[1] Glicia was a client of gens Claudia, an influential patrician family that had held the highest offices in the Roman state since the early 5th century BC.
[7] The epitome of Livy's 19th book records that in 249 BC: Claudius Pulcher, consul, obstinately persisting, notwithstanding the omens were inauspicious, engages the enemy's fleet, and is beaten; drowns the sacred chickens which would not feed: recalled by the senate, and ordered to nominate a dictator; he appoints Claudius Glicia, one of the lowest of the people, who, notwithstanding his being ordered to abdicate the office, yet attends the celebration of the public games in his dictator's robe.
[4] Upon hearing of the result of the battle, the Senate recalled him to Rome, charged Pulcher with treason for his treatment of the chickens, and ordered him to appoint a dictator to resume operations in his place.
[8] After laying down the office, Glicia furthered the controversy by attending the Roman games wearing a purple-bordered toga, a symbol of the dictatorship and something that he was not considered entitled to.
[18] Similarly – it appears for literary effect – Livy also endowed the Claudians of the republican period in his history with an overbearing and contemptuous arrogance, of which Pulcher's joke appointment was supposed to be an example; his characterisation may indicate an uncomfortableness between the historian and the Julio-Claudian imperial family of his time.