41 - 54 AD
Claudius renounced all hopes of a political career,
and he spent an obscure and idle life. As soon as
Caligula became Emperor and tried every means of gaining
popularity, Claudius entered on his belated public career
as Caligula's colleague in a two-months' consulship. He
also drew lots on a second consulship, and won one that
would fall due four years later. Claudius often presided
as Caligula's substitute at the Games. Having spent the
better part of his life in circumstances like these,
Claudius became Emperor, at the age of fifty, by an
extraordinary accident. When the assassins ordered
Caligula's courtiers to disperse, Claudius hid behind
some door curtains. A guardsman, wandering vaguely
through the palace, noticed a pair of feet beneath the
curtain, pulled their owner out for identification, and
recognized him. The guardsman proclaimed him Emperor.
Crowds surrounded the building and demanded a monarchy,
expressly calling on Claudius. So, he allowed the guards
to acclaim him emperor and to swear allegiance. He also
promised every man 150 gold pieces, which made him the
first of the Caesars to purchase the loyalty of his
troops. Claudius did not presume to accept excessive
honorifics. He recalled no exile from banishment without
Senatorial permission, and when wishing to bring the
guards' commander and some colonels into the house, or to
have the judicial decisions of his provincial agents
ratified, he would ask the Senate for privileges as a
favor. Claudius held four more consulships: the first two
in successive years, the others at four-yearly intervals.
Claudius was a most conscientious judge. Instead of
always observing the letter of the law, he let himself be
guided by his sense of equity, and when he thought the
punishments prescribed were either too lenient or too
severe, changed them accordingly. However, his behavior
in court varied unpredictably: sometimes he was wise and
prudent, sometimes thoughtless and hasty, sometimes
downright foolish and apparently out of his senses. His
bloodthirstiness appeared equally in great and small
matters. If evidence had to be extracted under torture,
or parricide punished, he allowed the law to take its
course without delay and in his own presence. Beneath
outward deference and flattery of the ruler of the
moment, the aristocrats of the 1st century AD stirred up
rumors, mob action, and plots. Repeatedly during this
period uneasy emperors had retaliated by sudden arrest,
and exile, political trial, and murder of too prominent
and wealthy aristocrats. Baseless rumors of conspiracies
caused Claudius such alarm that he often wished for the
private and comfortable life he had lived before. At the
slightest hint of danger, he would take action against
his supposed enemy. He confessed to the faults of anger
and resentment, but undertook that his anger would never
last long, nor his resentment be unjustified. Claudius
composed his will and made all the city magistrates put
their seals to it as witness. He died on October 13, 54
AD, in his sixty-fourth year, and the fourteenth of his
reign. Claudius was poisoned, but it is still debated to
this day upon who actually committed the act. Claudius'
death, however, was not revealed until all arrangements
had been completed to secure Nero's succession.
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