Claudius (lived 10 BC–AD 54)

Claudius was born at Lugdunum (Lyon). Lame and stammering, regarded by his family as unfit to rule, he became emperor in AD 41 after the murder of Caligula: according to Suetonius a guardsman found him behind a curtain and hailed him as emperor.

He ruled competently: in AD 43 he invaded Britain, enlarged the harbor at Ostia and promoted administrators from outside the Senate, for which senatorial historians portrayed him with hostility. He had four wives, among them Messalina, and in AD 49 he married his niece Agrippina. In AD 50 he adopted her son Nero.

He died on October 13, AD 54. According to many sources he was poisoned, but the sources disagree on who did it and when, and some scholars allow for a natural death. Under his rule Vespasian fought in Britain.