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Freedmen and wives

While Claudius may have been an accomplished leader, he certainly had a weak spot for his choice of company and advisors. Whether or not he was pliable, or whether the prejudices of the time meant those around him assumed he could be manipulated due to his disabilities, is hard to tell, though he certainly surrounded himself with questionable characters. Rather than relying on the Senate, he instead became largely reliable of Greek freedmen and his wives, though he likely felt marginalised by a Senate who both treated him with contempt due to his disabilities, and resented the failure to return Rome to a republic following the death of Caligula. It is interesting to think about how disability inhibited people, and thus civilisations, throughout history, and Claudius is an example of someone who may have courted far less controversy had he benefitted from a cooperative Senate. It is also worth remembering that ancient sources likely took a contemptuous view of disability, so likely exaggerated people’s traits and provided unfair criticism – much as is done by ancient sources to women throughout history.

Claudius did not pioneer the use of freedmen to assist in administration, though as he centralised the Empire and the burden grew, so did their involvement. Slavery at the time was as awful an institution as it has been throughout human history, and far less discriminatory than how slavery is usually considered today (in the context of the Trans-Atlantic slave), in that all civilisations would make slaves of one another. This was often done through warfare, when towns were captured, or armies surrendered, though also through debt bondage, as a punishment for crime, or being born into slavery. While slaves did exist to do appalling menial jobs such as mining, or even spectacularly dangerous roles such as gladiatorial combat, many educated slaves also existed in administrative roles. Unlike the plantations of the New World which sought to keep slaves ignorant to prevent rebellion, Roman slavery had clear hierarchies where intelligence and learning was valued, in addition to youth and beauty. Thus slaves who were literate and could support the bureaucracy were extremely useful and valuable, and their quest to venture their status would prevent seeds of rebellion from growing. Cato the Elder even bought slaves who he would then teach, in order to increase their value to sell them on as administrators. Slaves ultimately sought to achieve manumission, which would be a given for those in imperial governance, though aside from the change in social status and additional rights, freedmen were still far down the social ladder, below even the lowliest citizen, and in practice far still essentially bound to the Imperial Court following their freedom, thus giving rise to the array of freedmen administrators.

The imperial secretariat was divided into bureaus under the governance of these freedman, who would often form their own competing factions as they sought to assert more control over the Imperial Court. The two chief freedmen were Narcissus, who was secretary for correspondence, and Pallas, secretary for the Treasury – two other bureau leaders would not survive Claudius’ reign. Callistus was secretary for justice, and likely died having been an advocate for a potential wife that was not chosen by Claudius, while Polybius, heading the miscellaneous bureau, was executed for treason after Claudius’ third wife tired of him as a lover. Such freedmen wielded enormous power and could speak on behalf of the emperor, such as when Narcissus addressed the legions ahead of the invasion of Britannia.

The Senators were aghast at such prominent positions being gifted to former slaves, and took the view that they could easily manipulate Claudius. The emperor did give them due credit, and many amassed a personal wealth under his service, with several noted as being wealthier than Crassus, the richest man in Rome but a century before. However he also punished disloyalty, with Pallas’ brother Felix another to be executed.

Claudius is also recorded as being a womaniser, having four marriages after two failed betrothals. The first of these engagements was ended for political reasons, the second due to his fiancé’s sudden death of their wedding day. His first marriage, to Urgulanilla, saw the pair have a son, only for him to die as a teenager while engaged to the daughter of Sejanus. Claudius later divorced her on grounds of adultery, and on suspicion that she had murdered her sister in law. When she gave birth to a daughter shortly after their divorce, he claimed the child was born of the freedman she was having an affair with. Soon after her (around 28 AD), he married Paetina, likely to adoptive sister of Sejanus, and they had a daughter. Claudius ostensibly divorced her for political reasons, though it may have been due to her abusive nature of criticising his disabilities.

Several years later, he married Messalina, his first cousin once removed, closely allied to Caligula’s circle. They had a daughter and a son, who was born shoirtly after Claudius’ ascension to the Principate, and would be known by his father’s cognomen, Britannicus. The marriage descended into farce, with Messalina accused of being a nymphomaniac who was routinely unfaithful to Claudius – she even took on Rome’s top prostitute to see who could bed to most men in one night, with Messalina winning. However, sexual deviancy and promiscuity are often claims used against women by historians seeking to discredit and demonise them. In 48 AD, she married her lover Silius in a public ceremony while Claudius – still her husband – was in Ostia (fighting a killer whale!). Under Roman law, a spouse needed to be informed of divorce before a subsequent marriage, and Claudius was in ignorance. Silius likely convinced Messalina that Claudius was doomed, and her best hope to preserve her children was to wed him and usurp the position. Unsurprisingly, the result when Claudius found out was the execution of Silius, Messalina, and most of her inner circle, leaving Britannicus in an awkward position.

Claudius married once more, with his freedmen proposing three candidates – Caligula’s third wife Paulina, Claudius’ second wife Paetina, and his niece, Agrippina the Younger. The “feminine wiles” of the latter saw Claudius choose her, with special dispensation agreed so he could marry his niece. She gradually exerted her power over Claudius, removing her opponents so her son from a former marriage, Ahenobarbus, could rise to be Princeps. She was also an attractive political match, returning Claudius to the Julian family, and providing an heir while his own son, Britannicus, was still a boy. Ahenobarbus was one of the last males of the imperial family, and one of the few remaining descendants of Augustus, and Claudius duly adopted him as his own son, marrying him to Claudius’ daughter Octavia, and making him joint-heir with Britannicus. Both the concepts of adoption and joint heirs was already common practice in the Imperial Court.

This fourth marriage would prove to be Claudius’ last, and he died in October 54 AD, ending a 13-year-reign, at the age of 63. Agrippina is usually put forward as being arranging his poisoning, using either mushrooms or a feather (which would usually be pushed down the throat to induce vomiting if poisoning was suspected). The couple’s relationship had soured, with Claudius lamenting openly about his bad wives, and he was looking to restore Britannicus to the fold as he approached manhood. He did have an unhealthy lifestyle though, and serious illnesses in his later life, so may have merely died of old age – though the need to ensure the ascension of Ahenobarbus, and not just the prominence of Britannicus, indicate foul play. He was deified immediately after death, with his ashes placed in the Mausoleum of Augustus. Now a new power play would develop, with joint-heirs rarely working as an effective form of governance. The freedman Narcissus openly backed Britannicus as the heir to the Principate, while Pallas advocated for the son of Agrippina to assume the post. Ahenobarbus would go on to become the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and in an effort to endear himself to the Roman people he adopted a simpler family name – Nero.