Claudius
Emperor Claudius, full name Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) or Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"]) served as the Emperor of the Roman Empire during the 1st century, notably acting as such during the Roman conquest of Britain. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"], GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"], AUDIO: The Relics of Time [+]Loading...["The Relics of Time (audio story)"], etc.)
He was the grandson of Mark Antony and the nephew of Caligula, his predecessor as Emperor. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) After his death, he became a noted history professor in the City of the Saved as Professor Anthony M. Fisher. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"]) The Doctor met Claudius at some point prior to regenerating into the Second Doctor, (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People [+]Loading...["Invasion of the Cat-People (novel)"]) and may have done so again as the Third Doctor. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"]) The Fourth Doctor additionally encountered a demon who was impersonating Claudius. (AUDIO: The Relics of Time [+]Loading...["The Relics of Time (audio story)"])
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early life[[edit] | [edit source]]
Claudius was born in 10 AD in Lugunum, the son of a famous Rman general; he was the grandson of Mark Antony and one side, and, on the other, of Augustus's wife. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Claudius had a childhood sweetheart named Camilla, but she died at the age of eleven. PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"])
Ascension to power[[edit] | [edit source]]
Over the course of his life, Claudius had four wives; he loved the third the most, but she was repeatedly unfaithful, which made him a joke among his contemporaries, (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"]) combined with his physical disabilities. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, AUDIO: The Relics of Time [+]Loading...["The Relics of Time (audio story)"])
Claudius, then married to Messalina, became Emperor when Caligula was assassinated, being proclaimed as such by the Praetorian Guard. This came as an unwanted shock to Claudius, who never wished to be Emperor, instead hoping to see the Roman Republic restored within his lifetime. However, despite enduring widespread ridicule, he proved a surprisingly capable and hardworking ruler, albeit susceptible to manipulation from Messalina and some of the freemen who served within his government. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Shortly after his regeneration, the Second Doctor attested that he had encountered Claudius, describing him as a "nice old chap" despite his "dreadful stammer". The Doctor borrowed plans for a swimming pool from Claudius, constructing a TARDIS swimming pool based on them. (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People [+]Loading...["Invasion of the Cat-People (novel)"])
Conquest of Britain[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the 40s, (PROSE: Byzantium! [+]Loading...["Byzantium! (novel)"]) specifically 43 AD, Claudius initiated a conquest of Britain for the Empire, hoping a military victory would help secure his position on the throne. He did not lead most of it himself, (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) but visited Britain himself for nineteen days (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"], AUDIO: The Relics of Time [+]Loading...["The Relics of Time (audio story)"]) in time for the final defeat of King Caratacus of the Catuvellauni (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"], PROSE: Byzantium! [+]Loading...["Byzantium! (novel)"]) and the subsequent march on Camulodunum, rejoining his military commander Aulus Plautius, who was less than enthused at his monarch sweeping in at the last moment to take the credit. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, "In the Roman Camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Roman Camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
When the War Chief hatched a plot to create a new army for himself by taking over and technologically boosting the Roman Empire, he decided to take over by capturing the "weak-willed" Claudius at a vulnerable moment in his timeline and hypnotising him to take orders from him. To do so, he began posing as the god of the Sacred Wood to various Northeron Briton tribes who were not initially meant to get involved in the war, massing a second army to ambush Claudius's on the way to Camulodunum. The War Chief's intention was to have his me captured Claudius in the confusion of battle, hypnotise him, then allow him to "escape", now mentally conditioned. (GAME: "The War Chief" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"The War Chief","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) However, the Tribune Marcus Cornelius Falco and a few of his men, part of an advance scouting party, escaped from a clash with the War Chief's Briton warriors, and, joining forces with a group of time travellers, (GAME: "Falco's Story" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Falco's Story","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) went back to Claudius's camp to warn him about the ambush.
Being quite concerned with his own safety, Claudius was willing to hear them out, and inclined to halt the advance — to the point that the time travellers were worried he might abandon the conquest too early, which would have caused another divergence from official history. Ultimately, pulled in different directions by various advisors, he agreed to a few days' halt. (GAME: "In the Roman Camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Roman Camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) The following night, brainwashed soldiers who had been hypnotised to believe they were saving an ally from imprisonment were sent to the camp by the War Chief and attempted to abduct Claudius right there and then, but they were stopped and captured, allowing the time travellers to realise the nature of the plot at work. They then slipped away from the camp to confront the renegade Time Lord directly, (GAME: "Shadows in the Night" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Shadows in the Night","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) eventually defeating him. (GAME: "Ending the Adventure" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Ending the Adventure","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
After the real Claudius returned to Rome, a demon impersonated him, claiming to have escaped the Empire and joined a Celtic nation as a form of retirement. This was actually a trap for the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Relics of Time [+]Loading...["The Relics of Time (audio story)"])
Later events[[edit] | [edit source]]
A "few years" after the conquest of Britain, Claudius, in one of his blind rages, had his wife executed, only to forget that he had done so and inquire after her at breakfast the next morning. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"])
Death and resurrection[[edit] | [edit source]]
Claudius died in his sixties. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"]) By one account, his death occurred in the 1st century decade of the 50s, (PROSE: Byzantium! [+]Loading...["Byzantium! (novel)"]) although another account, in placing his birth in 10 AD, would have had him be only in his forties by that time. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
In the City of the Saved[[edit] | [edit source]]
After his death, he was resurrected in the City of the Saved, where he tried to reunite with Camilla. However, the difference in their ages and experiences was too vast, so he bitterly built himself a new name and backstory: Professor Anthony M. Fisher, an amateur scholar and historian from 20th century England. In AF 10 he earned tenure as a professor at Aelfred College in the University of the Lower Watchtower, where he became Chair of History in AF 44 and Gibbonian Chair of European History in AF 176. During this time, he married two of his students, Ellen Thirteeno and Gloria Gloria, although both relationships ended in divorce. Finally, he married fellow professor Allisheer St Marx in AF 209.
As Fisher, he wrote or contributed to more than fifty publications in the City, and he had an entry in Who's Who in the City of the Saved. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"])
Following the City of the Saved Civil War, Claudius was resurrected again in the second City of the Saved. (PROSE: God Encompasses [+]Loading...["God Encompasses (short story)"])
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Braxiatel Collection had the lost diaries of Emperor Claudius. (PROSE: The Glass Prison [+]Loading...["The Glass Prison (novel)"])
In Roma I, Marcus Americanius Scriptor commissioned and extensively edited an award-winning biography of Claudius written by his fellow soldier Sepulcrius. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia [+]Loading...["Warlords of Utopia (novel)"])
Physical appearance[[edit] | [edit source]]
Claudius appeared as a "tall, handsome, dignified man with abundant white hair and considerable charm". However, he had several physiological disabiities; he walked with "a pronounced limp", had a "consistently runny nose", sometimes burst into "loud and raucous laughter" at random, and had a nervous tic which sometimes caused his head to "toss uncontrollably from side to side". (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) Most famously, he had a severe, distinctive stutter, (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"], PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People [+]Loading...["Invasion of the Cat-People (novel)"], AUDIO: The Relics of Time [+]Loading...["The Relics of Time (audio story)"]) which got worse when he was nervous. (AUDIO: The Relics of Time [+]Loading...["The Relics of Time (audio story)"]) He was resurrected in the sixty-year-old body he had at his death. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved... [+]Loading...["Of the City of the Saved... (novel)"])
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
Claudius was an intelligent man, but smarter than he was wise, reminiscent of a classic "absent-minded professor"; he came across as somewhat vulgar despite his education. His usual manner was timid and suspicious, but he sometimes flew into sudden fits of bloodthirsty rage, sometimes forgetting what he had done or said in such a state once the episode was over. He was easily manipulated when uncertain, but unshakably stubborn once he had made up his mind about something. Having lived through the reigns of no less than three Roman Emperors before himself gaining the position, he was very concerned with his personal safety, being "prone to believing in any rumoured plots against him"; he ordered all visitors searched and all his food tested for poison by a food-taster. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Derek Jacobi, David Warner, and Tom Goodman-Hill have portrayed Claudius in adaptations of I, Claudius. Jacobi later reprised his role in Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans.
- Steve Pemberton played Claudius in Britannia.
