Claudius

Roman emperor thought dim-witted, who came to the throne by accident yet conquered Britain and achieved a good deal.

Life

Lame scholar

Claudius was Augustus's step-grandson. Lame and stammering from childhood, he was considered useless by his family and long kept away from politics, devoting himself to history and writing histories of the Etruscans and of Carthage.

Emperor behind the curtain

In 41 CE the emperor Caligula was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard. Claudius is said to have been hiding behind a curtain when soldiers found him and proclaimed him emperor. During his reign he built the harbor at Ostia and two aqueducts, extended citizenship to provincials, and in 43 CE sent an army to conquer southern Britain.

Conquest of Britain

He died in 54 CE; later writers widely believed he was poisoned with mushrooms by his wife Agrippina so that her son Nero could succeed him.

Legacy

Claudius was a far more capable administrator than his contemporaries judged him to be, and the English writer Robert Graves's novel I, Claudius made him widely known in modern times.

Did you know? He was the first Roman emperor born outside Italy.

Key dates

• 41Proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard
• 43Conquest of Britain
• 52Completed the Aqua Claudia
• 54Died (some say poisoned)