The family tree that decided the throne

Claudius’s four wives, his children and Nero’s adoption in AD 50.

Transcript

Claudius had four wives in his life.

He divorced two of them before he became emperor.

The third, Messalina, gives him Octavia and Britannicus.

The son is the natural heir.

AD forty-eight: Messalina disappears.

In AD forty-nine Agrippina appears, the emperor’s niece, with her son.

In AD fifty Claudius adopts the boy.

From then on he is Nero, and stands in line ahead of Britannicus, the emperor’s own son.