[Claudius] became emperor after having been a private citizen;[1] though he was not base in his soul and even trained himself through education so that he even made some compositions,[2] he was sickly in body so that he even had a shaky head and hands.[3] And therefore he also failed in his thought,[4] and he did not himself read all the things he referred to the senate; rather, usually at least, he gave them to his steward to read out.[5] But however many he read himself, he sat and read them through for the most part. And moreover he was in fact the first of the Romans to use a covered chariot.[6] However, he was not so harmed by these things as by both the freedmen and the women with whom he associated. [7] For he was very clearly ruled by women,[8] as he had been reared from childhood amidst safety and fear.[9] And he added still more to his stupidity by the fact that he even personally admitted it, and, living a long time with his wetnurse and his mother[10] and having associated mostly with women, he had acquired nothing befitting a freeman. And they beset him at parties and in bed. For he behaved insatiately in both and was easy prey in those situations. And furthermore he was a coward, which caused him often, out of fright, to fail to consider anything that was appropriate.[11] For they would scare him and reap the rewards and cast fear upon others. He then, being such, did no few things on request whenever it came about through the aforementioned passions.[12]
[It is said] that Claudius, the emperor of the Romans, put forth the law that a senator could not travel beyond seven milestones from the city without the order of the emperor. And, when some thought that sick slaves were no good for any service, since they also drove them from their households, he made a law that all those who survived from such sickness be free.[13] And he also did not allow anyone to ride through the city seated on a chariot.[14]
[It is said] that during his reign, when the Jews rioted against the Christians,[15] he put Claudius Felix in charge of them,[16] bidding him to punish them. And, when they were gathered together in the temple, they heard a voice from the inner sanctum and it said: 'We have abandoned those inside. And that has happened a third time'; after which they were annihilated in a total destruction.