1 / 6

Claudius Caesar

Claudius Caesar. The Fourth Agustus By Te Whenua and Josh. Ascension. After the death of Gaius in 41, at the hands of the Praetorian guard. Claudius was supposedly forced to the position of emperor by the Praetorian guardsmen.

mira-bond
Download Presentation

Claudius Caesar

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Claudius Caesar The Fourth Agustus By Te Whenua and Josh

  2. Ascension • After the death of Gaius in 41, at the hands of the Praetorian guard. Claudius was supposedly forced to the position of emperor by the Praetorian guardsmen. • After he supposedly ‘re accepted the position he made a ‘donation’ of 15000 sesterces to each Praetorian guard, annually.

  3. Maintaining Power • Claudius maintained power through appealing to all of Roman society. • He appealed to the nobles with privileges such as; dropping of treason trials, recalling of exiles and promised immunity. • The people were appeased when he hosted many gladiatorial games. • He pleased both the army and the plebeians with the triumph for the British campaign. • He maintained authority over the Praetorian guardsmen by paying each 15,000 sesterces every year.

  4. Character • Claudius was physically weak and unstable on his feet, possibly from surviving polio. • Due to this he and his family thought he would no be capable of holding prominent public offices. As this letter written by his family tells us. • “...The question is whether he has- shall I say? – full command of his five sense. If so I see nothing against sending him through the same degrees of office his brother; the public.....must not be given a chance of laughing at him and us. I fear we shall find ourselves in constant trouble if the question of his fitness to officiate in this or that capacity keeps cropping up. We should therefore decide in advance whether he can or cannot be trusted with offices of state generally.” • As a child he studied under Livy, learning Greek and the skill of oratory.

  5. Impact on Roman life • As Emperor Claudius undermined the power of the senate. • He did so by establishing a central bureaucracy directly under his command which shared many of the functions of the senate. • Provincials were allowed into the senate. • Provincials could become Patricians. • He installed loyal commanders within the Praetorian Guard.

  6. Decline • Claudius was believed to be poisoned by Agrippina, one of his wives in 54. • This would benefit Agrippina the younger, considering the next emperor was her son.

More Related