A Brief History
On October 13, 54 A.D., Roman Emperor Claudius was poisoned to death, possibly by his wife, via tainted mushrooms!
Digging Deeper
Claudius is most famous for being Roman Emperor when the Roman Empire added Britain to its territory. As such, he is generally remembered for his expansion of Roman control over a territory that would remain in Roman possession for centuries. Yet it is with his personal life, particularly in his marriages, that we find all sorts of less impressive accomplishments.
His first marriage was to Plautia Urgulanilla (try saying that five times fast!). This marriage ended when he divorced her, alleging she committed adultery, while also suspecting her of involvement in the murder of her sister-in-law. To add further insult to injury, when she bore a child but months after their divorce, Claudius declared the child was not his and had it returned to her mother. Claudius married a second wife only to divorce her as well, albeit for less interesting reasons.
His third marriage, however, almost defies belief. Yes, some filmmakers even made the Italian sex comedy film Caligula II: Messalina, Messalina
After three wives being divorced or beheaded, surely a fourth wife would be better? No, of course not!
The fourth time he would not be the one to end the marriage. Agrippina the Younger, Claudius’s final wife, was also his niece. Yet, if the incest is not enough to raise a red flag, her ambitious nature should have done more to concern him. She had ambitions for her son Nero from her previous marriage rather than Claudius’s son with Messalina to become emperor and according to legend poisoned her husband with a plate of deadly mushrooms, which just goes to show if you live by the sword, you die by the…mushrooms? Oh, and as for Claudius’s son with Messalina, he too was poisoned at a party attended by Agrippina, his step-mother. If you are wondering about the fate of Agrippina and Nero, they also met bizarre and violent ends, but let us save those incidents for another day…
Question for students (and subscribers): Was Claudius a “good” emperor? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
The best and most entertaining primary sources on Claudius and his demise are the Apocolocyntosis by Seneca and “The Life of Claudius” by Suetonius. PBS also has an interactive game on its website in which you can play as Claudius and his successor Nero to see how you would do as a Roman Emperor!
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="322 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=322">87 Comments
Wow, the ice king is better at marriage than this guy. His speech impediment probably didn’t help him much with the ladies though.
I feel there were signs he shoudl’ve picked up like oh I dont know crossed, and or blood lusting eyes. Dudes walking out of her private rooms, maybe maps labeled “Secret Plans to Kill Emperor”
Theresa K
First, marrying within your own gene pool is probably never a very good idea! I think all these woman had an ulterior motive when they married him. I believe they were looking for power of their own and used him as a way to gain it because he was easily controlled.
He is just a really bad judge of character. Obviously none of the women loved him all they loved was the money and power.
I just think he jumped into marriages way too fast! And when that wasn’t enough, he married his niece? That doesn’t sound like a whack job at all… Anyways, I think the woman buttered him up and then when they got married, the women tried to use him to gain a powerful status of their own.
It is obvious, every women that was ambitious and wanted power tried to get with this guy. I think he didn’t come off intimidating; otherwise, his wives would be too scared to betray him and would have to much respect to do so as well. Either, he jumped into marriages too fast or married women for their looks or he just was too gullable .
I think it shows people did not believe he was a man of power or one who had a backbone. These women obviously did not respect him and thought they could use him to make themselves in a better position.
His longing for a companion was his downfall I think if you try and fail twice at marriage then you should just stop.
Perhaps he just had bad luck picking out wives. In any case I think you would have to be home more often then not to make a good relationship and to also make it last.
Claudius was too busy trying to expand the Empire. What was his wives supposed to do in the months that they had no contact. Perhaps if he would have been there more, he would have had better relationships. But he wouldn’t be as well known or popular today.
Perhaps Claudius was just a poor judge of character and was too hopelessly romantic to see that these women didn’t want him, but were after his power. Maybe he couldn’t resist a power-hungry female and was unable to learn from his previous wives. Or maybe we don’t have all the details. This paints Claudius as a victim, but maybe he was a huge jerk and the women were simply giving him what he deserved.
Maybe Claudius was not successful in any of his marriages because he was always gone. He obviously didn’t learn anything from the first or second marriage. If in fact he did stay around any of his wives longer maybe the first two would not have allegedly committed adultery.
Claudius was not successful partly probably because he was paranoid that his empresses were cheating on him and etc. If it was true then he obviously was just falling for lustful women that weren’t getting what they needed from him. Which in the end with his bad judgement of women it finally took his life.
Positions of power tend to draw unscrupulous characters; Claudius’ suspicions of infidelity were probably quite warranted (power, even imagined power, has a tendency to corrupt in more ways than just political). In addition to this, Claudius probably also succumbed to what many men have, still, and will continue to succumb to; mistaking initial lust for something that might have longevity and fulfillment.
Anybody who could have his wife executed has to be a real asshole and it was a matter of time before it caught up with him.
Claudius seems to have some insecurity issues. Loves too quickly, probably crowded his women, and probably quite the jerk after about the first week or so. His wife who had poisoned him probably wanted to not only to hog the wealth and all that comes with it, but she didn’t want to lose her head as well!!! Why not pretend to love someone and marry into riches, kill the man who had killed and disrespected the previous lovers, then inherit everything….well lets not forget to kill off everyone who has a chance of taking it all from you…..sounds good I probably would have “got” him before he “got” me!!!!
Clearly Cladius isn’t having much luck with the ladies. It’s unfortunate he was cheated on & had to deny his own child.
Very strange way of death for Claudius, and sad too, because he seemed to be running the empire well during his reign. I guess it just goes to show that women really can’t be trusted.
It’s crazy to me how quickly he went through wives and how different problems were with each of them.
It’s too bad about Claudius and his son but at least they weren’t betrayed by their own men like his predecessor, Caligula.
It is interesting how many wives he went through in such a short period of time.
Wow this was very fun to read. More intense than all the Hollywood marriage scandals of the past few decades that I can recall!
I think it’s cooler that he was able to add more territory to the Roman empire. The whole crazy wives thing is just a bonus.
Seems like he should have picked someone better to marry.
It’s hard to believe he went through so many wives. You think he would learn his lesson after the second or third wife.
You would think after having 3 wives and all 3 being divorced or beheaded that maybe being married was not for him….. But instead he was married once more and It cost him his life … That’s something that Hollywood should make a movie about!!!
If you watch the movie Claudius I, you’ll see that he was known to be the target for jokes.
Well seems like nothing can satisfy someone in power. Then again it was a different time and different place but still.
If the third time is not a charm… perhaps you should reconsider marrying again! — DAVID WARDLE
It looks like Claudius should have given up after that third wife. In his case a “happy wife” does not equal a “happy life.”
I guess deciding to stay single wasn’t an option at the time for poor Claudius
It is interesting to see that he married his own niece and that she out smarted him
I found it interesting that Claudius had so many marriages that ended in divorce. In those days, I didn’t even think divorce was permitted.
I’m never getting married. I can’t trust these ambitious women! Just kidding! It’s pretty ironic that all of these Roman emperors were being assassinated. I feel as if it would be a death sentence to hold such power in ancient Rome
That’s crazy that his wife may have been the one to poison him.
He should be just stayed single. Would have made things less complicated.
And it gets weirder… People need to stop with incest its getting disturbing. But its interesting that his wife may have been to poison him. Moral of the story don’t get married
Kinda weird marrying your niece, I wonder what the age difference was. I mean, she already had her own son, but Claudius had also gone through 3 wives like they were tissue paper.
I wonder how old Claudius’ niece actually was because she already had a son when she married Claudius! The age gap must have been extremely large, and I cannot believe she would go to so much trouble as to murder her husband who was also her uncle! That is extremely messed up in so many different ways.
I wonder if agrippina would have reconsidered if she knew what kind of emperor Nero would go on to be. Kind of a shame really.
It is all too common for people to simply just get beheaded, at least throughout history. I am fearing that we are heading toward a repeat of that.
What a crazy love life Claudius had! I think that hearing these stories of husbands beheading wives and wives poisoning their husband is insane that it might have been real! I could imagine having a ruler with such a weird life.
Maybe after his first three wives didn’t work out, Claudius should have just stopped trying…
I am actually really surprised that he just divorced his first and second wives, instead of killing them. I do feel however that he got his payback from his fourth wife for killing his other wives.
I don’t know why any one who knew the history of this mans wives would even consider marrying him…
Claudius just had some bad luck in regards to finding reasonable wives.
Once again, it’s a shame that such potential was wasted. I think that emperor Claudius could have potentially been better than Caesar or Augustus if his wife hadn’t murdered him. It’s pretty sad that human beings in general can have such a complex in terms of power and will do literally anything (even ruining potentially one of the greatest leaders of Rome and possibly human history). It’s a lesson that people in power should really watch who they associate themselves with, because it wouldn’t surprise me that stuff like this still happens today.
I think it sucks how Claudius had to marry three times! Thinking that the third one was the charm, he was poisoned by her!
Ew its weird to think he married his niece…but he should have picked better wives and maybe not killed them
Claudius really had bad luck with the ladies. His second marriage seemed to have the least problems, or maybe like it says they were just the least interesting. Either way all four of his marriages ended out bad, so maybe it was him.
There are some weird and interesting stories about these Roman emperors and this is one of them.
Wow this guy sure does know how to pick wives.
I probably would have been a little hesitant after the first 3 marriage fails.
It’s always mind jarring to think that an Empress would challenge a prostitute to see who could sleep with the most men in a night, and win!
Would seem that maybe Claudius wasn’t so good at picking his spouses. Sad one of the few decent Emperors from that period was killed by his strange domestic mishaps.
I feel like after the second failed marriage you should probably given up and I think he should have followed that rule. I find it interesting he did not claim his own kid!
I feel he had really bad luck picking his wives so as the saying goes third time the charm so I would have stopped then. since it caused him his life with his fourth wife killing him with mushrooms.
I would think that his niece would have been more loyal, since she was family. Ironically, she turned out to be the worst wife of the bunch!
i find it interesting how many times marriage between family members happened in these times, if someone did that now it would be very disliked
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Claudius should have stayed married to his second wife. The third and fourth wives were crazy, and marrying your niece is disgusting!
Persistence counts for something, right?
I find odd how it was almost a must to constantly have a wife. I feel as though back in the B.C. era and earlier that it was custom to always be married no matter how many times it did not work. Unfortunately for him he just had really bad luck, marriages did not work and they eventually ended up killing him. If it were not a custom to be married at all time he may have never been killed by eating mushrooms.
He should have just stayed married to his second wife. And his niece, really? So gross.
He had terrible luck. Marrying your niece then being poisoned by your third wife! that’s insane and it really sucks for him.
I understand that he needed an heir to his throne, but at this point, was it necessary to continue to marry? I know this was common for the time, but completely unnecessary.
I think that he should have stayed married to his second wife and not go for the third! I find it so gross about him marrying his niece. Maybe if he stayed married to his second wife he would still be alive.
Why were people so obsessed with having an heir to take over? Why did they have to get married before trying to produce an heir? Just made the process more tedious.
it surprises me he did not claim his own child.
I have never heard of such a story! I also cannot believe that he was remarried 4 times.. that just about shocked me as much as his wife poisoning him!
It shocks me that someone would remarry so many times! Reminds me of the TV show Friends when Ross gets married a lot… 😀
he sure knows how to pick them lol
Seems like the easy fix to bad marriages back in the day was to just kill the other off, glad it is not like that anymore!
Back in ancient times, it seems that if a marriage was not going well, divorce was not the option. Instead killing the other person was a better option to them. I am glad that in today’s society, if a marriage is not doing well then the two get a divorce and that is the end of it.
My Italian class covered a section over old marriage laws in Italy that supposedly made murder a favorable alternative to divorce in society for awhile. There’s even a film about it. Ancient Rome seems to have had similar ideas, when it came to bad marriages.
Thankfully laws have advanced and divorces are an option rather than just killing the other.
the links provided were pretty neat and added value to the article
I feel that polygamous relationships are bad in a sense due to the risk of all of the wives that have been divorced can band together and kill their ex-husband.
It is one thing to poison your husband, but Claudius was also Agrippina the Younger’s Uncle! I could see an interesting parody of this as a reality TV show.
Marriage in ancient times seems to be utility more often than love with all the killing between spouses we saw.
This is why you don’t marry your niece
incest is disgusting but in the ancient times it seems to be very common.
The fact that the Empress took on a prostitute to see who could sleep with the most men is hilarious.
Apparently he didn’t have very good taste in women.
He should of just stayed single! hahah! Back in the day i would make someone tase my food and drink every time if i was a king!
Good for him for getting back on the market. Horrible choices of women, but he tried.
I would have been thoroughly disappointed had this story not been turned into a comedy of some form. I’m proud of the human species that it has.
I feel like Claudias got his just desserts after he split up with 3 other women. Interesting that he was done in by mushrooms though.