Claudius I (10 BC–AD 54)

Nephew of Tiberius, and son of Drusus Nero, made Roman emperor by the Praetorian Guard in AD 41, after the murder of his nephew Caligula. Claudius was a scholar and historian. During his reign the Roman empire was considerably extended, and in 43 he took part in the invasion of Britain.

Claudius was believed to have been weak and easily led by his wives and his senior freedmen, who served as his principal secretaries. Lame, and suffering from a speech impediment, Claudius was frequently the object of ridicule. He wrote historical works and an autobiography, none of which survives. His life is imaginatively reconstructed by the novelist Robert Graves in his books I Claudius (1934) and Claudius the God (1934).

At Rome Claudius completed the Aqua Claudia begun by Caligula, and constructed a new harbour at Ostia. His rule was marked by the increased political influence exercised by his private secretaries, who exercised quasi-ministerial functions, and the good administration which marked his reign probably owed much to these able ‘professionals’. Claudius was dominated by his third wife, Messalina, whom he ultimately had executed for adultery, and he may have been poisoned by his fourth wife, Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Claudius's step-son and successor, Nero.