Claudius
Claudius was found hiding behind some balcony
curtains by soldiers in the palace
after the murder of Caligula by the
Praetorian Guard. Instead of seizing and
killing him, as Claudius was almost
sure they would do, they raised him up on
their shoulders and made him
emperor! Many writers have depicted Claudius as
kind of a befuddled, harmless
old man who had been made Emperor so that Romans
would have someone in high
places to make fun of. In truth, he was an able
administrator and ruled well,
making many improvements in the government. He
gave orders for the conquest
of Britain, which the famous Julius Caesar had only
invaded and left. The
invasion was well planned and carried out. After some of
the early battles
had been won, he came to Britain to lead the troops in person.
Most
historians, including Tacitus agree that Claudius desperately needed a
few
military victories to boost his image amongst the Roman people, and the
conquest
of Britain made him quite popular in Rome. Much of what contemporary
historians
wrote about the Roman emperors and their families at that time
showed them in an
extremely bad light. The passages in Suetonois' Lives of
the Caesars read like a
modern soap opera. Tacitus deliberately painted the
worst picture he could of
the imperial families. He longed for the values and
government of the old Roman
Republic. His attitude was that the only
thing good that could be said about the
Empire with its overly powerful
and autocratic rulers was that it was better
than the constant civil wars of
the Republican era. Claudius was never very
lucky in love. One woman he was
to have married died on their wedding day. His
last wife, the infamous
Messalina, continuously cheated on him, even giving many
of their household
treasures to her lovers. Claudius was very much in love with
her and tried to
ignore what was going on. Messalina finally exhausted even
Claudius'
patience when she married one of her lovers while still married
to
Claudius. Told by his advisors that this was a direct threat to him as
emperor,
he sadly signed the order for her execution so eagerly prepared by
the men close
to him. According to Tacitus, a centurion found her distraught
and begging for
her life. He offered her a dagger so she could kill herself,
a death considered
honorable by the Roman aristocracy. When she attempted but
could not bring
herself to commit suicide, he ran her through with his short
sword. Claudius
finally ended up marrying Agrippina the Younger, mother of
the future emperor
Nero. Claudius may have died from an illness but the
historians of the period
have charged Agrippina with his murder. She
supposedly fed him a dish of
poisoned mushrooms.