Editing Claudius (section)

==Marriages and personal life==
Suetonius and the other ancient authors accused Claudius of being dominated by women and wives, and of being a [[Womanizing|womanizer]].{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 25.5, 29.1}}{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=60.2.4}}

Claudius married four times, after two failed betrothals. The first betrothal was to his distant cousin [[Aemilia Lepida (fiancee of Claudius)|Aemilia Lepida]], but was broken for political reasons. The second was to [[Livia Medullina Camilla]], which ended with Medullina's sudden death on their wedding day.

===Plautia Urgulanilla===
[[Plautia Urgulanilla]] was the granddaughter of Livia's confidant [[Urgulania]]. During their marriage she gave birth to a son, [[Claudius Drusus]]. Drusus died of asphyxiation in his early teens, shortly after becoming engaged to Junilla, daughter of [[Sejanus]].

Claudius later divorced Urgulanilla for adultery and on suspicion of murdering her sister-in-law Apronia. When Urgulanilla gave birth after the divorce, Claudius [[repudiate]]d the baby girl, Claudia, as the father was allegedly one of his own freedmen. Later, this action made him the target of criticism by his enemies.

===Aelia Paetina===
Soon after, (possibly in 28) Claudius married [[Aelia Paetina]], a relative of Sejanus, if not Sejanus's adoptive sister. During their marriage, Claudius and Paetina had a daughter, [[Claudia Antonia]]. He later divorced her after the marriage became a political liability. One version suggests that it may have been due to emotional and mental abuse by Paetina.{{sfn|Leon|1948}}

===Valeria Messalina===
[[File:Messalinaandbritannicus.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Messalina holding her son Britannicus, [[Louvre]]]]
Some years after divorcing Aelia Paetina, in 38 or early 39, Claudius married [[Valeria Messalina]], who was his first cousin once removed (Claudius's grandmother, Octavia the Younger, was Valeria's great-grandmother on both her mother and father's side) and closely allied with Caligula's circle. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to a daughter, [[Claudia Octavia]]. A son, first named Tiberius Claudius Germanicus, and later known as [[Britannicus]], was born just after Claudius's accession.

This marriage ended in tragedy. The ancient historians allege that Messalina was a [[Hypersexuality|nymphomaniac]] who was regularly unfaithful to Claudius—[[Tacitus]] states she went so far as to compete with a prostitute to see who could have more sexual partners in a night<ref>{{harvnb|Tacitus|loc=IX 10}}; {{harvnb|Cassius Dio|loc=61.31}}; {{harvnb|Pliny the Elder|loc=X 172}}.</ref>{{snd}}and manipulated his policies to amass wealth. In 48, Messalina married her lover [[Gaius Silius (consul designatus 49 AD)|Gaius Silius]] in a public ceremony while Claudius was at [[Ostia Antica (archaeological site)|Ostia]].

[[File:Georges Antoine Rochegrosse The Death of Messalina 1916.jpg|thumb|''The Death of Messalina'' by Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse, 1916]]
Sources disagree as to whether or not she divorced the Emperor first, and whether the intention was to usurp the throne. Under Roman law, the spouse needed to be informed that he or she had been divorced before a new marriage could take place; the sources state that Claudius was in total ignorance until after the marriage.{{sfn|Levick|2015|p=74}} Scramuzza, in his biography, suggests that Silius may have convinced Messalina that Claudius was doomed, and the union was her only hope of retaining her rank and protecting her children.{{sfn|Scramuzza|1940|p=90}}{{sfn|Momigliano|1934|pp=6–7}}{{sfn|Levick|2015|p=73}} 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, after which she was executed.{{sfn|Tacitus|loc=XI. 25–38.}}

===Agrippina the Younger===
Claudius married once more. Ancient sources tell that his freedmen put forward three candidates, Caligula's third wife [[Lollia Paulina]], Claudius's divorced second wife [[Aelia Paetina]] and Claudius's niece [[Agrippina the Younger]]. According to Suetonius, Agrippina won out through her feminine wiles. She gradually seized power from Claudius and successfully conspired to eliminate his son's rivals, opening the way for her son to become emperor.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 26}}
[[File:Nerón y Agripina.jpg|thumb|upright|Sculpture of Agrippina crowning her young son Nero (c. AD&nbsp;54–59)]]

The truth is probably more political. The attempted [[coup d'état]] by Silius and Messalina probably made Claudius realize the weakness of his position as a member of the Claudian (but not the Julian) family. This weakness was compounded by the fact that he did not yet have an obvious adult heir, Britannicus being just a boy. Agrippina was one of the few remaining descendants of Augustus, and her son [[Nero|Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus]] (the future [[Nero]]) was one of the last males of the Imperial family. Coup attempts might rally around the pair and Agrippina was already showing such ambition. It has been suggested that the Senate may have pushed for the marriage, an attempt to end the feud between the Julian and Claudian branches.<ref>{{harvnb|Scramuzza|1940|pp=91–92}}. See also {{harvnb|Tacitus|loc=XII 6, 7}} and {{harvnb|Suetonius|loc=Claudius 26}}</ref> This feud dated back to Agrippina's [[Agrippina the Elder|mother's]] actions against Tiberius after the death of her husband [[Germanicus]] (Claudius's brother), actions that Tiberius had punished.

Another reason was to bring in Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus as a candidate for the succession. His prestige as the descendent of Augustus and Germanicus made him popular, and marking him as an heir would have helped the survival of Claudius' regime.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barrett|first=Anthony|title=Agrippina: Mother of Nero |date=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-61863-7|pages=109–111}}</ref> In any case, Claudius accepted Agrippina and later adopted the mature Ahenobarbus as his son, renaming him as 'Nero Claudius Caesar'.

Nero was married to Claudius's daughter Octavia, made joint heir with the underage [[Britannicus]], and promoted; Augustus had similarly named his grandson [[Postumus Agrippa]] and his stepson [[Tiberius]] as joint heirs,<ref>{{harvnb|Levick|2015|pp=80–81}}. See also {{harvnb|Scramuzza|1940|p=92}}</ref> and Tiberius had named Caligula as his joint heir with his grandson [[Tiberius Gemellus]]. [[Adoption in ancient Rome|Adoption]] of adults or near adults was an old tradition in Rome when a suitable natural adult heir was unavailable, as was the case during Britannicus's minority. Claudius may have previously looked to adopt one of his sons-in-law to protect his own reign.{{sfn|Oost|1958}}

[[Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix]], who was married to Claudius's daughter [[Claudia Antonia]], was only descended from Octavia and Antony on one side&nbsp;– not close enough to the Imperial family to ensure his right to be Emperor (although that did not stop others from making him the object of a coup attempt against Nero a few years later), besides being the half-brother of [[Valeria Messalina]], which told against him. Nero was more popular with the general public as both the grandson of Germanicus and the direct descendant of Augustus.