Where this was said
The Nonce Cuck
At 3:29 · chapter starts 0:00
Picking up from Part One, the hosts recap the extraordinary scene of Claudius being dragged out from behind a palace curtain by the Praetorian Guard and made emperor against all expectations. Horatio notes that Claudius was technically not a nonce but rather a cuckold — prompting Fin to coin the composite term 'nonce cuck' as a new historical category. [1] — Fin Taylor "He's a nonce cuck. Now that is a combination, the very, very rare." 03:29 The real historical intrigue surfaces quickly: Claudius had 15,000 sesterces per soldier ready to bribe the Guard the moment Caligula fell, which strongly implies he was forewarned of or complicit in the assassination. The hosts spiral cheerfully into a extended riff on cuckoldry seating arrangements and the gender dynamics of being cuckolded, before circling back to the main thesis.
Claudius had cash ready the moment Caligula was assassinated — 15,000 sesterces per Praetorian Guard soldier. That kind of liquidity doesn't happen by accident. The hosts argue this single detail all but proves Claudius was complicit in the murder of his own nephew.
