"Soon the new empire [of Claudius] fell into ruin. They say it was due to the lustfulness of Messalina, the prince's wife, and the insolence and evil deeds of Narcissus, her freedman; as if Narcissuses and Messalinas could live and rule an empire, except in times and places capable of such ugliness. Nor was Claudius so good-natured that, as it is written in the histories, he took so much delight in gladiatorial games, that he had a large number of slaves and freedmen thrown to the wild beasts, that he had gladiators slaughtered for the pleasure of seeing them gasping for breath, And from the plebeians he immediately moved on to the nobles, and the first to fall was Gaius Appius Silanus, governor of Spain."
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Giuseppe La Farina, L'Italia dai tempi piĂą antichi fino ai nostri giorni, vol. II, SocietĂ editrice italiana di M. Guigosi, Torino, 1856.
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Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (10 BC – AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.
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