Misformed monster or masterful magnate? Emperors of Rome

 Misformed monster or masterful magnate? Emperors of Rome

Part 3: Claudius (Part A)

Famous for being found hiding behind a curtain and declared accidental emperor by the praetorians, there is much more to Claudius than meets the eye (more than a single post- so there will be three)

Born in 10BC, the child of Antonia Minor and Nero Claudius Drusus, Claudius' grandparents included Mark Antony, Octavia (sister of Augustus) and Livia, wife of Augustus. With such regal bloodlines, one might have expected big things of Claudius, and yet, in his early years, he was hidden from public view, out of sight and out of mind. Nothing was expected of Claudius and yet he would come to outshine all his siblings.

Sadly Claudius, the third child of illustrious parents, had been born with a disabling illness. According to sources (Suetonius, Seneca and Dio Cassius), Claudius had a ‘tottering gait’ a shaky head and hands, his right foot dragged and his legs would collapse from under him. To make it worse he had difficulty speaking and a tendency to drool.   

His mother described him as a monster and left most of his rearing to his paternal grandmother, Livia. His emperor and stepgrandfather, Augustus refused to allow him to watch the Gladiatorial games or spectacles for fear he would be an embarrassment to the family and when he reached the age of manhood, his ceremony was brief, unheralded and kept literally in the dark of night. Unlike most Roman youths he was prevented both from the pathways of magistracies or military.

He was not, however, physically deformed,  and in appearance was described as having majesty and dignity (while seated or lying down).

Even today his medical condition is a mystery with experts proposing a range of diagnoses from infantile paralysis, epilepsy, hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy and dystonia.

Despite all this, Claudius proved intellectually adept. Tutored by both Athenodorus and Livy, the young man became a renowned scholar, writing 20 books on the History of the Etruscans, an Etruscan dictionary, 8 books in his history of Carthage, even a book on gaming with dice. He added three letters to the Latin alphabet and attempted (but did not succeed) to add punctuation back into Latin writing.