Editing Claudius (section)

===Judicial and legislative affairs===
Claudius personally judged many of the legal cases tried during his reign. Ancient historians have many complaints about this, stating that his judgments were variable and sometimes did not follow the law.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 15}}{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=61, 33}} He was also easily swayed. Nevertheless, Claudius paid detailed attention to the operation of the judicial system. He extended the summer court session, as well as the winter term, by shortening the traditional breaks. Claudius also made a law requiring plaintiffs to remain in the city while their cases were pending, as defendants had previously been required to do. These measures had the effect of clearing out the docket. The minimum age for jurors was also raised to 25 to ensure a more experienced jury pool.{{sfn|Scramuzza|1940|loc=chapter 6}}

Claudius also settled disputes in the provinces. He freed the island of [[Rhodes]] from Roman rule for their good faith and exempted Ilium ([[Troy#Classical Ilium (Ilion)|Troy]]) from taxes. Early in his reign, the [[Greeks]] and [[Jews of Alexandria]] each sent him embassies after riots broke out between the two communities. This resulted in the famous "Letter to the Alexandrians", which reaffirmed Jewish rights in the city but forbade them to move in more families en masse. According to [[Josephus]], he then reaffirmed the rights and freedoms of all the [[History of the Jews in the Roman Empire|Jews in the Empire]].{{sfn|Josephus|loc=''Ant. Iud.'' XIX.5.3 (287)}} However, Claudius also [[Claudius' expulsion of Jews from Rome|expelled Jews from the city of Rome]], following disturbances allegedly instigated by [[Christianity in the 1st century|Christians]]. This expulsion is attested to in [[Acts of the Apostles]] ([[Acts 18:2|18:2]]), and by Roman historians Suetonius and [[Cassius Dio]] along with the fifth-century Christian author [[Paulus Orosius]].<ref name=Reisner13>[[Rainer Riesner]] "Pauline Chronology" in Stephen Westerholm ''The Blackwell Companion to Paul'' (May 16, 2011) {{ISBN|1405188448}} pp.13-14</ref><ref name=Cradle110 >Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=g-MG9sFLAz0C&q=claudius The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament]'' (2009) {{ISBN|978-0-8054-4365-3}} p. 110, 400</ref>

One of Claudius's investigators discovered that many old Roman citizens based in the city of Tridentum (modern [[Trento]]) were not in fact citizens.{{sfn|Scramuzza|1940|loc=chapter 7, p. 129}} The Emperor issued a declaration, contained in the ''[[Tabula clesiana]]'', that they would be allowed to hold citizenship from then on, since to strip them of their status would cause major problems. However, in individual cases, Claudius punished the false assumption of citizenship harshly, making it a capital offense. Similarly, any freedmen found to be laying false claim to membership of the [[Roman equestrian order]] were to have their property confiscated and selling into slavery, in the words of Suetonius, "such as were ungrateful and a cause of complaint to their patrons".{{sfn|Scramuzza|1940|loc=chapter 7}}{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 29}}

Numerous edicts were issued throughout Claudius's reign. These were on a number of topics, everything from medical advice to moral judgments. A famous medical example is one promoting [[Taxus baccata|yew]] juice as a cure for [[snakebite]].{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 16}} Suetonius wrote that he is even said to have thought of an edict allowing public flatulence for good health.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 32}} One of the more famous edicts concerned the status of sick slaves. Masters had been abandoning ailing slaves at the [[Temple of Asclepius, Rome|temple of Aesculapius]] on [[Tiber Island]] to die instead of providing them with medical assistance and care, and then reclaiming them if they lived. Claudius ruled that slaves who were thus abandoned and recovered after such treatment would be free. Furthermore, masters who chose to kill slaves rather than take care of them were liable to be charged with murder.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 29}}