Pallas stated to the emperor that as Lucius was the grandson to Claudius's late brother Germanicus, by marrying Agrippina, Claudius would ally the two branches of the Claudian house and imperial family.

He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life.

# Nero, as well as being Claudius's great-nephew, was also his stepson, because Nero's mother Agrippina the Younger was Claudius's niece and fourth wife.

# Tiberius was Claudius's paternal uncle

Caligula seized Nero's inheritance and sent him to be raised by his less wealthy aunt, Domitia Lepida, who was the mother of Valeria Messalina, Claudius's third wife.

At any rate, after Claudius's death he vented on him every kind of insult, in act and word, charging him now with folly and now with cruelty ; for it was a favourite joke of his to say that Claudius had ceased " to play the fool among mortals, lengthening the first syllable of the word morari, and he disregarded many of his decrees and acts as the work of a madman and a dotard.

He was suffect consul for the second half of 29, and held a provincial governorship, probably of Pannonia, in the early years of Claudius's reign: another inscription shows he oversaw the building of a road between Trieste and Rijeka at this time.

Plautius was a ( probably distant ) relative of Claudius's first wife, Plautia Urgulanilla.

As he lies dying, Laertes confesses to the treachery and reveals that it was Claudius's plot.

He was the leader of the Praetorian Guard during the first ten years of the reign of the Emperor Claudius, until 51, when Claudius's new wife Agrippina the Younger removed him from this position.

However, apparently before Claudius could decide what to do with him, Aureolus was murdered by Claudius's Praetorian Guard, supposedly in revenge for Aureolus's rebellion against Gallienus which had evoked great fury in the ranks of the Imperial comitatus which obviously did not share the treasonable disloyalty to that Emperor's regime of its most senior officers.

Later in 41, she fell out of favour with Valeria Messalina ( Claudius's third wife ) and was charged by her paternal uncle Claudius for having adultery with Seneca the Younger.

Sometime later, Paulina became a rival to Caligula's sister Agrippina the Younger and was considered a choice for fourth wife of Caligula's uncle, the Emperor Claudius, following the death of Claudius's third wife, the Empress Valeria Messalina.

Germanicus married Vipsania Agrippina, Agrippa's daughter by Julia and Tiberius's stepdaughter, and had by her one surviving son, Gaius " Caligula " (" Little Boots "), and a daughter, Julia Agrippina, whose second husband was Germanicus's brother by blood, Claudius ( she was his fourth wife ); Agrippina had already borne a son, Lucius, whom Claudius adopted under the name Nero in 40 ; Nero married Claudius's daughter Claudia Octavia in 53.

Lastly, he was a paternal great-uncle of the Emperor Caligula, Julia's grandson by Agrippa, and the Empress Agrippina the Younger, Julia's eldest granddaughter, and Claudius's niece and fourth wife, as well as other children fathered by Germanicus and his wife Agrippina the Elder: Nero Caesar, Drusus Caesar, Julia Drusilla, and Julia Livilla.

Through his half-sister Antonia Major and stepsister Claudia Marcella Minor, he was also great-uncle to Claudius's third wife Valeria Messalina.

* Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus the elder ( committed suicide on New Year's Day, 49 ), praetor in 48 who was engaged to Claudius's daughter Claudia Octavia until Agrippina the Younger spread false rumors about his alleged incest with his sister Junia Calvina.

He was charged with overseeing the construction of a canal to drain Fucine Lake, but Agrippina, now Claudius's fourth wife, accused him of embezzling funds from the project, possibly as punishment for his support of Britannicus.

Her elder half-sister was Claudia Antonia, Claudius's daughter through his second marriage to Aelia Paetina, and her full sibling was Britannicus, Claudius's son with Messalina.

Apostrophe is often used to convey extreme emotion, as in Claudius's impassioned speech in Hamlet.

Polonius is Claudius's trusted chief counsellor ; Polonius's son, Laertes, is returning to France, and Polonius's daughter, Ophelia, is courted by Hamlet.

He will have them stage a play, The Murder of Gonzago, re-enacting his father's murder and determine Claudius's guilt or innocence by studying his reaction to it.

Claudius's high status is reinforced by using the royal first person plural (" we " or " us "), and anaphora mixed with metaphor to resonate with Greek political speeches.

Claudius's collected works were published under the title of Asmus omnia sua secum portans, oder Sämtliche Werke des Wandsbecker Boten ( 8 vols., 1775 – 1812 ; 13th edition, by C. Redich, 2 vols., 1902 ).

This is highlighted by Claudius's failed attempts to revive the Republic ; by the attempts of various characters to ' restore ' the Republic but with themselves as the true rulers ; and by Claudius noting that ' by dulling the blade of tyranny, I reconciled Rome to the monarchy ' – i. e., in his attempts to rule autocratically but along more Republican lines, he has only made the Roman people more complacent about living under a dictatorship.

At the very end — after all the major characters except Horatio are dead — Fortinbras and his army enter, accompanied by ambassadors from England who have come to announce that Claudius's supposed orders to execute Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been carried out.

Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother.

Shakespeare expects the audience to appreciate the poetic justice of their deaths: while they are very likely ignorant of the deadly contents of the letter they carry to England, and are to that extent innocent victims of Hamlet's retaliation ; they are seen as having received their just deserts for their participation in Claudius's intrigues.

7 ) calls him Claudius Felix, or for Claudius's mother Antonia Minor, a daughter of Triumvir Mark Antony to Octavia Minor and niece of Emperor Augustus.

Richard Smith is a character in Elizabeth Oakes Smith's 1867 novel Bald Eagle ; or, The Last of the Ramapaughs, which portrays Claudius's son as seeking vengeance on the people of Orange County for the killing of his father.

Narcissus may have feared that Britannicus, Claudius's son with Messalina, would hold a grudge against him for this role.

Claudius's reaction is one of guilt and horror, and Prince Hamlet is convinced that the ghost is, in fact, his father.

The historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio depict an overweening, even domineering dowager, ready to interfere in Tiberius ’ decisions, the most notable instances being the case of Urgulania ( grandmother of Claudius's first wife Plautia Urgulanilla ), a woman who correctly assumed that her friendship with the empress placed her above the law, and Munatia Plancina, suspected of murdering Germanicus and saved at Livia's entreaty.

This feud dated back to Agrippina's mother's actions against Tiberius after the death of her husband Germanicus ( Claudius's brother ), actions which Tiberius had gladly punished.

In this production, the actors playing Hamlet, Claudius and Polonius exchanged roles at crucial moments in the performance, including the moment of Claudius's death, at which point the actor mainly associated with Hamlet fell to the ground.

Upon marrying Claudius, Messalina became a stepmother to Claudia Antonia, Claudius's daughter through his second marriage to Aelia Paetina.

In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, " The Mousetrap " is Hamlet's answer to Claudius's inquiry about the name of the play whose prologue and first scene the court has just observed ( III, ii ).

Narcissus also stated that Paetina would cherish Claudia Octavia and Britannicus, Claudius's children with Messalina.

One of Claudius's investigators discovered that many old Roman citizens based in the modern city of Trento were not in fact citizens.

The historian Tacitus suggests that Claudius's ongoing term as Censor may have prevented him from noticing the affair before it reached such a critical point.

In his dying moments, Laertes is reconciled with Hamlet and reveals Claudius's murderous plot.

Claudius's speech is rich with rhetorical figures — as is Hamlet's and, at times, Ophelia's — while the language of Horatio, the guards, and the gravediggers is simpler.

In 1748, Alexander Sumarokov wrote a Russian adaptation that focused on Prince Hamlet as the embodiment of an opposition to Claudius's tyranny — a treatment that would recur in Eastern European versions into the 20th century.

Leopold Jessner's 1926 production at the Berlin Staatstheater portrayed Claudius's court as a parody of the corrupt and fawning court of Kaiser Wilhelm.

When Livia Drusilla died in June 29 AD, Antonia took care of Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla, Julia Livilla and later Claudia Antonia, Claudius's daughter through his second wife Aelia Paetina, her younger grandchildren.

There is also speculation in Peter Salway's History of Roman Britain that Seneca had been involved in forcing large loans on the indigenous British aristocracy in the aftermath of Claudius's Roman conquest of Britain, and then calling them in suddenly and aggressively.