roman state, an unusual end for an enemy commander. As Tiberius becomes more hated by the public, he increasingly relies on his Praetorian Captain Sejanus to administer his edicts and punishments, who is able to manipulate Tiberius into suspecting that Germanicus' wife Agrippina and his own son Castor are plotting to usurp the monarchy. Sejanus meanwhile secretly plots with Livilla to usurp the monarchy for himself by poisoning Castor and systematically eliminating any ally of Agrippina and her sons. Agrippina only survives due to the protection of Livia, who holds vital information regarding Augustus' true opinion of Tiberius.Claudius Latin: Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; 1 August 10 BCE – 13 October 54 CE) was the fourth Roman emperor. He ruled from 24 January 41 AD to his death in 54 AD. His great-uncle was the first emperor, Augustus, and his uncle was the second emperor Tiberius. His nephew was the third emperor, Caligula. His maternal grandfather was Mark Antony. 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 punished them with just force, as in the case of Polybius and Pallas's brother, Felix. There is no evidence that the character of Claudius's policies and edicts changed with the rise and fall of the various freedmen, suggesting that he was firmly in control throughout. When the time came to translate the novels into German, Graves, who spoke the language, decided instead to rework them into a one volume edition. He collaborated with translator Hans Rothe and they jointly produced a shortened edition which left out the many digressions which were incorporated into the English original, with the aim of presenting Claudius' story in a clearer and more effective way. The contents of the books were thus roughly cut down to a half. [15] The book is published as Ich Claudius, Kaiser und Gott ( I Claudius, Emperor and God) with Graves being styled Robert von Ranke Graves, which is how he is credited in all German editions of his works.