After the assassination of Caligula,the Senate an opportunity to have Rome returned to a republic once more, but the Praetorian Guard new that without an emperor the services would not be needed, so they raised soon Claudius to the title. Claudius was a bit of a scalar and wrote a famous autobiography. Even though Claudius was not a military man, he did bring most of Britain under Roman control. Claudius's third wife, Messalina, used his fear of assassination to settle her own personal scores, leveling false accusations at her enemies to have them exiled or executed. Yet her own adulteries were many, but Claudius turned a blind eye to them. In the end, she married one of her lovers, probably intending for him to stage a coup. It was the quick actions of Claudius's secretary, Narcissus, that saved him. Narcissus got Claudius to a safe place and then had Messalina's lover dragged in and executed. Narcissus then arranged to have Messalina killed. After Messalina, he married Caligula's sister, the scheming Agrippina; she set her efforts on elevating Nero, her son by a previous marriage, over Britannicus, son of Claudius and Messalina. With Nero clearly in line for the succession, Agrippina conspired with an expert poisoner named Locusta to feed Claudius a mushroom that had been set with poison. Britannicus also died just four months later, another victim of poison. What a rotten lot those Romans could be to one another.

unknown coins > roman imperial coins > hammered coins > milled coins