Discusses Social policies under Claudius I. The treatment of old or impaired slaves in both Roman and Anglo-Saxon societies. Claudius also made substantial changes to the laws governing women as he "upgraded the mother's right to inherit. This concession to her contribution to the family was also a move in line to the 'cognatic' principle of wills, which tended to spread goods beyond the male line of agnatic succession.

1. Social Policies under Claudius I
by Keith Armstrong
2013
London

2. Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Miss Eva Skoulariki and Miss Katie Surridge for transcribing from the
original text. I would also like to thank the many people who have helped me to live and
given me the energy and encouragement to complete this article. This includes the people
of Camden and my late mother Mrs. Nina Armstrong. I am particularly grateful to the kind
members of staff at all levels within the British Library in London.
----------I must point out that any factual errors or sentiment unwittingly suggested are my
responsibility alone. The punctuation and typeface of the authors quoted have at
times been modified.
All rights are reserved. The author's moral rights are asserted. No part of this paper
may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without written permission from the author.
© Copyright 2013 Keith Armstrong, London

3. It is recommended that you read "Emperor Claudius I: the man, his physical
impairment, and reactions to it by Keith Armstrong" prior to reading this
paper.
http://www.academia.edu/4779256/Emperor_Claudius_I_the_man_his_physical_impairment_and_r
eactions_to_it_by_Keith_Armstrong
http://www.slideshare.net/yourkamden/claudius-the-man-his-physical-impairment-and-reactions-toit

4. 1
Social Policies under Claudius I
Emperor Claudius I (Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus), (1 August 10 BCE –
13 October 54 CE) was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian
dynasty and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy at Lugdunum in Gaul
(now in France). It is likely that Claudius had the congenital physical impairment from
birth known today as cerebral palsy. Claudius suffered throughout his life because of
the negative attitudes of others to his physical impairments.
It can be concluded that, in spite of the hostility Claudius suffered at the hands of a
vindictive family, he succeeded in exercising his power in an unusual, even radical style, by
introducing new laws for the benefit of women and slaves, the consequences of which were
far-reaching. Nevertheless, Claudius as a leader was not without his faults. Suetonius
comments that Claudius "played the part, not of a prince, but of a servant, lavishing
honours, the command of armies, pardons or punishments, according to the interests of
each of them, or even their wish or whim; and that too for the most part in ignorance [...]" 1
However, Claudius did introduce a number of lasting reforms. Barbara Levick tells us that
Claudius also made substantial changes to the laws governing women as he "upgraded the
mother's right to inherit. This concession to her contribution to the family was also a move
in line to what Crook calls the 'cognatic' principle of wills, which tended to spread goods
beyond the male line of agnatic succession." 2
One of the main criticisms levelled against Claudius by many historians such as Suetonius
including those in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on his policies and
proclamations, is that he was too heavily influenced by women.
A number of significant historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius are critical of Claudius I,
in both his personal and public life because he had physical impairments.
Tacitus in his Annals of Imperial Rome reports that in 47 CE Claudius also passed a
law against the severe treatment of debtors, outlawing loans to minors for repayment after
their fathers' deaths. 3
Perhaps Claudius' most long-lasting contribution to Western society was his edict
forbidding the killing of slaves who had physical impairments or who had become infirm
due to old age. John Kemble has noted that "the Romans used to slay their infirm and
useless serfs or expose them in Aesculapius, an island on the Tiber until they starved to
death. Claudius made several regulations in their favour." 4
Cum quidam aegra et affecta mancipia in insulam Aes(c)ulapii taedio
medendi exponerent, omnes, qui expo(n)erentur, li(b)eros esse sanxit, nec
redire in di(c)ionem domini, si convaluissent; quod si quis ne(c)are mallet
quem quam exponere, caedis crimine teneri. 5

5. 2
J. C. Rolfe translates this portion of the text as:
When certain men were exposing their sick and worn out slaves on the Island
of Aesculapius' because of the trouble of treating them, Claudius decreed that
all such slaves were free, and that if they recovered, they should not return to
the control of their master; but if anyone preferred to kill such a slave rather
than to abandon him, he was liable to the charge of murder. 6
Professor K. R. Bradley, writing in Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire,
considers that:
Claudius' grant of freedom to abandoned sick slaves who recovered their
health is the only certain case in which genuine protection against future
abuse and violence can be allowed: freedom permitted change because
subjection to the will of a slave-owner was fully eradicated [...] 7
In her biography of Claudius, Barbara Levick comments that:
[...] This measure has caught the imagination and sympathy of historians; it
shows Claudius sensitive to a change in attitudes towards slaves which, if
loudly opposed by some senators, was accepted and promoted by the most
humane men of the first century (many of Claudius' best friends had been
slaves). The edict created a new kind of manumission, justified by the
master's refusal of care, and avoided disputes over ownership if the slave
recovered. It did not, however, deprive the master of his property rights over
the ex-slave's possessions. 8
The term 'exposure', which appears many times in ancient literature is a euphemism,
mainly used in the context of the killing of babies or children. What it really means is that
the person would be deliberately chained up and then left to face the elements, usually they
would starve to death or be eaten by wild animals. 9
The well-known Athenian Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) by
Sophocles tells the story of Oedipus's deliberate exposure. Likewise, all stories of rescued
foundlings can be said to illustrate humanity's endeavour to save the 'exposed' infant.
Amongst these can be cited the mythological story of the co-founders of Rome, Romulus
and Remus. 10
It appears that the manumission edict (the freeing of slaves) might have become a
precedent that was not rescinded as subsequent Roman laws which built upon Claudius'
decree gave further protection for slaves. As the French historian Jerome Carcopino
commented in his book Daily Life in Ancient Rome:
[...] A short time afterwards an edict possibly drawn up by Nero under the
inspiration of Seneca, who had vigorously championed the human rights of
the slave, charged the praefectus urbi to receive and investigate complaints
laid before him by his slaves concerning the injustice of their masters [...] 11

6. 3
John Kemble, commenting on the legacy of Claudius in The Saxons in England,
writes of the Anglo-Saxon Christian slave that:
[...] his lord was bound to feed him for his own sake, and if, when old and
worn out, he wished to rid himself of a useless burden, he could by an act of
emancipation hand over his broken-down labourer to the care of a Church
which, with all its faults, never totally lost sight of the divine precepts of
charity. We are not altogether without the means of judging as to the
condition of the serf, and the provision made for him; although the instances
which we may cite are not all either of one period, or one country, or indeed
derived from compilations having the authority of law, they show sufficiently
what opinion was entertained on this subject by some among the ruling class.
In the prose version of Salomon and Saturn, it is said that every serf ought to
receive yearly seven hundred and thirty loaves, that is, two loaves a day,
beside morning meals and noon meals this cannot be said to be a very
niggardly portion. [...] 13
The Theodosian Code, a compilation of the laws or decrees issued by Christian Roman
Emperors, from 313 until 438, makes general reference to manumissions of the Christian
Church (De Manumissione in Ecclesia) in Book 4. 7.1. 14 However, we do not know if
there was a specific name or term that was used to describe these 'broken-down labourers'
who had been emancipated from slavery after Claudius' edict. We do not have records of
the Anglo-Saxon term, but in Latin they were called the Liberti. King Alfred [The Great]
(849 - 899 CE), King of West Saxons (871 - 899 CE), a slave owner, continued in this
'liberalisation' by decreeing that slaves should have a right to certain holidays. 15 Christian
Saxons generally observed contemporary Roman law, which itself followed older Roman
precedents. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge recount, in their book Alfred the
Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred [...], that Alfred twice visited Rome when
he was a young atheling (an Anglo-Saxon prince) in 853 CE and 855 CE. 16

7. 4
Arcera, a close covered cart which was used in ancient Rome for the
transport of rich people with physical impairments before the invention of
other contrivances. The passenger reclined in it at full length, for which
purpose it was furnished with cushions and pillows. The exterior was usually
covered over with loose drapery to give it a more enhanced appearance, and
conceal the rough boarding of which it was made . 12
Suetonius also reveals a darker side to Claudius. He had his father-in-law, Appius Silanus,
executed without a trial and on the very day of his marriage to Agrippina. He also inflicted
the death penalty on thirty-five senators and more than three hundred Roman knights.
Claudius' reign was certainly not without irrational blood letting.
Though Claudius' reign was violent and sometimes irrational by today's standards, his rule
lies between emperors Caligula and Nero. History conveys that both of them had much
more senseless blood on their hands than Claudius.

8. 5
End Notes
Note 1: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars,: I. XXIX.
Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, (1997, 2001: 56-57), The Lives of the Caesars: Vol. II, Loeb
Classical Library No. 38, [trans. from the Latin by J. C. Rolfe], (Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London: Harvard University Press).
Note 2: agnatic succession: inheritance by only the male line.
Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 125), Claudius, (London: Batsford).
Note 3: Tacitus Ann. xi. 13, (1996: 231), Tacitus: The Annals of Ancient Rome [trans. from
the Latin by Michael Grant], (London: Penguin Books).
Note 4: Kemble, John Mitchell, (1876: 214), [revised by Birch, W. De Gray] The Saxons in
England, A history of the English Commonwealth till the period of the Norman Conquest,
Vol. II, (London: Bernard Quartich).
Note 5: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars, V: XXV.
Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, (1997, 2001: 48), The Lives of the Caesars: Vol. II, Loeb
Classical Library No. 38, [trans. from the Latin by J. C. Rolfe], (Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London: Harvard University Press).
Note 6: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars, V: XXV.
Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, (1997, 2001: 49), The Lives of the Caesars: Vol. II, Loeb
Classical Library No. 38, [trans. from the Latin by J. C. Rolfe], (Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London: Harvard University Press).
Note 7: Bradley, K. R., (1984: 127), Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire, A Study in
Social Control, (New York: Oxford University Press).
Note 8: Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 124 - 125), Claudius, (London: Batsford).
Note 9: A good source for information on the 'exposure' of children is Professor John
Boswell's (1947 - 1994), The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in
Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance of 1988.

9. 6
Boswell, John, (1988), The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in
Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance, (Pantheon Books).
Note 10: Berg, Stephen and Clay, Diskin, (1978), Sophocles: Oedipus the King, (New York:
Oxford University Press).
Lowell Edmunds and Alan Dundes maintain in their book Oedipus: A folklore casebook
that this story is almost universal, appearing in many of the world's mythologies, including
those of Albania, Burma, Papua New Guinea and Southern Africa.
Edmunds, Lowell, and Dundes Alan (Eds.), (1983, 1995), Oedipus: a Folklore Casebook,
(Madison, Wisconsin: London: University of Wisconsin Press).
Note 11: Carcopino, Jéróme, (1941, 1991: 70), Daily life in ancient Rome: the people and
the city at the height of the empire, [Trans. from the French by E. O. Lorimer], Rowell,
Henry T., (Ed.), (London: Penguin).
the praefectus urbi was the title of warden of the city, for the time that the consuls were
absent from Rome purpose of celebrating the Feriae Latinae. however, this annually
appointed office was without any power or speaking rights.
Smith, William, (1875: 953 - 954), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,
(London: John Murray).
Note 12: The illustration is from a marble sepulchral in the Museum at Baden in Germany.
this vehicles' great antiquity is confirmed by its' mention in the Twelve Tables (451 - 450
BCE) which is considered to be the earliest known codification of ancient Roman law.
Rich, Anthony, (Ed.), (1873: 50), Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities,
(3rd Ed.), (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.).
Note 13: Corrections to Kemble's translation are in brackets ( ) compared with the later
J. C. Rolfe's translation published in the Loeb edition of Suetonius: Lives of the Caesars.
In addition the word mallet should be between quem and quam to read quem mallet
quam.
Kemble, John Mitchell, (1876: 214), [revised by Birch, W. De Gray], The Saxons in
England, A history of the English Commonwealth till the period of the Norman Conquest,
Vol. II, (London: Bernard Quartich).

10. 7
Note 14: Davidson, Theresa Sherrer and Pharr, Clyde, (1952: xvii, 87 - 88), The Corpus of
Roman Law ... A translation, with commentary, of all the source material of Roman law,
Vol. 1., The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, (Princeton:
Princeton University Press).
Note 15: Keynes and Lapidge's quote King Alfred's law on holidays for slaves;
[?43] 39- [...] And the four Wednesdays in the four Ember weeks are to be
given to all slaves, to sell to whomsoever they please anything of what anyone
has given them in God's name, or of what they can earn in any of their spare
time. [...]
Keynes and Lapidge also note that;
The 'four Ember weeks' were those in which the Ember days fell: the Wednesday, Friday
and Saturday following (a) the first Sunday in Lent, (b) Whit Sunday, (c) Holy Cross Day
(14 September), and (d) St. Lucy's Day (13 December). The days were observed by the
Church as days of fasting and abstinence.
Keynes, Simon and Lapidge, Michael, (1983: 170, 310, (n. 32)), Alfred the Great: Asser's
Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, (London: Penguin).
Note 16: Keynes, Simon and Lapidge, Michael, (1983: 69 - 70), Alfred the Great: Asser's
Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, (London: Penguin).
.).

11. Media by Keith Armstrong
Classical history
Emperor Claudius I the man: his physical impairment and reactions to it by Keith
Armstrong
"Challenges the suggestion that both Emperor Claudius I and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had Polio.
Both world leaders had major physical impairments before they came to public office."
http://www.academia.edu/4779256/Emperor_Claudius_I_the_man_his_physical_impairmen
t_and_reactions_to_it_by_Keith_Armstrong
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India and Sri Lanka in the time of the Roman Julio-Claudians by Keith Armstrong
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o-Claudians_by_Keith_Armstrong
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A few words about the word the 'claudius': An etymological journey; five short essays
on the word 'claudius' by Keith Armstrong
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Etymology
The Old English Origin of the Word Cripple Revised by Keith Armstrong
Linguistics, Etymology, Anglo-Saxon, Bible Studies, Disability Studies, Latin, Lindisfarne Gospels,
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12. A history of the word handicap extended by Keith Armstrong
Linguistics, Etymology, Disability Studies, history, US & UK English, biology, Oxford English
Dictionary, eugenics, euthanasia, 1915, The Atlantic Monthly,history of sport
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ded_by_Keith_Armstrong
A few words about the word the claudius An etymological journey five short essays on
the word claudius by Keith Armstrong
Claudius or Claudia as a personal or first name, The word 'claudius' and it many meanings
in Latin, The word 'claudius' as used in Old and Medieval English,
The word 'claudius' in the Cymraeg-Welsh language, The word claudius as used in
Anatomical Biological and Medical terms
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Transport
Travelling behind Bars - rail travel in 1980's
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Early 19th Century bicycles
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Bicycles and manual wheelchairs - a short history
http://youtu.be/NpFaAAo3UPE
https://vimeo.com/76080069
Transport & Disability Issues (Audio) - Transport & building design USA
http://youtu.be/TcMFvbk0IoMn

13. Voices on accessible public transport part one (Audio) Transport issues USA
http://youtu.be/hB4IDSzB-oM
Voices on accessible public transport part two (Audio) Transport issues USA
http://youtu.be/9IAmGR1CQXk
A Review of the Alder Valley North Careline Accessible Bus Service 1986 by Keith
Armstrong
London's first hourly accessible bus service
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Literature
Informer International Poetry Magazine No 8: 1968
Edited by Keith Armstrong and David Gill
Content Details
P5-6 Break Ice For The Wild Swan, article by Hugh McKinley
P7-11 Poems by Ondra Lysohorsky (translated by Hugh McKinley)
The Sun, On Lysohorsa, Town On The Black Sea, In The Quarry, The House,
The Tree, The Tuner
P11 A Slav Poet, article by Boris Pasternak
P12-18 Poems by Ondra Lysohorsky (translated by Lydia Pasternak Slater)
Vegetable Market In Ostrava, Ponds of Hrusov, Venetian Bridges, Beethoven In The
Desert, Summer, Room In Tashkent, DragonFly In Autumn, By The Open Window, In The
Ukraine (For Alexander Dowzhenko), Mahatma Gandhi, Poetry (For Charles Baudelaire)
Holderlin
P19-25 Poems by Ondra Lysohorsky (translated by Ewald Osers)
Universe And History, Rhymes?, Early Spring, Dawn, John Huss, Swallow In Poitiers,
Ballad Of Jan Pallach, Student And Heretic
P26-27 Review by David Gill (The White Hind by David Morrison)
P27- Night Has Fallen by Georg Coombs, OMNES by John Fleming, Plea by Wanda
Allen Moore, Answer To An Invitation by Lydia Pasternak Slater
P28- Message To An Unborn Infant by Martin Booth
P29-33 Review by R.G (Junior poems, Stroud Festival 1968, Review Eastern Lovesong And
Other Poems by Violet Bowen, Review Living Poetry by Claire May Overy, Review World
Aflame by Billy Graham
P35- Evergreen, Message and Sierre Madre by Iain Sinclair,
Fruit Salad by Lydia Pasternak Slater
http://www.slideshare.net/yourkamden/informer-international-poetry-magazine-no-8-1968