Once a man's friend persuaded Claudius to remove the black mark which stood against his name. He quickly became famous for his extravagances and personal debauchery. So fervent was his devotion to dice that he published a book on the subject, and used to play, while out driving, on a special board fitted to his carriage which kept the dice from rolling off capriciously. According to many of my informants, he lost his power of speech, suffered frightful pain all night long, and died shortly before dawn. He also drew lots for a second consulship, and won one that would fall due four years later. There he was recognized, captured, and executed. Twelve Rhodian triremes then engaged twelve Sicilian ones; the signal for the fight being given by a mechanical silver Triton, which emerged from the Lake bottom and blew a conch. They were able to acquire such riches, by legitimate and illegitimate means, that when one day Claudius complained how little cash was left in the Privy Purse, someone answered neatly that he would have heaps of pocket money if only his two freedmen took him into partnership. Nor did he fail to honour Mark Antony; in one proclamation he begged the people 'to celebrate my father Drusus's birthday all the more heartily because it happens likewise to have been that of my maternal grandfather Antony.' Claudius often presided as Caligula's substitute at the Games, where the audience greeted him with: 'Long live the Emperor's Uncle!' This sort of behaviour endeared him to the people so soon that when a rumour went around of his having been ambushed and assassinated on the Ostia road, everyone was aghast and began accusing the troops of treachery and the Senators of murder. Tiberius returned to Rome and took part in ceremonial games that required him to throw a javelin. In the period after the death of Neros mother killed on his orders in 59and that of his wife Octavia, in June 62, also murdered at his instigation, Nero changed dramatically. Livia is able to rule Augustus just as she had wanted, using subtle suggestions and her iron-clad will to shape him into a king. The novel opens with the adult Claudius introducing himself to the readers. The Roman Emperors. Indeed, it was not until the end of his reign that he reluctantly gave up the practice of having women, boys, and girls pawed about during these routine examinations, and of removing the stylus-case from every caller's attendant or secretary. 3. On resuming the war he died at his summer headquarters, thenceforth known as 'The Accursed Camp'. Claudius often gave chariot races in the Vatican Circus constructed by Caligula; sometimes introducing wild-beast shows between every five events. and: 'Very well, curse me if you like, but hard words break no bones!' I, Claudius study guide contains a biography of author Robert Graves, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. They included the draining of the Fucine Lake and the building of the harbour at Ostia though he knew that Augustus had turned down the Marsians' frequent requests for emptying the Lake, and that Julius Caesar, while often on the point of excavating the harbour at Ostia, had always abandoned the project as impractical. 'But I want the erasure to show,' he insisted. The majority of the other women in the text are remarkably passive. Nero. Besides the chariot races he staged the so-called Troy Game; a panther hunt by a squadron of Guards cavalry under their colonels and the Commander in person; and a show in which Thessalian horsemen drove wild bulls across the arena, tired them out, leaped on them, seized hold of their horns and then threw them to the ground. He was the great-nephew of Julius Caesar, later becoming his adopted son. I, Claudius Study Guide. The Senate, for their part, voted that he should be made an extraordinary member of the Augustan priesthood, who were as a rule chosen by lot; and when one day his mansion burned down they decreed that it should be rebuilt at public expense, and that he should have the honour of addressing the House among men of consular rank. Claudius________________________________. When his presence is no longer necessary in Rome, Livia arranges for Agrippas death and marries the now twice-widowed Julia to Tiberius, a man who Claudius admits was also one of the worst of the Claudians. ), Claudius (4154 c.e. Once a morning caller drew Claudius aside and whispered: 'In my dreams last night you were murdered. He ordered a general amnesty, and observed it himself, apart from executing a few of the colonels and junior officers who had conspired against Caligula to make an example of them and because they had, he knew, planned his own murder as well. In 20 b.c.e. As his excesses became more and more horrendous, a coup dtat was planned, and a tribune of the Praetorian Guard killed Caligula on January 24, 41 c.e., when he was at the Palatine Games. When Tiberius was four, his parents divorced, and his mother married Octavian. However, his behaviour in Court varied unpredictably: sometimes he was wise and prudent, sometimes thoughtless and hasty, sometimes downright foolish and apparently out of his senses. The founder of this line of emperors was Octavian, who became known in history as Emperor Augustus. 17. Some jokesters exercised their wit by putting slippers on his hands as he lay snoring, and then gave him a sudden blow of a whip or cane to wake him, so that he rubbed his eyes with them. He also stationed fire brigades at Puteoli and Ostia. Shortly after his election to a City magistracy, Marcellus mysteriously falls ill and dies, a death which Claudius will again tie directly to Livia. While planning his technically incestuous marriage with Agrippina, he made certain most unsuitable public references to her: such as 'my daughter and foster-child, born and bred in my lap, so to speak.' Nevertheless, various attempts were made on his life: by dissident individuals, by a group of conspirators, and by a full-scale rebellion. The Sibyl informed him that he would eventually become Emperor of Rome and, more importantly, promised him that he would speak clear in nineteen hundred years. Tiberius follows soon afterward but only arrives in time to see his brother die. I need not dwell on matters of lesser importance: how he revoked grants, cancelled edicts, brazenly amended the texts of letters-patent he had issued, or at least substituted new versions for the old. His attempts to remove still other names failed, the information collected by his agents proving so inaccurate. ), and Nero (5468 c.e.). 25. Why should it be any business of mine who your mistress may be?' Soon after his appointment as emperor, Claudius annexed Mauretania in North Africa and then decided to invade Britain. He had a tendency to decide against whichever party in a suit happened to be absent, without troubling to ask whether or not this might have been unavoidable. His connection to Julius Caesar was twice through the female line, but this did not stop the Roman general from nominating Octavian as his heir. He also celebrated Secular Games, on the excuse that Augustus had staged them before they were really due; though his own History mentions how much trouble Augustus took to reckon the intervals separating their occurrences in the past, and to recommence the series, after the tradition had long been broken, when the correct year came round once more. These early chapters also foreshadow the extent to which Livia is willing to kill in order to ensure the succession of her family line. Tiberius. He also staged, on the Campus Martius, the realistic storm and sack of a fortified town, with a tableau of the British king's surrender, at which he presided in his purple campaigning cloak. Though he applied himself seriously to literature while still a child, and published several samples of his proficiency in its various departments, this did not advance him to public office or inspire the family with brighter hopes for his future. Not content with gaining victories over the enemy, he had a long-standing ambition to win what were called 'The Noblest Spoils', namely the armour of the opposing general taken from him in single combat; and used to chase German chieftains across the battlefield at great risk to his life. Tiberius had converted the provinces of Greece and Macedonia into a private domain of his own; Claudius deeded them back to the Senate. 6. But if anyone were found guilty of some really shocking crime, Claudius condemned him to the wild beasts. Do you take me for a booby?' Moreover, he wrote eight volumes of an autobiography which are criticizable for their lack of taste rather than any lack of style; as well as A Defence of Cicero against the Aspersions of Asinius Gallus quite a learned work. Claudius never behaved less formally than at these Picnics exposing his left hand in plebeian fashion when he distributed prizes, instead of keeping it decently covered by his gown, and counting the number of gold pieces on his fingers 'One, two, three. Claudius's scatter-brainedness and short-sightedness or if you prefer the Greek terms, his meteoria and ablepsia were truly remarkable. In short, my dear Livia, I am anxious that a decision should be reached on tlus matter once and for all, to save us from further alternations of hope and despair. Whenever he concluded a treaty with foreign rulers, he sacrificed a sow in the Forum, using the ancient formula of the Fetial priests. Tiberius then embarked on a military career. Agrippa is unwilling to be placed in the middle of conflict over Augustus position, and he leaves for a self-imposed exile in Syria. His bloodthirstiness appeared equally in great and small matters. As a historian, Claudius intends for his account to transcend the political intrigues of his day and allow future generations to understand the truth of what actually happened to the Julio-Claudian line. On the other hand, he attempted to transfer the Eleusinian Mysteries from Athens to Rome; and had the ruined Temple of Venus on Mount Eryx in Sicily restored at the expense of the Public Treasury. When the assassins ordered Caligula's courtiers to disperse, pretending that he wished to be alone, Claudius went off with the rest and retired to a room called the Hermaeum; but presently heard about the murder and slipped away in alarm to a nearby balcony, where he hid trembling behind the door curtains. We both agreed that an immediate decision ought to be taken. Of his three sons-in-law, Claudius adopted only Nero; Pompey and Sulla were put to death. Once, on hearing the cry: 'Bring on The Dove!' Meanwhile Nero indulged himself in wild orgies and quickly spent the wealth that Claudius had amassed. Even the wearing of a man's gown did not free him from the supervision of a tutor, about whom he later wrote: Claudius's weak health also accounted for his being muffled in a cloak an unprecedented sight while presiding at the gladiatorial games given by Germanicus and himself to honour their father's memory; and, at his coming of age, he was taken up to the Capitol in a litter, about midnight, without the customary solemn procession. ), Caligula (3741 c.e. In granting the Trojans, as founders of the Roman race, perpetual exemption from tribute, he supported his act by reading aloud an ancient letter written in Greek to King Seleucus of Pergamum, from the Senate and People of Rome, with a promise of loyal friendship on condition that Seleucus should 'keep their Trojan kinsfolk free from all imposts'. He also introduced a so-called 'supernumerary' army service for performance in name only, though it counted as effective; and persuaded the House to issue a decree, forbidding soldiers to pay complimentary calls on senators. '. If so, I can see nothing against sending him through the same degrees of office as his brother; but should he prove physically and mentally deficient, the public (which is always amused by trifles) must not be given a chance of laughing at him and us. It turned out that she was not only guilty of other disgraceful crimes, but had gone so far as to commit bigamy with Gaius Silius, and even sign a formal marriage contract before witnesses; so Claudius executed her and told the Guards Division that, having been unfortunate in his wives, he was resolved to live a celibate life in future they could kill him if he did not keep his word! Claudius used to quote Homer from the tribunal and, after punishing a personal enemy or conspirator, made a habit of giving the following hexameter line as a watchword to the Colonel of the Guard: To conclude, he even wrote books in Greek: twenty volumes of Etruscan history, and eight of Carthaginian. Yet many men of distinction continued to visit him, and he never lost the people's respect. He awarded consular regalia even to provincial administrators of the second class; and if any of them declined this promotion usually because they were entitled to engage in business as knights, but not as senators made commoners of them. For the base of this mole he used the ship in which Caligula had transported a great obelisk from Heliopolis; it was first sunk, then secured with piles, and finally crowned with a very tall lighthouse like the Pharos at Alexandria that guided ships into the harbour at night by the beams of a lamp. Galba, who succeeded him, did not last long as emperor. 'Grow up quickly, my boy,' he said, 'and I will then explain what my policy has been.' When a pair of gladiators mortally wounded each other he sent for their swords and had pocketknives made from them for his personal use. No matter where Claudius happened to be, he always felt ready for food or drink. The Praetorian Guard proclaimed Nero emperor when he was 16. Among Claudius's favourite freedmen were Posides the eunuch, to whom he actually awarded, at his British triumph, the honour of a headless spear, along with soldiers who had fought in the field. Burrus died in 62 c.e., and Seneca soon lost his influence over the emperor. but carefully chose not to title himself as emperor. Fact or Fiction: The Historical Inaccuracies of "I, Claudius", The role of people and politics in I, Claudius and King Henry IV part 1. Whenever any business of peculiar importance came up in the House, he would take his seat either between the two Consuls or else on the bench kept for tribunes of the people. 34. 27. The twelve barred-off chariot compartments at the starting-post in the Great Circus had been built of volcanic tufa, and the goals marking the turning-points were of wood. When his sister Livilla heard someone predict that he would one day succeed to the throne, she prayed aloud that the Roman people might be spared so cruel and undeserved a misfortune. One banquet was held close Once, when the men of Ostia made a public petition, he lost his temper and shouted from the tribunal that he owed them no consideration, and that surely he was free, if anyone was! Often he sat on the Advisory Council during trials in magistrates' courts; and at public games would rise with the audience and show his delight by clapping and shouting. to the debouchment of the Fucine Lake on the day it was emptied; but the water came rushing out in a deluge and almost drowned him. The Julio-Claudian emperors of ancient Rome were from the family of Julius Caesaror rather his sister Julia, and that of the first husband of the wife of Augustus Caesar, Tiberius Claudius Nero. One of his edicts banned travel through any Italian town except on foot, in a sedan-chair, or in a litter. He died on 13 October 54 A.D., during the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Avola, in his sixty-fourth year, and the fourteenth of his reign. 29. Augustus had been content to prohibit any Roman citizen in Gaul from taking part in the savage and terrible Druidic cult; Claudius abolished it altogether. Tiberius made his way over to see him as quickly as possible, but Drusus died. was loudly echoed on all sides. 31. There he is, handing in a petition!' Claudius also studied Greek with great application, and took every opportunity of professing his love for this language, which he declared to be the finest of all. Messalina would then awake and exclaim with pretended astonishment: 'Why, it comes back to me now! Sailing from Ostia, Claudius was nearly wrecked off the Ligurian coast, and again near the Iles d'Hyres, but made port safely at Marseilles. Some say that he planned an edict to legitimize the breaking of wind at table, either silently or noisily after hearing about a man who was so modest that he endangered his health by an attempt to restrain himself. His health was wretched until he succeeded to the throne, when it suddenly became excellent, except for violent stomach-aches which often, he said, made him think of suicide. WHEN three months after her marriage to Augustus, Livia gave birth to Decimus (later Nero) Drusus, people naturally suspected that Augustus, not her ex-husband, was the father. 45. I am also against his being made Germanicus's assistant during the Latin Festival on the Alban Mount, merely to avoid the embarrassment of appointing him City Prefect at Rome while the Senate is absent; because if capable of the former appointment, he is also capable of the latter. Claudius had the petitioner arrested as if caught in the act, and hurried away to execution; unaware that the two men were at law together. As regards the immediate question in your last letter, I have no objection to his taking charge of the priests' banquet at the Festival, if he lets his cousin, young Silvanus, stand by to see that he does not make a fool of himself. While stationed at a camp in Germany, Claudius father writes a letter to Tiberius in which he outlines all of the flaws behind the current system of government and voices his negative opinions about Livia. Caligula made a tremendous speech at the funeral for Tiberius. 39. As you suggested, I have now discussed with Tiberius what we should do about your grandson Claudius at the coming Festival of Mars the Avenger.

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