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Message:: [QUOTE="Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, post: 4942849, member: 99554"]The Emperor Claudius died OCTOBER 13th 54 AD ; and he was killed, wasn't  he ?  And who wanted him dead ? Who assassinated him ? Let's analyze what history tells us. The contextClaudius was Roman Emperor from 41-54 AD. His father was Nero Claudius Drusus and his mother Antonia minor. Claudius married four times, after two failed engagements. His personal life is not very happy: Messalina, his third wife, gives him two children, Octavia and Britannicus, but his misconduct, or his political ambition, pushes Claude to have her executed. In fourth marriage, he marries his niece Agrippina the Younger, who makes him adopt Nero. The real reason for his last marriage was probably that Claudius realized the weakness of his position as a member of the Claudian but not the Julian family. This weakness was compounded by the fact that he did not yet have an obvious adult heir, Britannicus being just a boy. The motiveAccording to Suetonius and Tacitus, in the months preceding his death, Claudius regrets his marriage to Agrippina and the adoption of Nero; he openly laments his "shameless, but not unpunished" wives and considers giving his manly gown to Britannicus, although he is not yet of age. If Dion Cassius affirms that Claudius wants to eliminate Agrippina and designate Britannicus as his successor, the other authors are less clear on the intentions of Claudius. He is sixty-four years old and his health has deteriorated. Suetonius says he feels his end is near, makes his will and recommends that senators take care of his sons. <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Claudius_Pio-Clementino_Inv243.jpg/1267px-Claudius_Pio-Clementino_Inv243.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Claudius around 50 AD The historyMany historians wrote about Claudius' death. The first one was Seneca the Younger who was a contemporary of the Emperor. He reported that Claudius died of natural causes ( Apocolocyntosis 4 ) : "He expired, moreover, while listening to comic actors, so you understand it isn’t without reason that I am afraid of those fellows".But he had personal reasons to hate Claudius, who had sent him into exile in Corsica in 41, following court intrigues. Seneca had tried to obtain his recall by writing the Consolation to Polybius; in spite of the flattery towards this Imperial freedman, who had Claude's ear, it was in vain. It was only a few years later, probably in the spring of 49, that he was able to return to court, on the intervention of Agrippina... Pliny the Elder was an author and philosopher during the time of Claudius. He wrote in his Naturalis Historia (Book 2, xxiii,2): " still witness, in our time, the poisoning which made Nero succeed the Emperor Claudius; finally witness the reign of this prince, during which the influence was almost continual and fatal". In 94 AD, the Romano-Jewish historian Josephus wrote (Antiquities of the Jews XX,8,1) :"Now Claudius Caesar died when he had reigned thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days; and a report went about that he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina". Tacitus reported around 115 AD (The Annals 12.66) : "Thereupon, Agrippina, who had long decided on the crime and eagerly grasped at the opportunity thus offered, and did not lack instruments, deliberated on the nature of the poison to be used. The deed would be betrayed by one that was sudden and instantaneous, while if she chose a slow and lingering poison, there was a fear that Claudius, when near his end, might, on detecting the treachery, return to his love for his son. She decided on some rare compound which might derange his mind and delay death. (...) writers of the time have declared that the poison was infused into some mushrooms, a favourite delicacy, and its effect not at the instant perceived, from the emperor's lethargic, or intoxicated condition. His bowels too were relieved, and this seemed to have saved him. Agrippina was thoroughly dismayed. Fearing the worst, and defying the immediate obloquy of the deed, she availed herself of the complicity of Xenophon, the physician, which she had already secured. Under pretence of helping the emperor's efforts to vomit, this man, it is supposed, introduced into his throat a feather smeared with some rapid poison". Suetonius in 120 AD wrote (The life of the twelve Caesars 44.2) : "That Claudius was poisoned is the general belief, but when it was done and by whom is disputed. Some say that it was his taster, the eunuch Halotus, as he was banqueting on the Citadel with the priests; others that at a family dinner Agrippina served the drug to him with her own hand in mushrooms, a dish of which he was extravagantly fond". Cassius Dio in 230 AD reported (Roman History book LXI, 35): " The emperor received the state burial and all the other honours that had been accorded to Augustus. Agrippina and Nero pretended to grieve for the man whom they had killed, and elevated to heaven him whom they had carried out on a litter from the banquet. <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Basanite_statue_of_Agrippina_the_Younger_depicted_as_a_priestess%2C_discovered_during_the_excavations_in_1885_of_the_military_hospital_that_was_build_over_the_villa_Casali%2C_54-59_AD%2C_Centrale_Montemartini%2C_Rome_%2821516299863%29.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Basanite statue of Agrippina the Younger 54-59 AD Medically, several details provided by ancient authors, inability to speak but persistent tenderness to pain, diarrhea, semi-comatose state, are consistent with symptoms of poisoning. Other authors pretend, however, that it could be a matter of food poisoning or accidental poisoning , a malaria attack or a heart attack. So what's your verdict ? Who was the killer ? Agrippina? Nero ? Xenophon ? or Halotus ?ConclusionClaudius is thus the first deified emperor after Augustus. This deification is commemorated by a coinage. Agrippina built a temple dedicated to her worship, the Temple of the Divine Claudius, on a huge terrace on the Caelius. Nero abolishes this cult after Agrippina's death and transforms this temple into a nymphaeum overlooking the Domus aurea. Vespasian restores it and re-establishes the worship of the divine Claudius.......... On the day of Claudius' death, show me your coin of this Emperor, of his successor Nero or of his beloved wife Agrippina ! Claudius As RIC 116[ATTACH=full]1188214[/ATTACH]Claudius Dupondius RIC 110[ATTACH=full]1188213[/ATTACH]Nero Sestertius RIC 223[ATTACH=full]1188219[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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