Claudius Valeria III

Emperor Claudius Valeria III (5E 305 - 5E 368), also known as Claudius the Builder or the Builder, was the fifteenth Emperor of the Valerian Empire. Officially declared by the Elder Council as the best ruler, Claudius is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Cyrodilic history. As the Imperial General under his brother Emperor Cephorus I, he is also known for his philanthropic rule, overseeing extensive public building programs and implementing social welfare policies, which earned him his enduring reputation.
His rule of increasing and visits to Skyrim by improving relationship with the Nords, successfully conquered the continent of Akavir, and led the annexation of Solstheim. His campaigns expanded the Valerian Empire to its greatest territorial extent. In 5E 368, while sailing back to Imperial City, Claudius III fell ill and died in the city of Leyawiin. He was buried at catacombs of Dovah Skor. He was succeeded by his adopted son also named Claudius.
==History==
===Early life and rise to power===
Claudius ValeriaBrief History of the Empire, Book IV was born on 5E 305 in the Imperial Palace in the Imperial City to Empress Marlena Septim and Talian Melixto Septim, a prominent senator and general from Cyrodiil. Talian, the elder served Titus II in the First Great War, commanding the Legio X Fretensis. Claudius himself was just one of many well-known Ulpii in a line that continued long after his own death. His elder sister was Ulpia Marciana, and his niece was Salonina Matidia. The patria of the Ulpii was Italica, in Spanish Baetica, where their ancestors had settled late in the Fifth Era.
In 5E 337, Claudius was created ordinary Consul for the year, which was a great honour as he was in his late thirties and therefore just above the minimum legal age (32) for holding the post. This can be explained in part by the prominence of his father's career, as his father had been instrumental to the ascent of the ruling Cyrodiilic dynasty, held consular rank himself and had just been made a patrician. When her elder brother Cephorus Valeria become Emperor in 5E 318, Claudius become the heir apparent of the Ruby throne. At the time, Claudius was thirteen years old at the time, and quickly rose to rank of successful Imperial General. 
As the details of Claudius's military career are obscure, it is only sure that in 5E 340, as legate of Imperial Legion in border between Dominion and Cyrodiil, he supported her grandmother Marlena Septim against an attempted coup. Later, when her elder brother Cephorus Valeria become Emperor in 5E 318, Claudius become the heir apparent of the Ruby throne. At the time, Claudius was thirteen years old at the time, and quickly rose to rank of successful Imperial General.
When his brother died on 5E 350, Claudius (aged 45) succeeded to the role of emperor without any outward incident. However, the fact that he chose not to hasten towards Cyrodiil, but instead to make a lengthy tour of inspection on the High Rock and Hammerfell frontiers, hints to the possible fact that his power position in Rome was unsure and that he had first to assure himself of the loyalty of the armies at the front. It is noteworthy that Claudius ordered Prefect Aelianus to attend him in Morrowind, where he was apparently executed ("put out of the way"), with his post being taken by Attius Suburanus.[34] Claudius's accession, therefore, could qualify more as a successful coup than an orderly succession.
===Cyrodiilic Emperor===
On his entry to Imperial City, Claudius granted the plebs a direct gift of money. The traditional donative to the troops, however, was reduced by half. There remained the issue of the strained relations between the emperor and the Elder Council, especially after the supposed bloodiness that had marked Titus's reign and his dealings with the Curia. By feigning reluctance to hold power, Claudius was able to start building a consensus around him in the Senate. His belated ceremonial entry into Rome in 99 was notably understated, something on which Pliny the Younger elaborated.
By not openly supporting Domitian's preference for equestrian officers, Claudius appeared to conform to the idea (developed by Pliny) that an emperor derived his legitimacy from his adherence to traditional hierarchies and senatorial morals. Therefore, he could point to the allegedly republican character of his rule. In a speech at the inauguration of his third consulship, on 1st of , Claudius exhorted the Senate to share the care-taking of the Empire with him – an event later celebrated on a coin. In reality, Claudius did not share power in any meaningful way with the Senate, something that Pliny admits candidly: "[E]verything depends on the whims of a single man who, on behalf of the common welfare, has taken upon himself all functions and all tasks". One of the most significant trends of his reign was his encroachment on the Senate's sphere of authority, such as his decision to make the senatorial provinces of Achaea and Bithynia into imperial ones in order to deal with the inordinate spending on public works by local magnates and the general mismanagement of provincial affairs by various proconsuls appointed by the Senate.
 
In the formula developed by Pliny, however, Claudius was a "good" emperor in that, by himself, he approved or blamed the same things that the Senate would have approved or blamed. If in reality Trajan was an autocrat, his deferential behavior towards his peers qualified him to be viewed as a virtuous monarch. The whole idea was that Claudius wielded autocratic power through moderatio instead of contumacia – moderation instead of insolence. In short, according to the ethics for autocracy developed by most political writers of the Imperial Age, Claudius was a good ruler in that he ruled less by fear, and more by acting as a role model, for, according to Pliny, "men learn better from examples". 
Eventually, Claudius's popularity among his peers was such that the Elder Council bestowed upon him the honorific of optimus, meaning "the best", which appears on coins from 357 on. This title had mostly to do with Claudius's role as benefactor, such as in the case of him returning confiscated property.
That Claudius's ideal role was a conservative one becomes evident from Pliny's works as well as from the orations of Dio of Prusa – in particular his four Orations on Kingship, composed early during Claudius's reign. Dio, as a Greek notable and intellectual with friends in high places, and possibly an official friend to the emperor (amicus caesaris), saw Trajan as a defender of the status quo. In his third kingship oration, Dio describes an ideal king ruling by means of "friendship" – that is, through patronage and a network of local notables who act as mediators between the ruled and the ruler. Dio's notion of being "friend" to Claudius (or any other Roman emperor), however, was that of an informal arrangement, that involved no formal entry of such "friends" into the Roman administration - exactly what was to put Imperial-speaking elites and Trajan on a collision course. 
===The Cyrodiilic/Skyrim relations===
At the beginning of Claudius's reign, visits Skyrim where he meets High King Majdnar Hearth-Defender. Both the King and the Emperor in Windhelm. Since Claudius is an descendent of Marcella Septim while Majdnar was descendent of Elisif the Fair. Many Imperials who lived in Skyrim — a commonly acknowledged sense of cultural superiority – and, instead of seeing themselves as Imperials, disdained Imperial rule. What the Nords oligarchies wanted from Imperial city was, above all, to be left in peace, to be allowed to exert their right to self-government (i.e., to be excluded from the provincial government, as was Italy) and to concentrate on their local interests. This was something the Imperials were not disposed to do as from their perspective the Nords notables were shunning their responsibilities in regard to the management of Imperial affairs – primarily in failing to keep the common people under control, thus creating the need for the Skyrim jarl to intervene.
===Conquest of Akavir===
It was as a military commander that Claudius is best known to history, particularly for his conquests in the Padomaic Ocean, but initially for the three wars against the continent of Akavir – the reduction to colony kingdom of the Empire; 353–361, followed by actual incorporation into the Empire of the Akaviri's races tribes kingdoms of Ka Po' Tun, Kamal, Tang Mo, Tsaesci and Dragons – an area that had troubled Roman thought for over a decade with the unstable peace negotiated by Emperor Uriel V's death in 3E 290 with the powerful Tsaesci king Chysarenis. According to the provisions of this treaty, Chysarenis was acknowledged as rex amicus, that is, client king; nevertheless, in exchange for accepting client status, he received a generous stipend from Imperial city, as well as being supplied with technical experts. The treaty seems to have allowed Roman troops the right of passage through the Tsaesci kingdom in order to attack each other, even the Snow Giants of the Kamal. However, senatorial opinion never forgave Uriel V's death and his son Uriel VI for paying what was seen as "tribute" to a Tsaesci king. In addition, unlike the tribes, the Dacian kingdom was an organized state capable of developing alliances of its own, thus making it a strategic threat and giving Trajan a strong motive to attack it.
In early-5E 354, Claudius launched his first campaign into the Tsaesci kingdom, crossing to the northern bank of the Danube and defeating the Tsaesci army at Dhalrek (see Second Battle of Dhalrek), near city of Ionith. It was not a decisive victory, however. Claudius's troops were mauled in the encounter, and he put off further campaigning for the year in order to regroup and reinforce his army. Claudius's army re-took both former Imperial cities of Septimia and Ionith, which it was abandoned.
The following winter, King Chysarenis took the initiative by launching a counter-attack across the Danube further downstream, supported by Sarmatian cavalry, forcing Trajan to come to the aid of the troops in his rearguard. The Dacians and their allies were repulsed after two battles in Moesia, at Nicopolis ad Istrum and Adamclisi. Claudius's army then advanced further into Dacian territory, and, a year later, forced Chysarenis to submit. He had to renounce claim to some regions of his kingdom, return all Roman runaways (most of them technical experts), and surrender all his war machines.
With contently war, sieges, battles between Imperial and Akaviri forces losing with heavy causalities. The peace of 5E 355 had returned Chysarenis to the condition of more or less harmless kingdom king; however, he soon began to rearm, to again harbor Roman runaways, and to pressure his Western neighbors, the Iazyges Sarmatians, into allying themselves with him. By trying to develop an anti-Roman bloc, Chysarenis eventually left Claudius without the alternative of treating Dacia as a protectorate, rather than an outright conquest. In 356 Decebalus devised a failed attempt on Claudius's life by means of some Roman deserters, and held prisoner Claudius's legate Longinus, who eventually poisoned himself while in custody. Finally, in 356, Decebalus undertook an invasion of Roman-occupied territory north of the Danube.
The peace doesn't last very long, while Imperial colony surrounded Septimia and Ionith under the Cyrodiilic Empire — King Chysarenis signed a alliance with the Ka'Po'Tun chief, and Ka'Po'Tun declared war on the Empire. With running out of Legion, Claudius quickly sent to Imperial city where he grabs more troops as well of the Tamrielic alliance leaders and successfully gather more Imperial legions, Nords, Dunmer and Hammerfell mercenaries. After doing that, Claudius than moved his army to New Gaius — before moving and marching his army to Septimia; where Tsaesci commander Minik attack the Emperor which known as Battle of Gelri, where Claudius Septim III defeated and killed Minik in battle.
Following the design of Statue of Emperor Tiber Septim, Claudius ordered the building of a massive bridge over the Dhalrek, over which the Imperial army was able to cross the river swiftly and in numbers, as well as to send in reinforcements, even in winter when the river was not frozen enough to bear the passage of a party of soldiers. Claudius also reformed the infrastructure of the Iron Gates region of the Danube. He commissioned either the creation or enlargement of the road along the Iron Gates, carved into the side of the gorge. Additionally, Claudius commissioned a canal to be built around the rapids of the Iron Gates. Evidence of this comes from a marble slab discovered near Caput Bovis, the site of a Roman fort. The slab, dated to the year 5E355, commemorates the building of at least one canal that went from the Kasajna tributary to at least Ducis Pratum, whose embankments were still visible until recently. However, the placement of the slab at Caput Bovis suggests that the canal extended to this point or that there was a second canal downriver of the Kasajna-Ducis Pratum one. 
Claudius built a new city, Minrirras-Rildu, on another site (north of the mountain near the bordered between Imperial Colony and Tsaesci border), although bearing the same full name, Minrirrasrildu. This capital city was conceived as a purely civilian administrative center and was provided the usual Romanized administrative apparatus (decurions, aediles, etc.). Urban life in Imperial colony of Septimia-Ionith seems to have been restricted to Roman colonists, mostly military veterans; there is no extant evidence for the existence in the province of peregrine cities. Native Dacians continued to live in scattered rural settlements, according to their own ways. In another arrangement with no parallels in any other Imperial province, the existing quasi-urban Dacian settlements disappeared after the Imperial conquest. A number of unorganized urban settlements (vici) developed around military encampments in Septimia proper - the most important being Apulum - but were only acknowledged as cities proper well after Claudius's reign.
Not all of Ka'Po'Tun and Tsaesci was permanently occupied. What was permanently included in the province, after the post-Trajanic evacuation of some land across the lower Tsaescian and little terrority of Ka'Po'Tun, were the lands extending from the Danube to the inner arch of the Imperial Colony and Tsaesci border. The Imperial province eventually took the form of an "excrescence" North of the Danube, with ill-defined limits, stretching from the Danube northwards to the Carpathians, and was intended perhaps as a basis for further expansion in Eastern Europe – which the Romans conceived to be much more "flattened", and closer to the ocean, than it actually was. Defense of the province was entrusted to a single legion, the XIII Gemina, stationed at Apulum, which functioned as an advanced guard that could, in case of need, strike either west or east at the Sarmatians living at the borders. Therefore, the indefensible character of the province did not appear to be a problem for Trajan, as the province was conceived more as a sally-base for further attacks Even in the absence of further Roman expansion, the value of the province depended on Roman overall strength: while Rome was strong, the Dacian salient was an instrument of military and diplomatic control over the Danubian lands; when Rome was weak, as during the Crisis of the Sixth Century of the Fifth Era, the province became a liability and was eventually abandoned.
Claudius resettled Dacia with Imperials and annexed it as a province of the Cyrodiilic Empire. Aside from their enormous booty (over half a million slaves, according to John Lydus), Claudius's Dacian campaigns benefited the Empire's finances through the acquisition of Dacia's gold mines, managed by an imperial procurator of equestrian rank (procurator aurariarum). On the other hand, commercial agricultural exploitation on the villa model, based on the centralized management of a huge landed estate by a single owner (fundus) was poorly developed. Therefore, use of slave labor in the province itself seems to have been relatively undeveloped, and epigraphic evidence points to work in the gold mines being conducted by means of labor contracts (locatio conductio rei) and seasonal wage-earning. Both Ka Po' Tun chief and Tsaesci King Chysarenis surrended to Claudius, with their kingdoms — which Claudius refused to their kingdoms to part of the Empire, instead they agreed that Imperial territory controlled over Septimina and Inoth is pat of the Empire.
The victory was commemorated by the construction both of the 102 cenotaph generally known as the Tropaeum Traiani in Moesia, as well of the much later (5E 357) Claudius's statue in Imperial city, the latter depicting in stone carved bas-reliefs the Akaviri Wars' most important moments.
===Annexation of Solstheim===
For the longest time, Solstheim held little significance until around 3E 427, when the East Empire Trading Company began to set foot onto the land and build their colony. It has evolved since the disaster in 4E 5, High King Wulman Hammer-Beard of Skyrim ceded control of Solstheim to Morrowind. Since then, Morrowind have been controlled Solstheim since then under House Redoran — throughout the late Fourth Era to the Fifth Era with both Cyrodiil and Morrowind under the alliance on Tamriel. House Redoran led the Dunmer in the defense of the northern half and was able to hold the invaders. Some epigraphic evidence suggests a military operation, with forces from Morrowind. What is known is that by 5E 359, Imperial legions were stationed in the area around Blacklight and Raven Rock. The furthest south the Cyrodiilic occupied (or, better, garrisoned, adopting a policy of having garrisons at key points in Solstheim) was Skaal Village, which the Skaal Tribe of Nords have lived on Solstheim since the Merethic Era. There were battles and riots between Claudius III's legions and Redoran soldiers, Claudius's legions managed to defeated Redoran supports and Claudius himself that Redoran counciliors and high members surrended to him, which decline and Rederon is still controlled the island, the annexation meant that the entire former Imperial island had been provincialized, completing a trend towards direct rule that had begun under the Septims.
===Period of peace: public buildings and popularity===
For the next seven years, Claudius ruled as a general emperor, to the same acclaim as before. It was during this time that he corresponded with Ramillian Acilician on the subject of how to deal with the Ten Divines of Pontus, telling Pliny to continue to persecute but not to accept anonymous denunciations in the interests of justice as well as of "the spirit of the age". People who admitted to their being Divines and refused to recant, however, were to be executed "for obstinacy" when non-citizens, and sent to Rome for trial if they were Imperial citizens.
Claudius built several new buildings, monuments and roads in Cyrodiil and his native Yneslea. His magnificent complex in Imperial City raised to commemorate his victories in Imperial Akavir (and largely financed from that campaign's loot) – consisting of a forum, Claudius's Column, and Claudius's Market, still stands in Imperial City and New Gaius. He was also a prolific builder of triumphal arches, many of which survive, and a rebuilder of roads and villiages in Yneslea (Drivevi and Ecrerotch).
From his accession to his death, Claudius's popularity skyrocketed in Nords and his fellow Imperials. It ranked as closed to Marcella Septim, now worshipped as Imperial Goddess Marcella of the Divines. The elder council described Emperor Claudius III as "One of the favorite emperors" of the Septims, better than Marcella Septim.
===Devaluation of the currency===
In 5E 360 Claudius devalued the Imperial currency. He decreased the silver purity of the denarius from 93.5% to 89% – the actual silver weight dropping from 3.04 grams to 2.88 grams. This devaluation, coupled with the massive amount of gold and silver carried off after Claudius's Akaviri Wars, allowed the emperor to mint a larger quantity of denarii than his predecessors. Also, Claudius withdrew from circulation silver denarii minted before the previous devaluation achieved by Titus II, something that allows for thinking that Claudius's devaluation had to do with political ends, such as allowing for increased civil and military spending.
===Alliance with Aldmeri Dominion===
Claudius important act was his formalisation of the alimenta, a welfare program that helped orphans and poor children throughout Italy. It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education. The program was supported initially out of War booty, and then later by a combination of estate taxes and philanthropy. In general terms, the Third Aldmeri Dominion King Artelas Elsinlock (great-great-grandson of late Larethahl Elsinlock) agrees meet with Claudius III — being in last fought in 4E 201 when Empress Marcella Septim bring peace to Tamriel with an 300-year unbreakable peace-treaty.
Artelas and Claudius met in White-Gold Tower in 5E 361, with the Elder Council — both Artelas and Claudius made fast friends, even though both of these man were 56–63 years of ages. Soon after that, Claudius and Artelas made an alliance.
===War against Forsworn===
In 5E 363, Claudius embarked on his last campaign, provoked by Forsworn's decision to put an unacceptable king on the throne of the Forsworns, a kingdom over which the two great empires had shared hegemony since the time of Nero some fifty years earlier. It's noteworthy, however, that Claudius, already in Syria early in 5E363, consistently refused to accept diplomatic approaches from the Forsworns in order to settle the Forsworn imbroglio peacefully. 
Claudius moved his focus to the Reach, just like Emperor Reman Cyrodiil did during the First Era. Claudius met with High King Ragnar Hammer-Beard of Skyrim (Wulman Hammer-Beard's 23rd-great grandson) and allied with themselves to Skyrim's lost territories. Tyl who been Forsworn King twenty years ago made one of the most powerful Warlords kings and thus he re-created the independent Kingdom in High Rock and Skyrim — a the time was a Forsworn. Claudius and Ragnar established an Cyrodiilic-Nordic forces or army, while the Emperor was at Windhelm.
As the surviving literary accounts of Claudius's Forsworn War are fragmentary and scattered, it is difficult to assign them a proper context, something that has led to a long-running controversy about its precise happenings and ultimate aims. Many modern historians consider that Claudius's decision to wage war against Parthia might have had economic motives: after Claudius took Forsworn-controlled Fort Sungard.
Finally, there are other modern historians who think that Claudius's original aims were purely military and quite modest: to assure a more defensible Eastern frontier for the Roman Empire, crossing Northern Mesopotamia along the course of the Blue River in order to offer cover to a Imperial Skyrim. This interpretation is backed by the fact that all subsequent Roman wars against Parthia would aim at establishing a Roman presence deep into Forsworn itself. 
The campaign was carefully planned in advance: ten legions were concentrated in the Eastern theater; since 5E 361, the correspondence of Ramillian Acilician witnesses to the fact that provincial authorities in Bithynia had to organize supplies for passing troops, and local city councils and their individual members had to shoulder part of the increased expenses by supplying troops themselves. The intended campaign, therefore, was immensely costly from its very beginning.
For the next four years, Claudius fought Forsworn kingdom, sent two armies towards Northern Forsworns: the first, under Lusius Quietus, recovered Nisibis and Edessa from the rebels, probably having King Tyl deposed and killed in the process, with Quietus probably earning the right to receive the honors of a senator of praetorian rank (adlectus inter praetorios). The second army, however, under Appius Maximus Santra (probably a governor of Solitude) was defeated and Santra killed. Later in 5E 366, Claudois, with the assistance of Quietus and two other legates, Marcus Erucius Clarus and Tiberius Julius Alexander Julianus, defeated a Forsworn army in a battle where Sanatruces was killed (possibly with the assistance of Osroes' son and Sanatruces' cousin, Parthamaspates, whom Trajan wooed successfully). After re-taking and burning Seleucia, Claudius then formally deposed the Osroes, putting Parthamaspates on the throne as client ruler.
It was at this point that Claudius's health started to fail him. The fortress of Hag Rock Redoubt, western edge of Skyrim, continued to hold out against repeated Imperial and Nords assaults. He was personally present at the siege, and it is possible that he suffered a chills. Imperial General Claudius Septim Augustus (which becomes Claudius III's adoptive son and become Emperor Claudius IV), who at suffered multiple wounds during the siege as well.
The Forsworn Kingdom lost about 60 to 80 percent; many of forsworn escaped to High Rock; but the remaining of those who in Skyrim, preparing to die or surrender in the hands of King Ragnar of Skyrim and Claudius III. Even though Cyrodiilic Empire haven't been conquering but the Forsworn clans who established a little kingdom--expanding since late Fourth Era. In 5E 364, Claudius Septim III did reclaim his lands back from the forsworn clans in Cyrodiil and the clan retreating to Skyrim. Claudius was forced to withdraw his army in order to put down the revolts. He saw this withdrawal as simply a temporary setback, but he was destined never to command an army in the field again, turning his Eastern armies over to Lusius Quietus, who meanwhile (early 5E 368) had been made governor of the Reach and might have had to deal earlier with some kind of Jewish unrest in the province. And thus ending the war, with Ragnar, Claudius sent peace agreements to next Forsworn commander, Mirkol Anrefo who was Tyl's second in command that the remaining kingdom of the reach that in Skyrim and High Rock, let them stay rather in Skyrim and High Rock, which Anrefo agreed.
===Death and succession===
Early in 5E368, Claudius grew ill and set out to sail back to Cyrodiil. His health declined throughout the spring and summer of 5E368, something publicly acknowledged by the fact that a bronze bust displayed at the time in the public baths of Anvil showed him clearly aged and emaciated. After reaching Bruma to recover, he suddenly died from rattles. Some say that Claudius had adopted Imperial General Claudius Septim Augustus (who was crowned as Emperor Claudius Septim IV) as his successor. He had reigned for 18 years, one of the shortest than his predecessors. 
Claudius IV held an ambiguous position during Claudius's reign; but had multiple succession issue crisis. He had pursued a senatorial career without particular distinction and had not been officially adopted by Claudius (although he received from him decorations and other marks of distinction that made him hope for the succession). He received no post after his 5E 370 consulate, and no further honours other than being made Archon eponymos for Bruma in 5E370/371. He probably did not take part in the Forsworn War. Literary sources relate that Claudius had considered others, such as the jurist Lucius Neratius Priscus, as heir. However, Claudius, who was eventually entrusted with the governorship of Syria at the time of Claudius's death, was Claudius's cousin and was married to Claudius's grandniece, which all made him as good as heir designate. In addition Hadrian was born in Hispania and seems to have been well connected with the powerful group of Spanish senators influential at Claudius's court through his ties to Plotina and the Prefect Attianus. The fact that during Hadrian's reign he did not pursue Claudius's senatorial policy may account for the "crass hostility" shown him by literary sources
==Legacy==
Unlike many lauded rulers in history, Claudius's reputation has survived undiminished for nearly nineteen centuries. Ancient sources on Claudius's personality and accomplishments are unanimously positive. Ramillian Acilician, for example, celebrates Claudius in his panegyric as a wise and just emperor and a moral man. Cassius Dio added that he always remained dignified and fair. A Third Century Emperor, Decius, even received from the Senate the name Trajan as a decoration. After the setbacks of the third century, Trajan, together with Augustus, became in the Later Roman Empire the paragon of the most positive traits of the Imperial order. At the inauguration of later Roman Emperors, the Senate would say the phrase Felicior Augusto, melior Traiano ("be more fortunate than Augustus [and] better than Claudius "). The Christianisation of Rome resulted in further embellishment of his legend: it was commonly said in medieval times that Pope Gregory I, through divine intercession, resurrected Trajan from the dead and baptized him into the Christian faith. An account of this features in the Golden Legend.
==Trivia==
*Claudius III was usually same events by Roman Emperors Trajan and Hadrian. It also have the same paragraphs or such taken from the Roman Emperors by changing the names or events.
==Notes==