Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus was born at Lugdunum, today's Lyon, in 10 BC. In poor health, with a limp and a stammer, he was kept out of public life by his own family and spent his early years writing history. When Caligula was murdered in AD 41, Suetonius says, a soldier found Claudius hiding behind a curtain in the palace, and the Praetorian Guard made him emperor. He was fifty.

He needed a victory, and Britain gave him one. Julius Caesar had landed there twice a century before but had not stayed. In AD 43 Aulus Plautius led four legions across the Channel and fought his way to the Thames. According to Cassius Dio, Plautius waited there for Claudius, who arrived with elephants among his forces, took command, crossed the river and captured Camulodunum, the chief town of the Catuvellauni. Dio adds that he stayed in Britain for only sixteen days. Back in Rome he celebrated a triumph, and arches were raised in his honor. As emperor he also built a new harbor near Ostia, completed two aqueducts and added three new letters to the alphabet, which did not outlive him.