ABSTRACT
Claudius - or Tiberius Claudius Nero, to give him the full name of his infancy - was born on I August, 10 BC. It was twenty years to the day since Octavian had captured Alexandria and brought his rival Mark Antony and Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt to suicide, and Claudius' branch of the ruling family was coming to the fore. Two factors that blighted Claudius' own prospects will be examined in this chapter: the political vicissitudes of that branch in the second half of Augustus' Principate; and his ill health, which forced him back on a scholar's life.
