The emperor, who expanded the Roman Empire to Britain, spent part of his travels playing dice. Claudius even wrote a book about the game, and according to historian Suetonius, his chariot had a special device that prevented the dice from tipping over while moving.
This is just one of the oddities with which the Roman ruler remains in ancient accounts. Claudius ruled from 41 to 54, but before ascending the throne he was long considered unfit for a public role. Suetonius' descriptions speak of unsteady knees, a trembling head, stuttering, confused speech, and involuntary salivation. According to him, these manifestations intensified when Claudius was angry or stressed.
The Emperor Who Played Foolishly
Claudius claimed to have deliberately exaggerated his weaknesses during the reign of his nephew Caligula. “I deliberately played the fool”, Suetonius reports him saying. Thus he explained how he managed to avoid the fate of other members of the imperial family, who were killed or fell from grace.
Historians cannot verify the authenticity of this confession. It is preserved in a biography written after Claudius's death, and his image in ancient texts is often colored by political feuds and literary exaggerations. Therefore, his oddities should be read as the testimony of ancient authors, and not as a certain medical diagnosis.
Banquets, fear and unusual absent-mindedness
Claudius loved huge banquets. Suetonius writes that some of them were attended by about 600 guests. At one celebration near the outlet of Lake Fucine, the water was turned on, but the wave flooded the place of the celebration and the emperor almost ended up in the water.
Even more unusual was his suspiciousness. Claudius would not visit a sick person before the room, bed and pillows had been checked. His visitors were searched, and his guard included armed soldiers even when he went to a banquet.
Suetonius also tells of moments when the emperor's absent-mindedness turned into absurdity. Claudius sometimes summoned people he had previously sentenced to death the next day to consult with them or play dice. When they did not appear, he sent someone to reproach them for being late.
Mushrooms and the Last Strangeness
Claudius' death on October 13, 54 AD is shrouded in the same uncertainty that marks many accounts of his life. Suetonius writes that the general opinion was that he was poisoned, but ancient authors disagree about who did it and how.
The most famous version is that the poison was put in a dish of mushrooms, to which Claudius had a particular weakness. Tacitus also connects his death to poisonous mushrooms, but describes different details about his subsequent illness. It is historically certain that after his death, power passed to his adopted son Nero.
Thus Claudius remains an unusual Roman emperor: a man described at once as physically clumsy, absent-minded and easily misled, but also as a learned administrator, historian and ruler under whom Rome conquered Britain.
Sources: history.com, bbc.com.im