MARCUS AURELIUS

See also:

• CLAUDIUS
• CLAUDIUS [TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO GERMANICUS]
• MARCUS AURELIUS CLAUDIUS
• CLAUDIUS, MATTHIAS (174o-1815)

CLAUDIUS  , surnamed GOTHICUS, Roman emperor A.D . 268-270, belonged to an obscure Illyrian family . On account of his military ability he was placed in command of an army by Decius; and Valerian appointed him general on the Illyrian frontier, and ruler of the provinces of the lower Danube . During the reign of Gallienus, he was called to Italy in order to crush Aureolus; and on the death of the emperor (268) he was chosen as his successor, in accordance, it was said, with his express desire . Shortly after his accession he routed the Alamanni on the Lacus Benacus (some doubt is thrown upon this); in 269 a great victory over the Goths at Naissus in Moesia gained him the title of Gothicus . In the following year he died of the plague at Sirmium, in his fifty-sixth year . He enjoyed great popularity, and appears to have been a man of ability and character . His life was written by Trebellius Pollio, one of the Scriptores Historiae Auguslae; see also Zosimus i . 4o-43, the histories of Th . Bernhardt and H . Schiller, and special dissertations by A . Duncker on the life of Claudius (1868) and the defeat of the Alamanni (Annalen des Vereins fiir nassauische Altertumskunde, 1879) ; Homo, De Claudio Gothico (1900) ; Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, H .

2458 if . (Henze) .