In AD 41, Claudius had no military experience. Then 50 years old, he had only served in the political system, becoming consul for AD 37. As a historian of the Carthaginians, Etruscans, and the Romans, however, he absorbed much about generalship, strategy, and tactics. These insights prepared Claudius well for his years in power.
Sources
Written sources for Claudius are, at best, ambivalent or, at worst, hostile. Tacitus' Annals is incomplete: Books VII to X covering the years AD 37–47 are missing. Suetonius' biographical Life of Divus Claudius is an assemblage of information, some factual, some rumour. Cassius Dio's Roman History describes events by year.
All these writers were from the senatorial class, and had reasons to resent Claudius. Their accounts highlight that his contemporaries, even his own family, regarded him as an embarrassment. They only discuss military matters superficially. Yet the man who emerges from reading the texts proves remarkably capable as a leader and manager of war.
Military policy
The deployment of the army in AD 41 reflected the posture established by Augustus, setting “the ocean and remote rivers” as “the boundaries of the empire” (Tacitus, Annals 1.9.5). The Rhine frontier became permanent under Claudius. Camps, like Vetera (Xanten), were rebuilt in stone. Watchtowers, like the one at Leidsche Rijn, sprang up in between.
