wives or his freedmen. He was poisoned by the contrivance of Agrippina his wife, and died on the 13th of October, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign, A. Ú. 807. After his death he was numbered among the gods. His deification was treated with contempt and ridicule by Seneca, in a tract still extant, entitled, Claudii Cæsari Apocolokintosis. The general design of the piece is not ill imagined; but the humour is often coarse, and, upon the whole, inferior to what might have been expected from the lively genius of that entertaining writer. Claudius, with all the appearance of inert faculties and an impassive mind, devoted his time, in repose and indolence, to literature and the polite arts. He was not entirely void of taste. His compositions in Greek, as well as Latin, were written with purity and even elegance. Two pieces of a brass table have been found at Lyons, on which is engraved a speech of Claudius, in charac ters so plainly legible, that Dotteville (in his edition of Tacitus) has given an exact copy, faithfully compared with the original (see at the end of his Notes to Annals, book xii).Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 2, 10, 41, 42. Tacit. Annal. xii. s. 69. Seneca, Apocolokintosis. Pliny, book xxxvi. c. 15, s. 24. 101. Plautia Urgulanilla, daughter of Aulus Plautius, who had enjoyed the splendour of a triumph. She was the first wife of the emperor Claudius, and by him repudiated on account of her licentious manners, and a suspicion of homicide that blackened her character.-Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 26. Dio, book lx. L 102. Drusus, són of the emperor Claudius and Urgulanilla. A match between him and the daughter of Sejanus was projected by that ambitious favourite A. U. 773; but Drusus, as yet of tender years, lost his life by an accident. A pear, which in a playful manner he had tossed up in the air, fell into his mouth and choked him. Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 27. Tacit. Annal. iii. s. 29. 103. Claudia, daughter of Urgulanilla. She was born in less than five months after her mother's divorce from Claudius; and yet the emperor thought proper to disown her as his child, alleging that she was begot by one of his freedmen, and as such he ordered her to be left naked at her mother's door. Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 27. 104. Elia Petina, daughter of Quintus Ælius Tubero, who was consul A. U. 743. She was the second wife of Claudius, but on some frivolous occasion soon repudiated.-Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 26. 105. Antonia, daughter of the emperor Claudius and Ælia Pepina. Claudius gave her away in marriage to Cneius Pompeius (see No. 106), and afterwards to Cornelius Sylla (see No. 107). Nero, after the death of Poppæa, proposed to marry her; and his offer being rejected, he condemned her to suffer death, on a pretended charge of plotting against the state.—Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 27. Life of Nero, s. 35. Tacit. Annal. xii. s. 68. 106. Cneius Pompeius, a youth of noble descent, married to Antonia (No. 105) A. U. 794. He was some time after put to death by order of Claudius.-Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 27 and 29. 107. Faustus Cornelius Sylla, of illustrious birth, the second husband of Antonia (No. 105). He was banished by Nero into Narbon Gaul, and there put to death by assassins dispatched from Rome, A. U. 815.—Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 27. Tacit. Annal. xiii. s. 23; xiv. s. 57. For Messalina, the third wife of Claudius, see No. 26. 108. Britannicus, son of Claudius and Messalina, born 12th February, A. U. 794. By his birth, and his father's intention, who carried him in his arms and recommended him as heir apparent to the affections of the army, he was next in succession to the sovereignty; but by the artful policy of Agrippina, the fourth wife of Claudius, he was postponed to Nero, and afterwards destroyed by poison, in the fourteenth year of his age, A. U. 808.-Suet. Life of Claudius, s. 27. Tacit. Annal. xii. s. 25; xiii. s. 15 and 16. For Octavia, the sister of Britannicus, see No. 36. For Agrippina, the mother of Nero by Domitius Ænobarbus, and afterwards the wife of Claudius, see No. 93. Agrippina, see Vipsania Agrippina. Agrippina, daughter of Agrippa and wife of Germanicus Antonia the elder, daughter of Octavia and Anthony the Antonia the younger, sister of Antonia the elder, and wife of Nero Claudius Drusus Antonius (M Julius), husband of Marcella the younger 29 Appius Junius Silanus, husband of Domitia Lepida 25 32 21 Atia, wife of Caius Octavius Atius Balbus, husband of Julia, the sister of Julius Cæsar Augustus, see Octavius Augustus. Aurelia, mother of Cæsar the dictator 398 No. B. Balbus, see Atius Balbus. Blandus, see Rubellius Blandus. Britannicus, son of the emperor Claudius C. 108 Casonia, see Milonia Cæsonia. Cassius Longinus, husband of Drusilla Claudius, emperor, see Tiberius Claudius. Cornelia, wife of Julius Cæsar Cornelius Sylla, husband of Antonia Cossutia, wife of Julius Cæsar Drusilla, daughter of Caligula, see Julia Drusilla. Drusus, brother of Tiberius, emperor, see Nero Drusus |