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Bible Dictionaries
Claudius
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Claudius, or, to give him his full Imperial style, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (to which the honorary titles Britannicus and Sarmaticus [see Papyr. Brit. Mus. 1178 = G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri, 1910, no. 40] are sometimes added), the son of Nero Claudius Drusus (38-9 b.c.), stepson of Augustus, and Antonia Minor (the younger daughter of the triumvir Mark Antony and Octavia, sister of Augustus), was born on 1 Aug. 10 b.c. at Lugudunum (Lyons). His father died the year after. The boy inherited both physical and mental weakness, and was in consequence neglected. There was no room in Roman life for weaklings; exposure of newly born children was frequent, and until Christianity came there was little care for the physically or mentally defective. Claudius was left to the society of his social inferiors, and coarse tastes were developed in him. The one bright side in his life was his devotion to scientific, especially historical, studies. Augustus saw some good in him, but kept him from the public gaze. At the succession of Tiberius in a.d. 14 he began to take some slight part in public life, but most of his time was spent on country estates. Gaius, grandnephew of Tiberius and nephew of Claudius, succeeded to the purple in a.d. 37, and raised his uncle to the consulship at once. Soon after, however, the feelings of the maddest of all the Emperors changed, and Claudius was once more in a position of disgrace. Claudius had married Plautia Urgulanilla (before a.d. 20), who bore him a son and a daughter, but was afterwards divorced for adultery. His marriage with aelia Paetina, by whom he had a daughter, had the same end. The notorious Valeria Messalina was his third wife, and by her a daughter was born about the year 40, and a son called Britannicus in 41. It is said that Claudius, after the murder of his nephew, was dragged from a remote part of the palace, where he was cowering in terror, and made Emperor almost unawares (25 Jan. 41) by the army. He now changed his name from Tiberius Claudius Nero Drusus Germanicus to that given above. His reign of thirteen years was very much more I successful than might have been anticipated.
Some of the more important events of his reign may be enumerated in the order of their occurrence.
In a.d. 41 certain reforms were made in the regulation of the corn supply, etc., which had suffered in Gaius’ reign. Many of these reforms were doubtless due to the Emperor’s freedmen, Narcissus, the ab epistulis, M. Antonius Pallas, the a rationibus, etc., who exercised a tremendous influence during his reign and acquired colossal fortunes in his service. In this year successes were gained in Mauretania and also against the Catti and Chauci in Germany; the eagle of Varus, captured in a.d. 9, was now recovered. Privileges were granted to the Jews of Alexandria; Agrippa (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) had his kingdom extended by the addition of Judaea and Samaria, and was thus ruler of all the territory that had once been Herod’s (a.d. 42). To facilitate the supply of corn to Rome, the building of a harbour at Ostia, the mouth of the Tiber, was decided on. War in Mauretania continued, and the district was made into two provinces, Mauritania Tingitana and Mauretania Caesariensis, which were each put under the command of an Imperial procurator. Pretenders to the Imperial throne were crushed (a.d. 42). Lycia, owing to disturbances, was made an Imperial province, under a legatus pro praetore. Britain was invaded for the first time since Julius Caesar (55 b.c.). A. Plautius landed with a strong army and fought against the Trinouantes in the south of the island. Claudius followed in person, defeated the enemy on the Thames, captured their chief city Camulodunum (Colchester), and returned to the continent after a sixteen days’ stay. The southern half of England was made into a province, and A. Plautius was appointed the first governor (43). King Agrippa of Judaea died, and his kingdom was again made a Roman province and put under a procurator. In this and next year (44-45) the pacification of Britain was continued. In a.d. 46 King Rhœmetalces ii. of Thrace having been murdered, his territory was made into a Roman province and put under a procurator. This was also the year of the great famine in Palestine (Acts 11:23; Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 49, 68, Expositor, 6th ser. xii. [1905] 299). In 47 the censorship was revived after a long period of disuse, the Emperor taking the office, and endeavouring to improve public morality. The eight-hundredth anniversary of Rome was celebrated with great éclat. New aqueducts and roads were built, and three letters were added to the alphabet. These last were to represent sounds as yet imperfectly represented, but they did not survive Claudius’ reign. A number of edicts were issued by the Emperor. A. Plautius was recalled from Britain, given an ovation, and succeeded by P. Ostorius Scapula, who had to repel an attack immediately on arrival. Cn. Domitius Corbulo gained victories in Germania Inferior. A census taken in the year 48 revealed a total of 5,984,072 Roman citizens (other reports vary, the largest number given being 6,941,000). Messalina was married according to legal form to C. Silius in October; immediately afterwards they and all their accomplices were put to death. Claudius married as his fourth wife his own niece, Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus. Her son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the future Emperor Nero, had the way thus paved for his accession. On the death of Herod, king of Chalcis, or soon after, his kingdom was given to Agrippa II., son of Claudius’ old friend. In the year 49, we see Agrippina at once occupying a position of authority in the State equal to if not greater than that of her husband. She betrothed her son to Octavia, Claudius’ daughter, and put him under the tuition of the great philosopher L. Annaeus Seneca. The Ituraean country and perhaps also Abilene were added to the Province Syria. Scapula was successful in Britain. In a.d. 50 the young Domitius was adopted by Claudius, as future colleague to his own son Britannicus. Other events are the war in Germany; the great success of Scapula-the wife, daughter, and brothers of Caratacus falling into the hands of the conqueror; Claudius’ edict expelling the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2), on account of their dissensions. The result of this edict was that for the four years 50-54 the Church of Rome was bereft of its Jewish members. The year 51 saw the danger of famine and the Emperor’s relief measures. In 52 astrologers were banished from Italy. Laws were passed as to children born of unions between free and slaves. Quarrels arose between Jews and Samaritans. Felix received the government of the whole of Judaea , Samaria, Galilee, and Peraea. Scapula warred against the Silures and died; he was succeeded by A. Didius Gallus, who drove the Silures out of Roman territory. In 53 Nero advanced, and Britannicus kept in the background. Agrippa ii. received, in place of his district Chalcis, the former tetrarchy of Trachonitis, Batanaea, Gaulanitis, and Abilene as his kingdom. In 54 Claudius was poisoned at the instance of Agrippina on 13 October.
Claudius was deified after his death. A skit preserved among the works of Seneca, and called ‘The Pumpkinification of Claudius,’ is among the most amusing relics of Latin literature.
This bald enumeration will show that much was done during the reign of Claudius. It is true that at all times he was too much under the dominion of evil women, and that he never thoroughly cast off the brutish habits contracted in his youth, but yet his reign was the most important for the Roman Empire in the period between the reigns of Augustus and of Trajan. The Empire was extended in various directions; much social legislation was carried out; and great public works, such as roads, aqueducts, harbours, were accomplished. The Emperor, like most of his class, was a hard worker, or countenanced the hard work of his freedmen. The position of importance occupied by these men is in fact a leading characteristic of the reign, and was most obnoxious to the old aristocracy, which may be said to have thus received its death-blow. The power of the Senate was greatly circumscribed. Claudius was, inter alia, something of an author. It was in fact the rule rather than the exception that Romans of high birth should, among their other accomplishments, be wielders of the pen. He began to write a history, but abandoned it unfinished. A second historical work was published, and some fragments of it have survived. He also wrote eight books of autobiography, and worked at Etrurian and Carthaginian history. The greater part of a speech he delivered in the Senate has been preserved on a bronze tablet at Lyons. His style is not without merits.
Literature.-Much valuable material has been found in the article by Groag and Gaheis in Pauly-Wissowa [Note: auly-Wissowa Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyklopädie.] , iii. cols. 2778-2839: cf. also A. v. Domaszewski, Gesch. der röm. Kaiser, ii. [Leipzig, 1909] pp. 21-46. On the chronology of events in the Claudian period referred to in the NT see W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, London, 1895, pp. 48ff., 68f., Was Christ born at Bethlehem?, do. 1898, p. 223f., Expositor, 6th series, xii. [1905] 299; the latest general treatment of Pauline chronology by the erudite French scholar, M. Goguel, in ‘Essai sur la chronologie paulinienne’ (RHR [Note: HR Revue de l’Histoire des Religions.] lxv. [1912] 285-339).
A. Souter.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Claudius'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/c/claudius.html. 1906-1918.
