Claudius

Claudius suffered from various physical infirmities which many thought reflected his mental state. As a result, Claudius was secluded, a fact that kept him safe. Having no public duties to perform, Claudius was free to pursue his interests. His first public office came at the age of 46. Claudius became emperor shortly after his nephew was assassinated by his bodyguard, on January 24, A.D. 41. The tradition is that Claudius was found by some of the Praetorian Guard hiding behind a curtain. The guard hailed him as emperor.

It was during the reign of Claudius that Rome conquered Britain (43). Claudius' son, born in 41, who had been named Tiberius Claudius Germanicus, was re-named Britannicus for this. As Tacitus describes in his Agricola, Aulus Plautius was Britain's first Roman governor, appointed by Claudius after Plautius had led the successful invasion, with a Roman force that included the future Flavian emperor Vespasian whose older son, Titus, was a friend of Britannicus.

After adopting his fourth wife's son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (Nero), in A.D. 50, Claudius made it clear that Nero was preferred for the succession over Britannicus. Tradition has it that Claudius' wife Agrippina, now secure in her son's future, killed her husband by means of a poison mushroom on October 13, A.D. 54. Britannicus is thought to have died unnaturally in 55.