and one or two others. After
the discovery of a conspiracy against his life in 42, he fell completely
under the influence of Messallina and his favourite freedmen Pallas and
Narcissus, who must be held responsible for acts of cruelty which have
brought undeserved odium upon the emperor. There is no doubt that
Claudius was a liberal-minded man of kindly nature, anxious for the
welfare of his people. Humane regulations were made in regard to
freedmen, slaves, widows and orphans; the police system was admirably
organized; commerce was put on a sound footing; the provinces were
governed in a spirit of liberality; the rights of citizens and admission
to the senate were extended to communities outside Italy. The speech of
Claudius delivered (in the year 48) in the senate in support of the
petition of the Aeduans that their senators should have the _jus
petendorum honorum_ (claim of admission to the senate and magistracies)
at Rome has been partly preserved on the fragment of a bronze tablet
found at Lyons in 1524; an imperial edict concerning the citizenship of
the Anaunians (15th of March 46) was found in the southern Tirol in 1869
(_C.I.L._ v. 5050). Claudius was especially fond of building. He
completed the great aqueduct (Aqua Claudia) begun by Caligula, drained
the Lacus Fucinus, and built the harbour of Ostia. Nor were his military
operations unsuccessful. Mauretania was made a Roman province; the
conquest of Britain was begun; his distinguished general Domitius
Corbulo (_q.v._) gained considerable successes in Germany and the East.
The intrigues of Narcissus caused Messallina to be put to death by order
of Claudius, who took as his fourth wife his niece Agrippina, a woman as
criminal as any of her predecessors. She prevailed upon him to set aside
his own son Britannicus in favour of Nero, her son by a former marriage;
and in 54, to make Nero's position secure, she put the emperor to death
by poison. The apotheosis of Claudius was the subject of a lampoon by
Seneca called _apokolokyntosis_, the "pumpkinification" of Claudius.

Claudius was a prolific writer, chiefly on history, but his works are
lost. He wrote (in Greek) a history of Carthage and a history of
Etruria; (in Latin) a history of Rome from the death of Caesar, an
autobiography, and an essay in defence of Cicero against the attacks of
Asinius Gallus. He also introduced three new letters into the Latin
alphabet: [Latin character] for the consonantal V, [Latin c