The Roman Emperor Claudius II was fighting many wars. He wanted a
strong army, but many men did not want to be soldiers. Claudius thought
the men wanted to stay home to be with their wives and children instead
of leaving to fight wars.
Claudius thought of an awful solution to his problem. He decided to cancel
all marriages! No one in all of Rome could get married. Claudius thought
that if the men couldn’t get married, the men would ignore the women
and want to be soldiers.