Claudius was very ill. He had a stutter, a limp, and he drooled.
He was a very intelligent man for example he was one of the last men in the world who spoke Etruskian, and he was
intelligent enough to hide that he was intelligent. The only reason for why Claudius survived, was that nobody thought him
to be dangerous. If they had, he would have been killed, either by Livia, Tiberius or Caligula.
Claudius was a historian. He wrote several books, but none of them exists today, because his last wife destroyed them
after his death.
Claudius was a good emperor. He expanded the harbor of Ostia to make sure that the poor Romans could have bread,
expanded the water-lines, so that the poor Romans did not have to drink dirty water from the Tiber ( a river in Rome ), but
most significant: He conquered Britian.
However Claudius private life was hell.
He was an alcoholic with a capital A, and he left much of state business to his slaves.
He fell in love with a girl named Messalina. He married her, and she gave birth to two children.
Nobody knows if those children were Claudius’, because Claudius was not the only man Messalina slept with.
Claudius always forgave her, but when it was proved, that she and one of her lovers were planning to kill Claudius, he had
to order her execution.
Then Claudius married his niece Agrippina the younger.
She had a son named Nero, whom she was determined to make the next emperor.
Claudius sank more and more into alcoholism, and he left most state business to Agrippina.
In 54 he died. We don’t know if it was of drinking, or if he was poisoned by Agrippina.
According to Claudius’ ( or Agrippina’s? ) will Nero should be the next emperor, and so he was.
Nero.
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