Claudius

Claudius Emperor A. D. 41 - 54 Claudius was found hiding behind some balcony curtains by soldiers in the palace after the murder of Caligula by the Praetorian Guard. Instead of seizing and killing him, as Claudius was almost sure they would do, they raised him up on their shoulders and made him emperor! Many writers have depicted Claudius as kind of a befuddled, harmless old man who had been made Emperor so that Romans would have …

…dagger so she could kill herself, a death considered honorable by the Roman aristocracy. When she attempted but could not bring herself to commit suicide, he ran her through with his short sword. Claudius finally ended up marrying Agrippina the Younger, mother of the future emperor Nero. Claudius may have died from an illness but the historians of the period have charged Agrippina with his murder. She supposedly fed him a dish of poisoned mushrooms.