Home > Publius Claudius Pulcher

He was curulian aedile in 253 BC and consul in 249. As consul he was given command of the Roman fleet during the First Punic War. He lost the Battle of Drepana against the Carthagians, supposedly because he ignored a bad omen when some chickens refused to eat. According to Suetonius and Cicero, Claudius threw them into the sea, ut biberent, quando esse nollent ("so that they might drink, since they refused to eat"). He was recalled to Rome and ordered to appoint a dictatorDictator was a political office of the Roman Republic. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the dictator ( Latin for "one who dictates (orders)") — also known as the magister populi ("master of the peoples") — was an extraordinary magistrate magistra; his nomination of his subordinate Marcus Claudius Glicia was overruled. He was tried for incompetence and impiety and was fined, and died soon afterwards, possibly by suicideSuicide (from Latin sui caedere to kill oneself) is the act of ending one's own life. It is considered a sin in many religions, and a crime in some jurisdictions. On the other hand, some cultures have viewed it as an honorable way to exit certain shameful.