Join us for our 2024 Summer Workshops

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Emperor Claudius, the fourth emperor, and next to last of the Julio-Claudians; at the time of his death he was 64, and in the 14th year of his reign. The older sort of historiography that took judgment as its duty as much as mere description (with both good and bad results) traditionally regarded him as one of the “bad” emperors. This perception was changed mostly by the very sympathetic portrait of him given by the historical novels of the English author Robert Graves, I, Claudius, and its sequel, Claudius the God. In 1976, the BBC turned them into a television mini-series, which is justly regarded as one of the best of its genre ever made, and stars some of the finest actors of the era: Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Brian Blessed as Augustus, Siân Phillips as Livia, Patrick Stewart as Sejanus, and John Hurt as Caligula. The series is very faithful to the books, and reproduces many of the justifications, some plausible, some manifestly specious, which Graves proffers for some of the less edifying episodes of Claudius’ career.

No small part of the traditional negative judgment of Claudius comes from the fact that he set up Nero, who by any sane man’s judgment is counted among the bad emperors, to succeed him. Graves’ Claudius does this in the belief that out of disgust for the obviously vicious Nero, the Romans would rise up against the principate and restore the Republic. The last chapter is occupied with his plan to save his son Britannicus and set him up as the future restorer, a plan which Britannicus himself rejects in favor of trying to beat Nero at the game of imperial thrones. Claudius thus despairs, acquiesces to the inevitable, and accepts that Nero will rule and destroy his own family, including Britannicus. The second book ends with Claudius simply saying, “Write no more”, since its internal literary conceit is that it is his autobiography. (Claudius did write such a book, which has long since been lost to posterity.)

In the mini-series, however, mentally exhausted by failure, he knowingly allows himself to be poisoned by his last wife, the younger Agrippina (also known as Agripinilla). This is pure invention of the writers, but grounded in the consensus of the ancient historians that Claudius was murdered by poison, and she mostly likely the instigator of the murder, in order to secure her son Nero’s position.

(Busts of Claudius and Agrippina; the former in the Vatican Museums, the latter in the National Museum of Warsaw. Both public domain images from Wikimedia Commons.)

“Tum Agrippina, sceleris olim certa et oblatae occasionis propera nec ministrorum egens, de genere veneni consultavit, ne repentino et praecipiti facinus proderetur; si lentum et tabidum delegisset, ne admotus supremis Claudius et dolo intellecto ad amorem filii rediret. Exquisitum aliquid placebat, quod turbaret mentem et mortem differret. deligitur artifex talium vocabulo Locusta, nuper veneficii damnata et diu inter instrumenta regni habita. eius mulieris ingenio paratum virus, cuius minister e spadonibus fuit Halotus, inferre epulas et explorare gustu solitus.

Adeoque cuncta mox pernotuere ut temporum illorum scriptores prodiderint infusum delectabili boleto venenum, nec vim medicaminis statim intellectam, socordiane an Claudii vinolentia; simul soluta alvus subvenisse videbatur. Igitur exterrita Agrippina et, quando ultima timebantur …  provisam iam sibi Xenophontis medici conscientiam adhibet. ille tamquam nisus evomentis adiuvaret, pinnam rapido veneno inlitam faucibus eius demisisse creditur, haud ignarus summa scelera incipi cum periculo, peragi cum praemio.

Then Agrippina, long determined on the crime, and quick to seize the opportunity offered, and not lacking helpers, took advice about the kind of poison to be used, so that the evil deed might not be revealed by sudden, hasty action; but if she chose something slow and wasting, Claudius, facing his end and understanding her treachery, might revert to love for his son (Britannicus). Something carefully chosen was needed, which would disturb the mind and delay death. An artist in such things was found, a woman named Locusta, lately condemned on a charge of poison, and long retained among the instruments of power. By this woman’s ingenuity a potion was prepared, to be administered by Halotus, one of the eunuchs, who usually to brought in and tasted the emperor’s food.

So widely did all these things soon become known, that the historians of the period recorded that the poison was introduced into a tasty mushroom, but the full force of the drug was not immediately felt, either because of Claudius’ lethargy or his drunkenness; at the same time a loosening of the bowels seemed to relieve him. Agrippina was therefore terrified, and since she feared her own demise, … she invoked the complicity of the doctor Xenophon, already prepared by her. He, as if encouraging (Claudius’) efforts to vomit, is believed to have plunged a feather smeared with a swift-acting poison down his throat, knowing full well that the greatest crimes with danger and end with a reward.” (Tacitus Annals 12, 66-67)

Suetonius, however, thinks the details less certain.

“Et veneno quidem occisum convenit; ubi autem et per quem dato, discrepat. Quidam tradunt epulanti in arce cum sacerdotibus per Halotum spadonem praegustatorem; alii domestico convivio per ipsam Agrippinam, quae boletum medicatum avidissimo ciborum talium optulerat. Etiam de subsequentibus diversa fama est.

It is agreed that he was killed by poison, but when and by whom is disputed. Some say that it was the eunuch Halotus his foodtaster, as he was banqueting in the citadel with the priests; others, that at a family dinner Agrippina served him a drugged mushrooms, a dish for which he was very greedy. The reports of what followed also differ.” (Life of Claudius, 44)