Gaius Stertinius Xenophon

Gaius Stertinius Xenophon (* about 10 BC to Kos, † after 54 AD) was the personal physician of the Roman Emperor Claudius.

Xenophon was derived from the Greek island of Kos, which then belonged to the Roman province of Asia. There was a famous sanctuary of Asclepius, where he was trained as a doctor before he went to Rome. He received the Roman citizenship and was able to buy with his medical activity a large fortune of 30 million sesterces ( with his brother ). As personal physician to Claudius, he got an annual fee of 500,000 sesterces, from his former private patients supposedly far more so. Xenophon accompanied the emperor on his expedition to Britain and received military awards. His home was in Rome, such as a water pipe shows with his name, on the Caelian Hill.

When Agrippina, wife of Claudius, in 54 AD, allegedly tried to poison her husband, Xenophon is ( was after a product supplied by the famous poisoner Locusta poison fails ) have helped to bring about the death final. He led a peacock feather in the throat of the Emperor a ( supposedly to make him vomit ), which was equipped with a fast-acting poison, as at least the historian Tacitus reported a few decades later in his annals. Whether the death of Claudius was really a poison murder, is controversial in research.

After the death of Claudius Xenophon returned to Kos, where he made his fortune from the sanctuary of Asklepios rich benefits. He was so highly honored with statues and coin designs.