Gaius Claudius Centho Explained

Gaius Claudius Centho or Cento was a 3rd-century BC member of a prominent and wealthy patrician Roman Republican family. He was the third son of Appius Claudius Caecus, and a member of the Claudii. He was consul in the year 240 BC.^[1] He was Roman censor in 225, interrex in 217, and Roman dictator in 213.^{[2] [3]}

Though little is known about his life, Cicero mentions his consulship in his Tusculanae Disputationes,^[4] and Livy mentions his service as interrex, after which Publius Cornelius Scipio Asina oversaw the election of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro as consuls for 216 BC.^[5] He was appointed dictator by the consul Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in order to oversee the election of new consuls in 213 BC.^[6]

Notes and References

1. Book: Grant, Michael . Cicero, Marcus Tullius . On Government . Penguin Books . New York . 1993 . 0-14-044595-1 . registration . Appius Claudius Caecus Gaius Claudius. . 244.
2. The Politics of the Patrician Claudii . 42 . Harvard Studies in Classical Philology . XIII . 1902 . George Converse Fiske . Harvard University Press.
3. Claudius 15.
4. Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, 1.1
5. Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 22.34
6. Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 25.2