Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus otherwise known as Emperor Claudius I
(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 known today as cerebral
palsy. This affected his ability to walk. This impairment is very common for survivors of
this condition. 1
He also had a speech impairment. Lucius Annaeus Seneca sometimes known as Seneca
the Younger (Stoic philosopher, dramatist, politician, money lender and teacher) (c. 4 BCE
- 65 CE), makes a mocking reference to his speech in the play Apocolocyntosis Divi
Claudii / The Pumpkinification of Claudius:" They did not understand his reply because
his voice was disturbing and confusing to the ear [...] His tongue was not intelligible- not
Greek was he, nor Roman, nor of any noted race [...] 2
Claudius suffered throughout his life because of the negative attitudes of others to his
physical impairments. Caius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. 69 CE - 140CE wrote in his book
Lives of the Caesars that:
[...] almost the whole course of his childhood and youth he suffered so
severely from various obstinate disorders that the vigour of both his mind
and his body was dulled, and even when he reached the proper age he was
not thought capable of any public or private business. [...] 3
From a bas-relief at Rome depicting a Roman nurse or Cunaria,
whose job it was to wash an infant at its birth, rock it in its cradle,
and wrap it in swaddling clothes. 4
He possessed majesty and dignity of appearance, but only when he was
standing still or sitting, and especially when he was lying down; for he was
tall but not slender, with an attractive face, becoming white hair, and a full
neck. But when he walked, his weak knees gave way under him and he had
many disagreeable traits [...] for he would foam at the mouth and trickle at
the nose; he stammered besides and his head was very shaky at all times, but
especially when he made the least exertion. [...] 5
Cassius Dio contributes this information in his Roman History:
[...] physically he was in poor shape, and his head and his hands shook
slightly. Because of this he also had a slight stammer, and so he himself did
not read out all the measures that he introduced to the senate, but gave them
to the quaestor to read [...] As for those measures he did read out for himself,
he would generally do this seated. Furthermore, he was the first of the
Romans to use a covered chair. This started a trend; for since that time right
down to the present day not only emperors, but also ex-consuls have been
carried on such chairs [...]. 6
Robert Garland remarks in his book:
The Eye of the Beholder that [...] even membership of the imperial family was no
guarantee that a disabled child would receive love and affection. [...] 7
Novum infantem - a new baby
Suetonius gives evidence to support this claim when he writes how Claudius's mother,
[...] often called him "a monster of a man, not finished but merely begun by
Dame Nature"; and if she accused anyone of dullness, she used to say that he
was "a bigger fool than her son Claudius." His grandmother Augusta always
treated him with the utmost contempt, [...] When his sister Livilla heard that
he would one day be emperor, she openly and loudly prayed that the Roman
people might be spared so cruel and undeserved a fortune. [...] 8
Barbara Levick writes in her biography, Claudius, that:
There is comparatively rich information on Claudius' condition, but
historians cannot examine the patient, and their opinions seem to have
reflected current medical preoccupations. Just before and after the Second
World War it was commonly accepted that Claudius had Poliomyelitis [Polio
or ] infantile
Levick claims that Claudius had cerebral palsy, with some degree of spasticity, considering
it a more satisfactory explanation:
[...] he was aware that he was an object of curiosity and derision. The speech
defect may also have been aggravated by this awareness, and by the strain of
performing in public, especially without a prepared text or when he was
involved in controversy, according to Augustus, echoed by Tacitus, he could
read a script perfectly satisfactorily [...] We do not have a clinician's picture
of the symptoms, which may have been relatively mild, rather those of hostile
witnesses who had reason for reporting them at their worst. It was the
sensitivity of Romans to matters of decorum (appearance, bearing, dress, and
speech, areas in which Claudius was plainly deficient) that made his family
hesitate to let him appear in public. 10
Considering the known historical descriptions and having grown up with many talented
people who are survivors of Polio or Cerebral Palsy (and its variants), I would assert that
Claudius' medical condition was likely to be Cerebral Palsy or a related similar condition.
There is an early reference to Claudius having a physical impairment at the point of birth,
therefore providing another indication that Claudius had Cerebral Palsy and not Polio.
Polio is contracted virally (predominantly through the absorption of contaminated water)
after birth, unless the mother has contracted Polio while pregnant (which would be rare).
There is no mention of his mother, Antonia, having the same or a similar condition. His
mother's comment, quoted by Suetonius "a man, not finished but merely begun by [...]
Nature" 11 would seem to indicate that his impairment was noticed by her shortly after his
birth. Cerebral Palsy is also not hereditary, often being caused by a denial of oxygen at the
time of birth, which can be induced by the umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby's
It should be mentioned, however, that emperor Claudius was not called Claudius because
he had a limp or any other physical impairment, but rather through his descendance from
the Claudii clan.
Claudius was lucky enough to have been tutored as a child by the eminent Roman
historian, Titus Livius (Livy). Later Claudius was to write a history of the Etruscans in
twenty books, in Greek; a history of the Carthaginians in eight books also in Greek; a
history of the Roman state since 31BCE in forty-one books and his own biography in eight
books. None of Claudius' books have survived. Prior to being emperor, he also scribed a
defence of the Roman republican Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 - 43 BCE), who had been
executed by the state on account of his political views. Considering the times in which
Claudius lived, to write about Cicero in such terms was quite a dangerous thing to do and
could suggest that Claudius himself held republican views. Claudius' accession in 41 CE
had been at the time of a serious grain shortage, which he took vigorous steps to replenish.
Romanorum filii ad fabula - Roman children at play.
Suetonius records that:
[...] here was a scarcity of grain because of long-continued droughts, he was
once stopped in the middle of the Forum by a mob and so pelted with abuse
and at the same time with pieces of bread, that he was barely able to make his
escape to the Palace by a back door; and after this experience he resorted to
every possible means to bring grain to Rome, even in the winter season. To
the merchants he held out the certainty of profit by assuming the expense of
any loss that they might suffer from storms, and offered to those who would
build merchant ships large bounties, adapted to the condition of each. 13
All of the contemporary representations that I have seen give only an idealised image of
Claudius, which bear no indication of him having a physical impairment. However, this
is not surprising, as nearly all representations of this period (mostly statues) are idealised
portraits of emperors or senior figures. Incidentally, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882
- 1945, President of the USA) nearly two thousand years later, himself a survivor of
Guillain-Barre syndrome or Poliomyelitis 14 and full-time wheelchair user, never allowed
any images revealing his impairment to be published in his life-time. 15 It is ironic that
both leaders died while in office.
NOTE 1: LEVICK, BARBARA, (1990, 1993: 13), CLAUDIUS, (LONDON: BATSFORD).
Note 2: Seneca. L., : Apocolocyntosis, V.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, (1913, 1997: 448 - 9), Apocolocyntosis, Loeb Classical Library No.
15, [trans. from the Latin W. H. D. Rouse], (revised by Warmington, E. H.), (Cambridge,
Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press).
Note 3: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars, V. II.
Note 4: Rich, Anthony, (Ed.), (1873: 226), Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities,
(3rd Ed.), (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.).
Note 5: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars, V: XXX.
Note 6: Dio, Cassius,: 60.1.22-3. Edmondson, J. C., (1992: 88 - 89), Dio, the JulioClaudians: selections from books 58 - 63 of the Roman History of Cassius Dio, [trans.
from the Latin and with historical commentary by Jonathan Edmondson], (London:
London Association of Classical Teachers).
Note 7: Garland, Robert, (1995: 29), The Eye of the Beholder, (London: Duckworth &
Note 8: Suetonius, T., Lives of the Caesars, V. II.
Note 9: Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 13), Claudius, (London: Batsford).
Note 10: Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 15), Claudius, (London: Batsford).
Note 11: Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 15), Claudius, (London: Batsford).
Note 12: Suetonius, T., Suetonius, T., Lives of the Caesars, V. III., XLI. and V: XLI.
Note 13: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars, XVIII.
Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, ( 2000: 371 - 2), Lives of the Caesars, [Trans. from the
Latin by Catharine Edwards) (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
For a more detailed discussion on how Claudius dealt with the grain shortage read:
Carney, Thomas Francis, (196 - ?), The Emperor Claudius and the Grain Trade,
(Winnipeg, Canada: Department of History: The University of Manitoba: Imprint)
Note 14: Goldman AS, Schmalstieg EJ, Freeman DH Jr, Goldman DA, Schmalstieg FC Jr.
What was the cause of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's paralytic illness? J Med Biogr. 2003
Nov;11(4):232-40. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14562158 as retrieved on 15th
In 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) contracted an illness when he was thirty-nine.
It was thought at the time, because of his lasting paralysis of the lower extremities, to be
paralytic Poliomyelitis. However his age and the many features of the illness are more
consistent with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune polyneuritis.
The likelihoods (posterior probabilities) of poliomyelitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome
were investigated by Bayesian analysis. Posterior probabilities were calculated by
multiplying the prior probability (disease incidence in Roosevelt's age group) by the
symptom probability (likelihood of a symptom occurring in a disease). In result, six of
eight posterior probabilities strongly favoured Guillain-Barré syndrome, although it will
always remain inconclusive.
Note 15: Johnson, Mary, FDR: Rolling in his Grave?, Electric EDGE Web Edition of
The Ragged Edge, May/June 1997.
<http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/archive/fdr.htm> as retrieved on 13th August