-Contrary to what everyone expected, Claudius was a pretty good ruler!
-Quick note: the Romans during this time still didn't refer to the princeps as "imperator" ("emperor"), instead still calling him "Caesar", "Augustus", or, of course, "Princeps". During this time imperator still had martial connotations, as it essentially meant "commander" in the Roman military.
-Roman conquest of Britain- started in 43 AD by Claudius (see last chapter).
-Usually when the Romans invaded, they set up a client state in the conquered territory with a puppet king that gave the people living there a thin veneer of independence, but this was not the case with Britannia; when the Romans invaded they immediately began direct administration.
-Claudius would die before seeing Roman Britain fully pacified, as it would take until the end of the first century BC for the province to become truly conquered.
-They ultimately had to give up on conquering Caledonia (essentially modern-day Scotland), however, which is one reason why the future emperor Hadrian ended up having the fortification known as Hadrian's Wall built in 122 AD.
-During the conquest, some of the Britannic hordes fled west (into modern-day Wales) to fortify a position there and use guerrilla warfare against the Romans.
-Caratacus, chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe and leader of the Britannic resistance against Rome, tried his best to cause as much trouble as possible against the Romans, but he was ultimately defeated in battle.
-He was captured and sent back to Rome to live as a prisoner.
-He actually ended up giving a powerful speech in front of the Senate. Impressed, Caludius allowed him to live in Rome as a free man.
-As for Claudius' personal life, he had horrible luck with women.
-He had been forced to be betrothed to his cousin, Aemilia Lepida, but this marriage was called off by Augustus when her parents fell out of favor due to political strife.
-After this he was betrothed to Livia Medullina (daughter of a former consul), but she died on their wedding day!
-After this he was married to Plautia Urgulanilla, but they eventually divorced due to her adultery and other sketchy behavior (also, their son, Claudius Drusus, had died in his teens by choking on a pear or something, but this sounds really fishy).
-His second wife was Aelia Paetina, another former consul's daughter and sister of Sejanus (via adoption). However, he ended up divorcing her when all the shit hit the fan with Tiberius and Sejanus.
-His third wife was Valeria Messalina, an ambitious woman who seemed to be excited about marrying the uncle of Caligula. She fit in well with Caligula's debauched court, but needed Claudius to stay alive in order to keep her hold on power.
-When it was proposed that Claudius be executed during Caligula's madness, Messalina always fought hard to have Claudius not be killed.
-After Caligula's death, however, Messalina became much more powerful as wife of the princeps!
-She and Claudius had two kids- Claudia Octavia and Britannicus (named after Claudius' successes in Britannia).
-She was fully involved in all the politics and intrigue of the Roman government, and apparently worked quite closely with Narcissus. Oh, and she was also banging EVERYONE.
-All historical sources point to Messalina being vain, cruel, and a nymphomaniac.
-Claudius seemed to be oblivious to all of this, unfortunately.
-Messalina's downfall occurred when Claudius' niece, Agrippina (the Younger; sister of Caligula), arrived in Rome. She was quite popular with the Roman public and received a warm welcome, showing up Messalina.
-Agrippina the Younger was also a direct descendant of Augustus; Messalina didn't have that kind of familial lineage.
-Agrippina was also quite ruthless herself, and it was obvious that she was laying the groundwork for her son, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, to somehow cut in line to be the next princeps.
-Instead of getting it together and shoring up her own support (in addition to support for Britannicus), she instead stupidly plotted to dispose of Claudius. This was a really dumb plan.
-She got busted when she made the great decision to get married (even though she was already married to Claudius) to a consul in a giant wedding that was a huge party and drew a ton of attention.
-Narcissus decided that this was going too far and it was incredibly obvious what Messalina's intentions were, so he went to Claudius and ratted on her.
-Some shit went down, there was a bunch of drama, but Claudius apparently couldn't bring himself to give the order to have Messalina executed, so Narcissus used the seal of the princeps to send the order instead. Thus, Messalina was executed in 48 AD.
-Claudius' fourth wife was his cousin, Agrippina! Why?!
-All of Claudius' advisers had nominated different women for him to marry after Messalina's execution (based on their own political alliances and loyalties).
-Pallas' recommendation (Agrippina) is what Claudius ended up choosing because he wanted to unite family lines. However, because Claudius and Agrippina were so closely related (cousins), this was quite controversial, even for the incestuous Julio-Claudian dynasty!
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