The patrician family of the Claudii (for there was a plebeian family of the same
					name, no way inferior to the other either in power or dignity) came originally
					from Regilli, a town of the Sabines. They removed thence to Rome soon after the building of the city, with
					a great body of their dependants, under Titus Tatius, who reigned jointly with
						 Romulus in the kingdom; or,
					perhaps, what is related upon better authority, under Atta Claudius, the head of
					the family, who was admitted by the senate into the patrician order six years
					after the expulsion of the Tarquins. They likewise received from the state,
					lands beyond the Anio for their followers, and a burying place for themselves
					near the capitol. Intramural interments were prohibited at
							 Rome by the laws of the Twelve
						Tables, notwithstanding the practice of reducing to ashes the bodies of the
						dead. It was only by special privilege that individuals who had deserved
						well of the state, and certain distinguished families were permitted to have
						tombs within the city. After this period, in process of time, the
					family had the honour of twenty-eight consulships, five dictatorships, seven
					censorships, seven triumphs, and two ovations. Their descendants were
					distinguished by various praenomina and
						 cognomina , Among
							the Romans, all the descendants from one common stock were called
							Geniles, being of the same race or kindred, however remote. The Gens, as
							they termed this general relation or clanship, was subdivided into
							families. in Famias velStirpes; and those of the same family were called
							Agnat. Relations by the father's side were also called Agnai, to
							distinguish them from Cognat, relations only on the mother's side. An
							Agnatus might also be called Cognatus, but not the contrary. To mark the different genies and familiae, and to distinguish the
							individuals of the same family, the Romans had commonly three names, the
							Praenomen, Nomren, and Cognomen. The prasnomen was put first, and marked
							the individual. It was usually written with one letter; as A. for Aulus;
							C. Caius; D. Decimus; sometimes with two letters; as Ap. for Appius; Cn.
							Cneius; and sometimes with three; as Mam. for Mamercus. The Nomen was put after the Pranomen, and marked the gens. It commonly
							ended in ius; as Julius ,
							Tullius, Cornelius . The
							Cognomen was put last, and marked the familia; as Cicero, Casar , etc. Some gentes appear to have had no surname, as the Marian ; and gens and familia seem
							sometimes to be put one for the other; as the Fabia gens, or
							FabiafamiKa. Sometimes there was a fourth name, properly called the Agnommn, but
							sometimes likewise Cognomen, which was added on account of some
							illustrious action or remarkable event. Thus Scipio was named Publius Cornelius
							Scipio Aficanus, from the conquest of Carthage . In the same manner, his brother was called
							Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus. Thus also Quintus Fabius Maximus
							received the Agnomen of Cunctator, from his checking the victorious
							career of Hannibal by avoiding
							a battle. but rejected by common consent the praenomen of
						 Lucius , when, of the two races who
					bore it, one individual had been convicted of robbery, and another of murder.
					Amongst other cognomina, they assumed that of Nero , which in the Sabine language signifies strong and valiant. It appears from record, that many of the Claudii have performed signal services
					to the state, as well as committed acts of delinquency. To mention the most
					remarkable only, Appius Caecus dissuaded the senate from agreeing to an alliance
					with Pyrrhus, as prejudicial to the republic. A.U.C.
						474 Claudius Candex first passed the straits of Sicily with a fleet, and drove the
					Carthaginians out of the island. A.U.C. 490 Claudius
					Nero cut off Hasdrubal with a vast army upon his arrival in Italy from Spain , before he could form a junction with his brother
						Annibal. A.U.C. 574 On the other hand, Claudius
					Appius Regillanus, one of the Decemvirs, made a violent attempt to have a free
					virgin, of whom he was enamoured, adjudged a slave; which caused the people to
					secede a second time from the senate. A.U.C. 304 
					Claudius Drusus erected a statue of himself wearing a crown at Appii Forum, An ancient Latin town on the Via Appia , the present road to Naples , mentioned by St.
							Paul , Acts xxviii. 15, and Horace, Sat. i. 5., in giving an
						account of their travels. and endeavoured, by means of his
					dependants, to make himself master of Italy . Claudius Pulcher, when, off the coast of Sicily , A.U.C. 505 
					the pullets used for taking augury would not eat, in contempt of the omen threw
					them overboard, as if they should drink at least, if they would not eat; and
					then engaging the enemy, was routed. After his defeat, when he was ordered by
					the senate to name a dictator, making a sort of jest of the public disaster, he
					named Glycias, his apparitor. The women of this family, likewise, exhibited characters equally opposite to each
					other. For both the Claudias belonged to it; she, who, when the ship freighted
					with things sacred to the Idaean Mother of the Gods, Cybele; first worshipped in Phrygia , about Mount
							Ida , from whence a sacred stone, the symbol of her divinity,
						probably an aerolite, was transported to Rome , in consequence of the panic occasioned by Hannibal's
						invasion, A.U.C. 508. stuck fast in the shallows of the Tiber , got it off, by praying to the Goddess
					with a loud voice, "Follow me, if I am chaste;" and she also, who, contrary to
					the usual practice in the case of women, was brought to trial by the people for
					treason; because, when her litter was stopped by a great crowd in the streets,
					she openly exclaimed, "I wish my brother Pulcher was alive now, to lose another
					fleet, that Rome might be less
					thronged." Besides, it is well known, that all the Claudii, except Publius
					Claudius, who, to effect the banishment of Cicero, procured himself to be
					adopted by a plebeian, A.U.C. 695 and one younger
					than himself, were always of the patrician party, as well as great sticklers for
					the honour and power of that order; and so violent and obstinate in their
					opposition to the plebeians, that not one of them, even in the case of a trial
					for life by the people, would ever condescend to put on mourning, according to
					custom, or make any supplication to them for favour; and some of them in their
					contests, have even proceeded to lay hands on the tribunes of the people. A
					Vestal Virgin likewise of the family, when her brother was resolved to have the
					honour of a triumph contrary to the will of the people, mounted the chariot with
					him, and attended him into the capitol, that it might not be lawful for any of
					the tribunes to interfere and forbid it. A.U.C.
					611 From this family Tiberius Caesar is descended; indeed both by the father and
					mother's side; by the former from Tiberius Nero, and by the latter from Appius
					Pulcher, who were both sons of Appius Caecus. He likewise belonged to the family
					of the Livii, by the adoption of his mother's grandfather into it; which family
					although plebeian, made a distinguished figure, having had the honour of eight
					consulships, two censorships, three triumphs, one dictatorship, and the office
					of master of the horse; and was famous for eminent men, particularly, Salinator
					and the Drusi. Salinator, in his censorship, A.U.C.
						550 branded all the tribes, for their inconstancy in having made him
					consul a second time, as well as censor, although they had condemned him to a
					heavy fine after his first consulship. Drusus procured for himself and his
					posterity a new surname, by killing in single combat Drausus, the enemy's chief.
					He is likewise said to have recovered, when pro-praetor in the province of
						 Gaul , the gold which was formerly
					given to the Senones , at the siege of
					the capitol, and had not, as is reported, been forced from them by Camillus. His
					great-great-grandson, who, for his extraordinary services against the Gracchi,
					was styled the "Patron of the Senate," left a son, who, while plotting in a
					sedition of the same description, was treacherously murdered by the opposite
						party. A.U.C. 663 But the father of Tiberius Caesar, being quaestor to Caius Caesar, and commander
					of his fleet in the war of Alexandria , contributed greatly to its success. He was
					therefore made one of the high-priests in the room of Publius Scipio; A.U.C. 707 and was sent to settle some colonies in
						 Gaul , and amongst the rest, those
					of Narbonne and Arles . These, and other
						towns in the south of France, became, and long continued, the chief seats of
						Roman civilization among the Gauls; which is marked by the magnificent
						remains of ancient art still to be seen. Aries , in particular, is a place of great interest. 
					After the assassination of Caesar, however, when the rest of the senators, for
					fear of public disturbances, were for having the affair buried in oblivion, he
					proposed a resolution for rewarding those who had killed the tyrant. Having
					filled the office of praetor, A.U.C. 710 and at the
					end of the year a disturbance breaking out amongst the triumviri, he kept the
					badges of his office beyond the legal time; and following Lucius Antonius the
					consul, brother of the triumvir, to Perusia , A.U.C. 713 though the rest
					submitted, yet he himself continued firm to the party, and escaped first to
						 Praeneste , and then to
						 Naples ; whence, having in vain
					invited the slaves to liberty, he fled over to Sicily . But resenting his not being immediately admitted into
					the presence of Sextus Pompey, and being also prohibited the use of the fasces,
					he went over into Achaia to Mark Antony; with whom, upon a reconciliation soon
					after brought about amongst the several contending parties, he returned to
						 Rome ; and, at the request of
					Augustus, gave up to him his wife Livia Drusilla, although she was then big with
					child, and had before borne him a son. He died not long after; leaving behind
					him two sons, Tiberius and Drusus Nero. Some have imagined that Tiberius was born at Fundi , but there is only this trifling foundation for the
					conjecture, that his mother's grandmother was of Fundi , and that the image of Good Fortune was, by a decree of
					the senate, erected in a public place in that town. But according to the
					greatest number of writers, and those too of the best authority, he was born at
						 Rome , in the Palatine quarter, upon the sixteenth of the
					calends of December [16th Nov.], when Marcus AEmilius Lepidus was second time
					consul, with Lucius Munatius Plancus, A.U.C. 712. Before
						Christ about 39. after the battle of Philippi ; for so it is registered in the
					calendar, and the public acts. According to some, however, he was born in the
					preceding year, in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa; and others say, in the
					year following, during the consulship of Servilius Isauricus and Antony.