Haight 1
Dayvon Haight
Mr. McKnight
Western Civilization
11/4/13

In Rome, you had two different types of governments. You had the republic and the down fall and the uprising of the empire. Some of the struggle that Claudius saw in the republic and the empire was the amount of power his grandmother Livia had. The views Claudius had about the empire and the republic, and his grandfather’s views on the empire.
Livia, the grandmother of Claudius, had a big role in the empire. Claudius grandmother wanted a king to rule Rome. His grandfather will not listen to her anti-republican sentiments(17). Livia divorces her husband and marries Augustus. She manipulates him with beautiful slave girls. Augustus gets power and Livia takes full advantage. She is the master mind behind Augustus political views. She will kill a lot of people like Agrippa, Camilla, and Augustus just to keep her power.
Some decisions Claudius made about the empire and the republic impacted both. When Claudius was a child, he grew up learning about the republic and how great it was. In 47 B.C. Roman Republic started to rapidly decline. The wealthy people got richer, and the poor got even poorer. After Claudius grew up and his grandfather died, his views on everything changed.
Haight 2
After Caesar died, the republic died with him. Rome became an empire. Also a period of civil wars broke out in Rome. Rome during the empire ages expanded their land vastly. They went as far as to England, to North Africa, and Egypt conquering everything around them. Claudius saw how ambitious his grandmother was and he admire that trait about her.
Claudius grandfather taught him a lot about the republic. His grandfather, one of the best of the Claudians(15), was a strong believer that Julius Caesar was the one powerful man enough