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Bible Dictionaries
Claudius
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or CLAUDIUS . Claudius, the fourth Roman emperor, who bore the names Tiberius Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus, reigned from (24th) 25th Jan. 41 till his murder on 13th Oct. 54 a.d. He was a son of Nero Claudius Drusus (the brother of the emperor Tiberius) and Antonia minor (a daughter of the triumvir Mark Antony and Octavia, sister of the emperor Augustus), and was born on 1st August 10 b.c. at Lyons. From childhood he was weakly, and a prey to disease, which affected his mind as well as his body. This caused him to be neglected and despised. He was, however, a man of considerable ability, both literary and administrative, as he showed when he was called to succeed his own nephew Gains (Caligula) as emperor. He has been compared with James I. (VI. of Scotland) in both his weak and his strong points. It was in his reign that the first real occupation of Britain by the Romans took place. He is twice mentioned in Acts ( Acts 11:28; Acts 18:2 ). The great famine over the whole of the Roman world which Agabus foretold took place in his reign. The expulsion of Jews from Rome, due to dissensions amongst them, occurred in the year 50. This latter date is one of the few fixed points of chronology in the Book of Acts. The reign of Claudius was satisfactory to the Empire beyond the average. The government of the provinces was excellent, and a marked feature was the large number of public works executed under the emperor’s supervision.
A. Souter.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Claudius'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/c/claudius.html. 1909.
