CLAUDIUS, MARcus Aunmaus, Gonficus, the second of the Roman emperors of the name of Claudius, was born in Elyria or Dardania in the first half of the 3d century. On account of his military ability he was placed in command of an army by Decius ; and Valerian appointed him general on the Illyrian frontier, and ruler of the provinces of the lower Danube. During the reign of Gallienns, be was called to Italy in order to crush Aureoles; and, on the death of the emperor (268 A.D.) he was chosen as his successor, in accordance, it was said, with his express desire. He enjoyed great popularity, and, as far as we can now judge, he appears to have been a man of considerable ability and strength of character. The account of his reign belongs to the history of Rome.

CLAUDIUS, MA.TTiffxs (1743-1815), a German poet, otherwise known by the 710111 de plume of Asmus, was born in 1743 at Rheinfeld, near Lubeck, and studied at Jena. With the exception of a short time in 1776 and 1777, when he held the office of superior commissioner or Oberlandcommissar at Darmstadt, he spent his life in the little town of Wandsheck, near Hamburg, for which he had conceived so strong an attachment that he would not accept any appointment which required him to settle elsewhere. Here he earned his first literary reputation by the publication, from 1770 to 1775, of a weekly periodical called the Wandsbecker Bote or Wandsbeck Messenger, in which he gave to the world a large number of prose essays and poems of various kinds. They were written in very pure and simple German, and appealed to the popular taste ; in many there was a vein of extravagant humour or even burlesque, while others were full of quiet meditation and solemn sentiment. In his later days, perhaps through the influence of Klopstock, with whom he had formed an intimate acquaintance, Claudius became strongly pietistic, and the graver side of his nature was alone permitted to display itself. Instead of firing the German heart with a Rheinweinlied, or shaking the German sides with a Trenm demand eine 1?eise that, he translated the works of Saint I■fartin and Fonelon. At the same time, he thought it no harm to publish a complete collection of his writings, under the whimsical title of Asmus omnia sua secton portans, oder Sammtliche Werke des Wandsbecker Bothen, 8 vols. 1'774-1812. His biography has been written by Herbst (Gotha, 1857) ; and Kahle has given us Claudius ?old Hebei (Berlin, 1864).