CLAUDIUS (nantos), Emperor of Romc, is mentioned twice in the N. T., in the Acts xi. 28, and xviii. 2. Bishop Pearson (Annales has arranged the events of St. Paul's public life ac cording to the years of the Imperial reigns : this register the beginning of Claudius' reign syn chronizes with St. Paul's preaching in Syria and the mission of Barnabas to Antioch (Acts xi. 22), and the termination of it with his arrival at Ephe sus and the opening of his ministry in that city with his public discussions, for three months, with the Jews in their synagogue (Acts xix. 8). As this reign is of importance in connection with the his tory of the N. T., we propose to transfer to our pages, with due acknowledgment, the article of Winer (13iblisch. Reath". ii. 231, 232), in which the chief events, with their copious authorities, are succinctly put together. Our care will simply be to give a correct translation of the Art., verify the references, and add an occasional one to English authors." The name of Claudius in full was Tib. Claudius Nero Drusus Germanicus ; he was the fourth Roman emperor, and succeeded Caius Caligula, reigning from Jan. 24. A.D. 41, to Oct. 13, A.D. 54 (Suetonius, 58, Claud. 45)• He was the (` mentally neglected,' Tacitus Ann. vi. 46. 1, Suet. Claud. 2) son of Nero Drusus, born at Lyons (Aug. r, A.U.C. 744), and led an entirely inglorious life in privacy before his eleva tion to the throne. It was chiefly through Herod Agrippa I. that his nomination to the imperial purple was brought about (Josephus, Antiq. 2 (sec. I), 3, 4 ; Suet. Claud. so [Merivale, Romans under the Empire, v. 474, 475]), and Claudius, when on the throne, skewed himself, in return for this good service, not only an especial benefactor of Agrippa, whose territories he en larged by the addition of Judxa, Samaria, and some districts of Lebanon (Joseph. Antiq. xix. 5. 1, Dio Cass. lx. 8), and because of whom he granted the Jews freedom of worship (Antig. xx. 1. I, 2), but also conferred on his brother Herod the sovereignty of Chalcis (Antiq. xix. 5. 1), and after Agrippa's death gave to this same brother the oversight of the Temple of Jerusalem (Antiq. xx. I. 3). The Jews in Asia and Egypt were, in the beginning of his reign, treated by Claudius with great moderation (Antiq. xix. 5. 2, 3, and xx. 1. 2) ; but the Jews of Palestine seem to have suffered much oppression at the hands of his governors (Tacitus, [list. v. 9, etc.). During the reign of Claudius there arose famines in divers places, in consequence of bad harvests (Comp. Dio Cass. lx. 71 ; [ix. p. 949, ed. Reimar]; Aurel. Victor, De Cos. c. 4; Eusebius Chron. Arm. i. 269, 271 [ed. Seal. p. 791 ; Tacit. Annal. xii. 43; Kuinoel, on Acts xi. 23 [See also Biscoe, on Acts, pp. 6o, 66 ; Pearson, Annal. Paul s. anno CIaudii 4 ; Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth (trans.) p. 367 ; Lardner, Credibility, i. it. 2 ; above all, Kitto, Daily Bible Illustrations, last vol. [' Agabus and the dearth'], pp. 229-232]), and one of these visited Palestine and Syria (Acts xi. 23-3o), in the time of the Procurators Cuspius Fadus and Tibe rius Alexander (Joseph. Antiq. xx. 2. 6 ; v. 2), which possibly lasted several years. Owing to a tumult of the Jewish inhabitants of Rome, the emperor was induced to expel them from the city (Sueton. Claud. 25). Judxos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit ;' comp. Acts
xviii. 2 [and Winer's art. Rom.' ii. 335, where he says, 'but they soon returned, and in later reigns became numerous' (comp. Jahn's Hebrew Com monwealth, trans. p. 371, and Acts xxviii. 17, 23), although heavily burthened with taxes (Sueton. Domit. 12) and even reduced sometimes to mendi cancy' (Juvenal, iii. 14)]. Winer then discusses the two different opinions, as to whom Suetonius meant by Chrestus ; whether some Hellenist, who had excited political disturbances [as Meyer and De Wette suppose ; see Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul (1st ed.) i. 414], the name Chrestus fre quently occurring as borne by manumitted slaves ; or whether, as there is good reason to think (Lip sius, on Tacit. A nnal xv. 44; Grotius on Acts xviii. z ; Neander Ch. Hist. (Bohn) i. 129), Sue tonius does not refer to some actual dissension be tween Jews and Christians : although he does this in a very indistinct manner, confounding the name Christ, which was most unusual as a proper name, with the much more frequent appellation of Chrestus (See Tertullian, Apol. 3; Lactantius, In stil'. iv. 7. 5 [and Milman, Hist. of Christianity, i. Orosius, Hut. vii. 6, places Claudius' edict of banishment in the ninth year of his reign (i.e., 49 or so A.D.), and he refers to Josephus, who, however, says nothing about the matter). [In King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of Orosius, however, this reference to Josephus does not occur ; the re gister simply connects the expulsion with a famine In the ninth year of his government there was a great famine in Rome, and Claudius ordered all the Jews that were therein to be driven out.' Bosworth's Orosius, pp. 119 of the Saxon, and 179 of the Trans. See this statement of Orosius com mented on by Scaliger, Animadv. on Euseb. Chron. p. 192]. On the contrary, Pearson (Ann. Paulin.), and Vogel (in Gabler's Journal), without, how ever, giving decisive grounds for their opinion, suppose Claudius' twelfth year (i.e., A.D. 52) to be the more likely one. With Anger (de temporum ration in Act. Apost. p. 118), one might on nega tive grounds assert, that so long as Herod Agrippa was at Rome with Claudius, the edict of expulsion would hardly be published ; de., previous to the year A.D. 49. [Dr. Burton, however, On the Chronology of the Acts, etc., p. 26, puts the date of the edict some time between A.D. 41 and 46, supporting his opinion by the fact, that no men tion is made of Claudius' decree in the Annals of Tacitus which have come down to us ; and that, since the lost books of the Annals occupy the first six years of the reign of Claudius, it is pro bable that Tacitus mentioned this decree in one of those books.'] The reign of this weak emperor, who was ruled by his wife Agrippina (Sueton. xxix.), was not altogether an inglorious one (Sue ton. xx. etc.), although his domestic life was con temptible. [See, however, Merivale for a vindica tion of Claudius from some of the charges which tradition has affixed to his name with doubtful propriety ; Romans under the Empire, vol. v. pp. 478, 479, 597, He was poisoned by Agrippina after a reign of more than thirteen years (Tacitus, Ann. xii. 66 ; Sueton. Claud. 44) ; Josephus, A nag. xx. 8. s ; Bell. Jud. ii. 12. 8, [who in both these passages makes the reign of Claudius thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days.']—P. H.