I'm John Batser, spending time with Professor Douglas Boy, and his new book is Claudia

champion of the republic. Why that matters is that the republic is ending as we speak. These scenes are

all the last days. Coming up is the Civil War and after that Augustus and we go to 2,000 years later, we're

still puzzling about this contest. Cicero has condemned Claudia. And they've used lots of

metaphors that are recognizable to them, including Clintonestra. All of that is behind us now.

Claudia disappears.

She's there, but she disappears.

Claudius, her brother, does not disappear.

He becomes a prominent politician until one day, on the road back from Rome,

he runs into ruffians led by Milo. Who is Milo? And why is there a fight

that breaks out that day, Professor? This is, you know, we fast forward from the trial a little

bit because I wanted to continue the narrative of the, like you said, this is a story about the Republic, and

she is our guide to a kind of major crucial turning point in it. And where I thought that the

most kind of telling end, the most telling conclusion to this chapter in Rome's history would be illuminated, would be with

violence spilling out into the street. And certainly Claudius's companions and followers had

started, they had been given nicknames at one point, Clodiani. These are kind of the hardcore partisans, you know, like the soccer ultrass.

They are kind of loyal to one person and one person's personality only.

Milo is someone similar on the opposite political side of things.

And the two street gangs clash around 52, at which point there's swords are drawn and

Claudius is stabbed and taken to a nearby tavern where Milo recognizes that he could potentially have his own career

derailed for this act of violence and so decides to finish Claudius off instead of waiting

for him to prosecute and that death leads to the events in the last pages of the book. Yes and the

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