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CLAUDIUS
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CLAUDIUS , the name of a famous See also:Roman gens. The by-See also:form See also:Clodius, in its origin a See also:mere orthographical variant, was regularly used for certain Claudii in See also:late republican times, but otherwise the two forms were used indifferently. The gens contained a patrician and a plebeian See also:family; the See also:chief representatives of the former were the Pulchri, of the latter the Marcelli (see See also:MARCELLUS). The following members of the gens deserve particular mention. 1. APPIUS SABINUS INREGILLENSIS, Or REGILLENSIS, CLAUDIUS, so called from Regillum (or Regilli) in See also:Sabine territory, founder of the Claudian gens. His See also:original name was Attus or Attius Clausus. About 504 B.C. he settled in See also:Rome, where he and his followers formed a tribe. In 495 he was See also:consul, and his cruel enforcement of the See also:laws of debtor and creditor, in opposition to his milder colleague, P. Servilius See also:Priscus, was one of the chief causes of the " See also:secession " of the See also:plebs to the Sacred See also:Mount. On several occasions he displayed his hatred of the See also:people, although it is stated that he subsequently played the See also:part of mediator. Suetonius, Tiberius, i.; See also:Livy ii. 16-29; See also:Dion. Halic. v. 40, vi. 23, 24. 2. CLAUDIUS, APPIus, surnamed See also:CRASSUS, a Roman patrician, consul in 471 and 451 B.C., and in the same and following See also:year one of the decemvirs. At first he was conspicuous for his aristocratic See also:pride and See also:bitter hatred of the plebeians. Twice they refused to fight under him, and fled before their enemies. He retaliated by decimating the See also:army. He was banished, but soon returned, and again became consul. In the same year (451) he was made one of the See also:decemviri who had been appointed to draw up a See also:code of written laws. When it was decided to elect decemvirs for another year, he who had formerly been looked upon as the See also:champion of the See also:aristocracy, suddenly came forward as the friend of the people, and was himself re-elected together with several plebeians. But no sooner was the new See also:body in See also:office, than it treated both See also:patricians and plebeians with equal violence, and refused to resign at the end of the year. Matterswere brought to a crisis by the affair of See also:Virginia. Enamoured of the beautiful daughter of the plebeian See also:centurion Virginius, Claudius attempted to seize her by an abuse of See also:justice. One of his clients, See also:Marcus Claudius, swore that she was the See also:child of a slave belonging to him, and had been stolen by the childless wife of the centurion. Virginius was summoned from the army, and on the See also:day of trial was See also:present to expose the See also:conspiracy. Nevertheless, See also:judgment was given according to the See also:evidence of Marcus, and Claudius commanded Virginia to be given up to him. In despair, her See also:father seized a See also:knife from a neighbouring See also:stall and plunged it in her See also:side. A See also:general insurrection was the result; and the people seceded to the Sacred Mount. The decemvirs were finally compelled to resign and Appius Claudius died in See also:prison, either by his own See also:hand or by that of the executioner. For a discussion of the See also:character of Appius Claudius, see See also:Mommsen's appendix to vol. i. of his See also:History of Rome. He holds that Claudius was never the See also:leader of the patrician party, but a patrician See also:demagogue who ended by becoming a See also:tyrant to patricians as well as plebeians. The decemvirate, one of the triumphs of the plebs, could hardly have been abolished by that body, but would naturally have been overthrown by the patricians. The revolution which ruined Claudius was a return to the See also:rule of the patricians represented by the See also:Horatii and Valcrii. Livy iii. 32-58; Dion. Halic. x. 59, xi. 3. 3. CLAUDIUS, Anplus, surnamed CAECUS, Roman patrician and author. In 312 B.C. he was elected See also:censor without having passed through the office of consul. His censorship—which he retained for five years, in spite of the lex Aemilia which limited the See also:tenure of that office to eighteen months—was remarkable for the actual or attempted achievement of several See also:great constitutional changes. He filled vacancies in the See also:senate with men of See also:low See also:birth, in some cases even the sons of freedmen (Diod. Sic. xx. 36; Livy ix. 3o; Suetonius, Claudius, 24). His most important See also:political innovation was the abolition of the old See also:free birth, See also:freehold basis of See also:suffrage. He enrolled the freedmen and landless citizens both in the centuries and in the tribes, and, instead of assigning them to the four See also:urban tribes, he distributed them through all the tribes and thus gave them See also:practical See also:control of the elections. In 304, however, Q. See also:Fabius Rullianus limited the landless and poorer freedmen to the four urban tribes, thus annulling the effect of Claudius's arrangement. Appius Claudius transferred the See also:charge of the public See also:worship of See also:Hercules in the See also:Forum Boarium from the Potitian gens to a number of public slaves. He further invaded the exclusive rights of the patricians by directing his secretary Gnaeus Flavius (whom, though a freedman, he made a senator) to publish the legis actiones (methods of legal practice) and the See also:list of See also:dies See also:fasti (or days on which legal business could be trans-acted). Lastly, he gained enduring fame by the construction of a road and an See also:aqueduct, which—a thing unheard of before—he called by his own name (Livy ix. 29; See also:Frontinus, De Aquis, 115; Diod. Sic. xx. 36). In 307 he was elected consul for the first See also:time. In 298 he was in-See also:text-ex; in 296, as consul, he led the army in Samnium, and although, with his colleague, he gained a victory over the Etruscans and See also:Samnites, he does not seem to have specially distinguished himself as a soldier (Livy x. 1o). Next year he was See also:praetor, and he was once See also:dictator. His character, like his namesake the decemvir's is not easy to define. In spite of his political reforms, he opposed the See also:admission of the plebeians to the consulship and priestly offices; and, although these reforms might appear to be democratic in character and calculated to give preponderance to the lowest class of the people, his probable aim was to strengthen the See also:power of the magistrates (and lessen that of the senate) by See also:founding it on the popular will, which would find its expression in the urban inhabitants and could be most easily influenced by the See also:magistrate. He was already See also:blind and too feeble to walk, when See also:Cineas, the See also:minister of See also:Pyrrhus, visited him, but so vigorously did he oppose every concession that all the eloquence of Cineas was in vain, and the See also:Romans forgot past misfortunes in the See also:inspiration of Claudius's patriotism (Livy x. 13; See also:Justin xviii. 2; See also:Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 19). The See also:story of his See also:blindness, however, may be merely a method of accounting for his cognomen. Tradition regarded it as the See also:punishment of his transference of the cult of Hercules from the Potitii. Appius Claudius Caecus is also remarkable as the first writer mentioned in Roman literature. His speech against See also:peace with Pyrrhus was the first that was transmitted to See also:writing, and thereby laid the See also:foundation of See also:prose See also:composition. He was the author of a collection of aphorisms in See also:verse mentioned by See also:Cicero (of which a few fragments remain), and of a legal See also:work entitled De Usurpationibus. It is very likely also that he was concerned in the See also:drawing up of the Legis Actiones published by Flavius. The famous dictum " Every See also:man is the architect of his own See also:fortune " is attributed to him. He also interested himself in grammatical questions, distinguished the two sounds R and S in writing, and ,did away with the See also:letter Z. See Mommsen's appendix to his Roman History (vol. i.) ; See also:treatises by W. Siebert (1863) and F. D. Gerlach (1872), dealing especially with the censorship of Claudius. 4. CLAUDIUS, PuBLrus, surnamed PULCHER, son of (3). He was the first of the gens who See also:bore this surname. In 249 he was consul and appointed to the command of the See also:fleet in the first Punic See also:War. Instead of continuing the See also:siege of Lilybaeum, he decided to attack the Carthaginians in the See also:harbour of Drepanum, and was completely defeated. The disaster was commonly attributed to Claudius's treatment of the sacred chickens, which refused to eat before the See also:battle. " Let them drink then," said the consul, and ordered them to be thrown into the See also:sea. Having been recalled and ordered to appoint a dictator, he gave another instance of his high-handedness by nominating a subordinate See also:official, M. Claudius Glicia, but the nomination was at once over-ruled. Claudius himself was accused of high See also:treason and heavily fined. He must have died before 246, in which year his See also:sister Claudia was fined for publicly expressing a wish that her See also:brother Publius could rise from the See also:grave to lose a second fleet and thereby diminish the number of the people. It is supposed that he committed See also:suicide. Livy, Epit., 19; See also:Polybius i. 49; Cicero, De Divinatione, 16, ii. 8 ; See also:Valerius See also:Maximus i. 4, viii. 1. 5. CLAUDIUS, Appms, surnamed PULCHER, Roman statesman and author. He served under his brother-in-See also:law See also:Lucullus in See also:Asia (72 B.C.) and was commissioned to deliver the See also:ultimatum to See also:Tigranes, which gave him the choice of war with Rome or the surrender of See also:Mithradates. In 57 he was praetor, in 56 See also:pro-praetor in See also:Sardinia, and in 54 consul with L. Domitius See also:Ahenobarbus. - Through the intervention of See also:Pompey, he became reconciled to Cicero, who had been greatly offended because Claudius had indirectly opposed his return from See also:exile. In this and certain other transactions Claudius seems to have acted from avaricious motives,—a result of his See also:early poverty. In 53 he entered upon the governorship of See also:Cilicia, in which capacity he seems to have been rapacious and tyrannical. During this See also:period he carried on a See also:correspondence with Cicero, whose letters to him form the third See also:book of the Epistolae ad Familiares. Claudius resented the See also:appointment of Cicero as his successor, avoided See also:meeting him, and even issued orders after his arrival in the See also:province. On his return to Rome Claudius was impeached by P. See also:Cornelius See also:Dolabella on the ground of having violated the See also:sovereign rights of the people. This led him to make advances to Cicero, since it was necessary to obtain witnesses in his favour from his old province. He was acquitted, and a charge of See also:bribery against him also proved unsuccessful. In 50 he was censor, and expelled many of the members of the senate, amongst them the historian See also:Sallust on the ground of immorality. His connexion with Pompey brought upon him the enmity of See also:Caesar, at whose See also: 2 (1899). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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