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Claudius and Agrippina get hitched despite the fact that she was his niece. She immediately starts to get rid of her enemies, reward her supporters, and prepare the ground for the next stage of her plan to make her young son, Nero, the emperor. The post Claudius #13 – Roman Incest appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

It's 48 CE. Messalina is dead. So now Claudius needs a new wife. There are several candidates, including Julia Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, making her Claudius' niece. Conveniently, her rich husband had recently died. She is also the mother of a young boy called Domitius Ahenobarbus - but who will soon change his name to Nero. The post Claudius #12 – Lips That Grip appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo - brother-in-law of Caligula - is sent by Claudius to Germany to deal with some rebellious tribes. But he's TOO successful, so Claudius calls him home. Messalina decides to get married again - while still married to Claudius. Surprisingly he isn't too happy about it when he finds out. So she has a date - with a sword. The post Claudius #11 – Deviant Behaviour appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

In 43 Claudius is consul again. Messalina is setting him up with girls to bang while she’s running sex parties in another part of the palace. Then he invades Britain, finishing the job Julius Caesar started nearly a century earlier. The post Claudius #8 – Invading Britannia appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

While the attempted coup was going on, Claudius had troops in Mauretania under the command of Suetonius Paulinus. One of Paulinus’ officers, Gnaeus Hosidius Geta, chases the Moors over the Atlas Mountains and into the desert - where he has to call on foreign gods to save his legions. The post Claudius #7 – Mauretania appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Claudius was a builder and a visionary. Humble and generous. He liked gladiatorial contests a little too much. But then there was his wife. Valeria Messallina. Like Livia, Messallina often gets blamed for some of the deaths that occurred early in his reign. The post Claudius #6 – The Revolt appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Claudius was a builder and a visionary. Humble and generous. He liked gladiatorial contests a little too much. But then there was his wife. Valeria Messallina. Like Livia, Messallina often gets blamed for some of the deaths that occurred early in his reign. The post Claudius #5 – The Wife appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

When Caligula was assassinated in 41, Claudius hid in a room of the palace called the Hermaeum, and then behind a curtain on a balcony. According to Suetonius, he was discovered by a soldier named Gratus - Gratitude - who said to his colleagues: "This is a Germanicus; come on, let us choose him for our emperor." But many in the Senate wanted to see him dead and a return to the republic. The post Claudius #4 – The Good Emperor appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

When Caligula was assassinated in 41, Claudius hid in a room of the palace called the Hermaeum, and then behind a curtain on a balcony. According to Suetonius, he was discovered by a soldier named Gratus - Gratitude - who said to his colleagues: "This is a Germanicus; come on, let us choose him for our emperor." But many in the Senate wanted to see him dead and a return to the republic. The post Claudius #3 – The Emperor appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

For most of his life, Claudius was the Rosemary Kennedy of the Caesars. Without the ice pick lobotomy. Hidden from the public. If he wasn’t allowed to participate in Roman affairs, he would look elsewhere. He became a historian, writing a ton of books about his family, the Carthaginians, and about Etruscan history. But he wasn't boring. He was a bit of a womaniser, and loved to watch games in the arena, gambling, eating, drinking. Things only started to turn around for him when became Caligula’s co-consul in 37 - but whether or not this was Caligula's little joke is hard to say. The post Claudius #2 – The Historian appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

The first 50 years of Tiberius Claudius Nero's life was a mixture of wealth, power and cruelty. With symptoms similar to cerebral palsy, the young Claudius was called “a monstrosity of a human being, one that Nature began and never finished" - by his own mother. He was kept out of public life and power by his adoptive grandfather, Augustus, and his successor, Tiberius. He was treated as a fool and a joke by his nephew, Caligula. But after Caligula's assassination, he took power by force, becoming Rome's first true IMPERATOR. The post Claudius #1 – The Monster appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Caligula got back to Rome around May 40 but stayed outside of the city until he could celebrate his ovation on his 28th birthday, 31 August. In the meantime he met with delegations from various parts of the world, including Philo's delegation from Alexandria, and Herod Antipas and his wife, Herodias, from Judaea. Conspiracies against him are everywhere. The post Caligula #20 – Hairy Antipasto appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Ray recently interviewed Lindsay Powell about Caligula. I asked Ray for show notes. This is what he gave me. "We talked of keeping the sources in context, considering the times they lived it and agenda. He went deep. Then his analysis of the events in the German border and the coast of Britain. And his apparent fickleness, which in a ruler, effects everyone but also how people like Suetonius probably used that." See? That's what I have to work with. The post Caligula #19 – Lindsay Powell on Caligula appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Many historians claim that Caligula’s demand to be treated as a living god is a sure sign of madness. And yet - JESUS claimed the same thing and nobody calls HIM insane. Why does he get special treatment? On this episode, we drill down into the evidence for the claim about Caligula. The post Caligula #18 – Living God appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Sometime around the year 40, Caligula executed Ptolemy, the king of Africa Proconsularis and Roman ally. It's usually portrayed as evidence of his insanity and greed - but perhaps there is an alternative explanation. The post Caligula #16 – Bless The Rains appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Caligula built a 3-mile long bridge over the Bay of Naples. Why? So he could ride over it to prove someone wrong. Then he marries his third and last wife, Caesonia. Then he fires two consuls for not celebrating his birthday and starts a general purge of governors who are called back to Rome and, in some cases, charged with majestas. There's conspiracy in the air. The post Caligula #14 – The Great Purge appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

In 39 CE, Caligula walked into the Senate and tore them all a new one. The gloves came off. The nice guy act was over. He criticized them for enabling Sejanus' persecution of his family and for criticizing Tiberius when in fact they urged him on. Then he reinstated majestas. The Senate responded by thanking him and singing his praises. The post Caligula #13 – No More Mr Nice Guy appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

From his sickbed he named his favorite sister, Drusilla, to inherit the imperial “property and the throne”. But when he recovered, he decided to rid himself of some enemies, real or imagined, including Gemellus, Macro and Silanus, his former father-in-law. The post Caligula #12 – The Divine Drusilla appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

From his sickbed he named his favorite sister, Drusilla, to inherit the imperial “property and the throne”. But when he recovered, he decided to rid himself of some enemies, real or imagined, including Gemellus, Macro and Silanus, his former father-in-law. The post Caligula #11 – Paranoia appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Caligula's absolute favourite thing in the world, apart from spending money, is screwing. And seriously, who can blame him. It's good to be the king. And, like Ray, he was happy to be a power bottom. He liked horse racing, and was fond of poisoning other team's horses and riders. He liked actors, and was fond of beating people up who interrupted performances in the theatre. I wish we could do that to people who write moronic iTunes reviews. And then, a few months after he became Emperor, Caligula fell seriously ill. It would be the turning point of his reign. The post Caligula #10 – “Anal Maintenance” appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.